Social media agency or in-house hire: what it costs a $3M+ company

Quick answer: an in-house social media hire costs about as much as a full-service agency that does real production. A recent Alpharetta posting for a social video creator listed $43,000 to $72,000 a year before taxes, benefits and gear. Our done-for-you social media is $5,500 a month at our founding rate, or $66,000 a year, with a whole crew. Hire in-house when you need someone in the building every day. Outsource when you need production.

For most $3M+ companies, an in-house social media hire costs about as much in the first year as an agency that does real video production. The difference is what you get for the money: one person who has to be good at everything, or a team that already is.

I'm Graham Kuhn. I run Focus Films out of Woodstock, Georgia, and we do done-for-you social media for established companies. So yes, I have a horse in this race. I'll still tell you when hiring is the better call, because sometimes it is.

Is it cheaper to hire in-house or outsource social media?

Once video is involved, neither one is much cheaper. They land in the same range, and the real question is who makes the videos and photos.

Here's a rough side-by-side.

Option	What it costs	Who makes the content
In-house social video creator	$43,000 to $72,000 a year in salary, per a recent Alpharetta job posting, plus taxes, benefits and gear	One person
Typical agency package	$1,000 to $5,000 a month in most pricing guides I've read	Depends. Ask.
The Partnership (ours)	Done for you $5,500 a month (founding rate) or Made for you $3,800 a month, 3-month minimum, then month to month	Our crew, with your people on camera
The Game Plan (do it yourself)	$1,500 once, comes off your first month if you move up	Your team, from our plan

The salary isn't the whole cost of a hire. Add payroll taxes and benefits. Add a camera, lights, microphones and editing software. Add the hours someone spends managing them, and the months it takes a new person to learn your business. I won't guess what those add up to at your company. Your HR person can tell you in about five minutes.

If you want the full breakdown of agency pricing, I wrote that up in how much done-for-you social media costs.

Can one person handle all of your social media?

Not well, if you want video. One person can post. Making 20 good posts a month is a different job.

Think about what goes into a month. Someone has to plan what to say, then interview your people and get them comfortable on camera. Someone has to light it, run sound and shoot it. Then it gets edited, designed, written up with captions, scheduled and posted. Then it starts over.

Most people are great at two or three of those. In my experience, someone who can interview, shoot, edit and write equally well is rare, and hard to keep on a single salary.

So what usually happens is the parts that person is good at get done, and the rest gets rushed or skipped. Often the video goes first, because it's the hardest part. Then you're back to stock photos and holiday graphics, with a salary attached.

When is hiring in-house the right call?

Hiring is the right call when you need someone inside the company every day, more than you need production.

A few situations where I'd tell you to hire:

1. You're posting several times a day, reacting to news, events or customers in real time.
2. You have a lot happening on site, like a busy plant floor or a big events calendar, and someone needs to be there with a phone all week.
3. Your social is mostly customer service, answering questions and messages all day.
4. You already have a strong video person on staff who just needs a plan.
5. You're big enough to hire a team, not one person, with a budget for gear.

If that's you, hire. Then give that person a real plan and protect their time.

What a single hire usually can't do is run a proper film day with two cameras, real audio and someone who knows how to get a nervous engineer talking. That's where outside help earns its money.

Can you keep your marketing person and outsource the rest?

Yes, and for plenty of companies that's the best setup. Keep your marketing person. Hand off the production.

Here's how it works with us. We film your people one day a quarter. In Done for you, you get a brand film in your first three months, which is $7,500 on its own. From there we make 60 pieces a month: 20 reels, 20 carousels and 20 image posts. We post them on your company page, or we hand them to your marketing person to post if you'd rather. If you already have an agency doing your posting, we make the posts and they put them out.

Replies to comments and messages stay with your team either way. Your people know the answers, and your buyers want to hear from them.

What your marketing person gets back is their week. They stop chasing the sales team for photos and spend the time on the work only they can do: events, the website, sales support, the reporting their boss actually reads.

What should you ask a social media agency before you sign?

Ask who makes the photos and videos. That one question sorts most agencies fast.

A few more worth asking:

1. Will our people be on camera, or will it be stock footage and templates?
2. How often do you film, and who runs the interviews?
3. What's the minimum contract, and how do we get out?
4. Who replies to comments and messages?
5. How will we know it's working, and what happens if it isn't?

Here's how we answer the last one. On day one we snapshot your LinkedIn company page: followers and page visits from the industries and job titles you sell to. And in your first week you see your customer research and the plan for your first month. If you're not confident it's the plan that brings you clients, we tear it up.

What if you want to do it yourself?

If you have someone who will pick up a phone and film every week, doing it yourself can work. That's what the Game Plan ($1,500) is for.

It's 30 days of posts written for your team to film and publish: reels, image posts, text-on-video and carousels, each one built around a real problem your customers have, in your voice. You make them and post them.

It fits a team with the time and a little comfort on camera. And if you do the Game Plan and later want us to take it over, the $1,500 comes off your first month of the Partnership.

How do you decide?

Start with one question: if this brings in one new client a month, does that cover the cost?

For a lot of established B2B companies, one new client is worth tens of thousands of dollars, so the math isn't close. A luxury basement remodeler we made a brand film for answered a new lead with his brand video instead of booking a meeting. The prospect signed a $150,000 project within days.

If one client a month wouldn't cover $5,000, start with the Game Plan or a single hire with a clear plan. If it would, the decision comes down to whether you need a person in the building or a crew behind the camera.

Common questions

Should I hire a social media agency or an in-house person?

Hire in-house if you need someone on site every day, posting in real time. Outsource if you need real video production, because one person rarely does interviewing, shooting, editing and writing equally well.

How much does an in-house social media manager cost?

A recent Alpharetta posting for an in-house social video creator listed $43,000 to $72,000 a year. That's salary only, before payroll taxes, benefits, gear and the time it takes to manage them.

How much does outsourced social media management cost?

Most pricing guides put it at $1,000 to $5,000 a month. Ours is $5,500 a month for Done for you (founding rate), with a brand story film, a shoot day every quarter and 60 pieces a month, or $3,800 a month for Made for you. Both have a 3-month minimum.

Can an agency work with our in-house marketing person?

Yes. We can post for you, or hand finished posts to your marketing person to post. Replies to comments and messages stay with your team.

Is there a cheaper option than an agency or a hire?

Get the Game Plan ($1,500). It gives your team 30 days of posts to film and publish themselves. If you move up to the Partnership later, the $1,500 comes off your first month.

If you're weighing a hire against an agency and want a straight answer for your company, book a 15-minute call with me. If hiring is the better fit, I'll tell you.

Talk soon, Graham