As it turns out, many of the duties that professional social media managers perform are subtler than simply posting on Twitter and Facebook. For example, they might be taking photographs of your event to post or editing a photo before adding it to your blog. Some may even create graphics for you to use on Instagram or Facebook, like the pre-made videos from YouNow. In short, these people can do a lot more for you than just writing posts and interacting with followers, but all those services come at a hefty price.
The average social media management company manager in the United States makes approximately $35-$40 an hour. However, this amount barely begins to cover the costs of doing business on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Billed hourly, 1-2 hours of work may only net you about $15-$20 an hour. In addition, a social media manager will have to feed their personal and work expenses; phones, computers, software, and many others are costly and must be replaced over time.
Factors that Enhance the Value –
- Number of Followers
It stands to reason that the more followers a social media account has, the more valuable it is. After all, you have a larger potential audience to sell things to with more followers. However, that’s not necessarily true. In fact, in general, the value of your social media account is proportional to your engagement rate; in other words, it’s based on how many people you engage on social media. After all, engagement and followings are different.
- Number of Posts
As the number of posts on your social media accounts goes up, the more you can potentially sell to your audience. Simple logic says this is true. If you only post once a week, you won’t sell as much as if you post several times a day. Twitter users will rarely re-tweet or favorite content more than once; they are just too busy scrolling through their feed and reading updates from their friends and family. So, the value of your tweets is based on how many times they will be seen.
- Engagement Rate
The engagement rates of your social media accounts impact their value to a great extent. For example, if you post tweet after tweet and no one favorites or retweets them, then your social media account isn’t worth much at all, maybe even negative in terms of the amount it costs to run. However, if you post multiple tweets to your Twitter account and each of them is re-tweeted or favorited hundreds of times, the value of your social media account increases tremendously.
- Number of Fans
The more traffic you have on your social media account, the more interested people are in anything you post. In other words, they will be much more likely to read and enjoy whatever posts you create. Of course, this makes sense as well. However, it would help if you also considered the value of your fans. For example, if you have 10,000 Twitter followers and only 1% of them are authentic (meaning they engage with you and your content), then each fan isn’t worth much.
- Niche
The niche that your brand or business is in can also affect the value of your social media management company accounts. For example, suppose you are a video game developer, and you have a Twitter account with 10,000 followers and an engagement rate of 90%. In that case, you might be able to sell the account for more than someone who owns an indie clothing line with the same number of followers and engagement rate. As it turns out, people who play video games generally have more disposable income than those who buy custom t-shirts from small designers.
- Creativity
The best social media managers create engaging and exciting content worth reading. It is difficult, especially since most people only read the first couple of sentences when they open your posts. However, if you are more creative and can tell a story or take your message in multiple directions, you will increase the value of your social media account.
- Professionalism
The talent for creating content on your social media account is always a factor. For example, if you pay someone to write posts on your blog filled with keyword stuffing, plagiarized content, and flat-out awful writing, your account will not be worth much. However, if you hire a professional copywriter who can regularly write clean and engaging posts, your account will be worth several times more than what you paid for it.
- Trustworthiness
People buy things from and interact with people they trust; this is a fact of human nature. By creating a professional image on your social media accounts and providing accurate information, you will build trust with your followers. It will enhance the value of your social media accounts.
- Your Importance
If you are a novice in the field or have never sold anything online, then your importance within the community will be very low, no matter how much you market yourself to others. However, if you have been in the field for a while and know your audience, you will have a much higher value.
- Your Social Media Presence
Suppose you own a blog, website, or Twitter account with thousands of followers and posts that engage several people at a time. In that case, your social media presence will be worth more than someone who only has 100 followers and posts single sentences that never connect with anyone.If you are a social media management company owner, you can sell them for a beautiful penny. However, many factors affect the value of your accounts and what you will be able to sell them for. For example, if you have a large audience and engagement rate, you can often sell your accounts for tens of thousands of dollars. However, if your account isn’t performing well on social media websites or doesn’t have any other value to offer, expect to get a lot less than the going rate.