Freelance Social Media Rates: How much should social media freelancers charge?

 

Freelance social media consultants are valuable (or they should be!) because they are often the best representation of your company online and the first voice that  customers will engage with online.

This means that companies need to hire freelance social media managers who can do multiple jobs – and do them well.

Freelance social media consultants will help raise brand awareness, deliver targeted traffic to their client’s websites, and help to make sales — all while keeping their client’s reputation squeaky clean in a fast-moving online environment.

So how much should freelance social media managers be charging? What should their freelance rates be?

Day rates for freelance social media managers

We took a look at the top freelance job sites, including Upwork, Indeed and PeoplePerHour, and found these to be the average prices that social media freelancers were hiring themselves out for:

• Junior (0-3 years experience): £10-£35 per hour / £70 – £250 per day
• Midweight (3-5 years experience): £35-£70 per hour / £250 – £500 per day
• Senior (5-10+ years experience): £70-£100 per hour / £500-£750 per day
• Top Tier: £750+ per day

Less experienced social media freelancers can charge around £10-£35 per hour or £70 – £250 per day.

For more experienced social media managers, they can make £35-£70 per hour / £250 – £500 per day.

Senior, well experienced social media freelancers can make £70+ per hour / £500+ per day and even more with the right skills and experience.

And if you’re one of the best freelance social media consultants in the world? You can be charging over £750 per day.

What do other freelance social media managers charge?

If you’re still trying to work out your day rate as a social media freelancer, it can be helpful to see what other freelance social media consultants are charging.

Nicki Kamau tells us her experience:

I have a friend who currently does freelance marketing,
 and was previously the Director of Marketing for restaurant brands, had worked in marketing and events for other B2C companies, and was most recently marketing at an agency. She has been working in Marketing for 10 years. Her rate is $50 an hour, and she has several clients one week into this shift. Granted, I don’t know if that is the rate she should be charging for her work. I just know that’s what she is currently charging – and she has paying clients.

Via Growth.org

One other social media freelancer in the same forum discussion explains what she charges and why:

If I’m working a local small business and helping them get started with social media (training) I charge $125/hr. If it is out of state that rate ranges from $125 – $200 – depending on the project, the client, and the ROI they will see by working with me. If we are managing a company’s social media we charge between $1000 – $4000/mo – totally dependant on the client, the workload, amount of networks, ancillary work, etc. 

Via Growth.org

Here’s another great piece of insight from a digital nomad:

I was a freelance Social Media Manager (while traveling
the world) for 2015. Here’s the service I provided.

1. 1. The Client provided all the photos they could prior to the beginning of the contract, and prior to the start of each month.
2. 2. I sourced content for any days I couldn’t fill in using their pictures.

3. I posted M-F (Basically 20ish days per month.) 4. Every 5th day of posting (20% Rule) I’d post some sort of promotional content – whether for a sale, brand awareness, or give away. 5. I branded all their content with their provided logo. 6. Prior to the start of each month, I’d send them a Google Sheet with what I’d be posting over the next month, requesting their approval, and made any adjustments needed. 7. I would handle replying to comments on these posts as well (super easy.) 8. I would schedule all of the posts for the entire month after approval.

I was a freelance Social Media Manager (while traveling
the world). Here’s the service I provided.

1. The Client provided all the photos they could prior to the beginning of the contract, and prior to the start of each month.
2. I sourced content for any days I couldn’t fill in using their pictures.
3. I posted M-F (Basically 20ish days per month.)
4. Every 5th day of posting (20% Rule) I’d post some sort of promotional content – whether for a sale, brand awareness, or give away.
5. I branded all their content with their provided logo.
6. Prior to the start of each month, I’d send them a Google Sheet with what I’d be posting over the next month, requesting their approval, and made any adjustments needed.
7. I would handle replying to comments on these posts as well (super easy).
8. I would schedule all of the posts for the entire month after approval. (Via Reddit)

Should you charge for freelance social media management by the hour?

Ideally, you shouldn’t charge for freelance social media management by the hour.

Every campaign you take on should be value-based, where the clients pays in terms of value generated and ROI of the activity you do, not the time spent managing social media channels.

Social media freelancers provide a lot of added benefits for not being another full-time member of staff for their clients, which means you should be able to increase your rate to a decent day rate:

• Fast worker and implementation time as you are a social media expert
• Industry knowledge of what works and what doesn’t as you keep up to date on social media trends and best practice
• Image gathering and creation for social media content

Your job is to show clients that keeping costs low, rather than producing brilliant results, is not the right approach.

They should be glad to pay your requested day rate as a freelance social media consultant!

How can you increase your day rates as a social media manager?

In order to sell your services as a social media freelancer, you need to ask your clients what their objectives are for their business and the marketing activity they run.

You should also ask what their current challenges are with social media and their business in general, and what their strategy is to meet their goals and overcome those struggles.

By setting a strategy, not just doing social media activity, you’ll be proving the value you bring to your client’s business.

What day rate do you charge as a freelance social media consultant?

We’d love to hear your experiences of being a freelance social media consultant and what day rate you charge. Please leave your comments below.