Choose a social media management company by asking six questions before you look at a price: who writes the posts, who approves them, what is excluded, how they handle a claim that could get you in trouble, what a month actually contains, and what you will still have to do.
The answers sort every company into one of three price bands: productized services from about $99 a month for ten to twelve posts, freelancers in a typical range of $500 to $1,500, and agencies in a typical range of $750 to $2,500 and up, with ads and strategy in the scope.
This page owns the choosing question; the four kinds of social media marketing company, and which kind fits a small business, live on social media marketing companies for small business.
If the honest answer to "what is in the retainer" is mostly the posts, software that reads your website now does that job from $9 a month, and you keep the company for the work software cannot do.
What you are actually buying
The phrase covers a wide range of businesses.
A social media management company can be one person with a Canva account and eight clients, a productized service that sells ten posts a month at a flat price, or an agency with a media buyer and a video team.
The posts look similar on the sales page.
The months are not.
Strip the job down and there are seven parts.
- Choosing what to post, so the month is not twelve versions of "call us today."
- Writing the captions in your voice.
- Making or sourcing the images and video.
- Reading each post before it publishes, for accuracy and for anything that could cause you a problem.
- Publishing on a schedule that holds through your slow season.
- Replying to comments and messages.
- Reporting, strategy and paid ads.
Every company sells some of the seven.
The price tracks how many, and how much of a human's time each one takes.
The six questions below tell you which parts you are buying.
The six questions
1. Who writes the posts?
Ask for the name of the person who will write your captions, and ask whether that person has read your website.
In many companies the salesperson you met is not the writer, and the writer is working from a one-page brief for you and a dozen other clients.
A brief that says "plumber, friendly, family-owned" produces the same posts for every friendly family-owned plumber on the roster.
The test is one question: could this post run for my competitor unchanged?
Ask to see a real month for a real client in your trade and apply it.
2. Who approves the post before it publishes?
Somebody reads the post last.
Find out who, and whether that person is you.
Three arrangements exist.
You approve every post in a shared tool, which means the work is only as fast as you are.
The company approves and you see the posts after they are live, which is fast and is also how a wrong price or a wrong phone number reaches the public.
Or the company approves the routine posts and sends you anything that touches money, a claim or a named person.
The third is the one to ask for, and it should be in the agreement, not in the conversation.
3. What is excluded?
Every retainer has an edge.
Common exclusions: photography, video editing, paid ads, comment replies after business hours, holiday posts, a second brand, a second location, a rebrand mid-contract, and anything that needs a designer.
Ask for the exclusions list in writing.
If the company cannot produce one, the edge will be discovered the first time you ask for something.
4. How do they handle a sensitive claim?
Ask what happens when a draft says your clinic is "the best in the city," your product "cures" something, a listing describes the kind of family a neighborhood suits, or a before-and-after photo shows a client who did not sign a release.
A good company has a plain answer: the claim is flagged to you, softened, or cut, and here is who decides.
A weak company has never thought about it, and you will find out when a competitor or a regulator does.
What stays with you regardless: fair housing language, medical and legal claims, anything perishable such as hours, prices and staff names, and permission to use a face or a name.
No company should take those checks off your plate, and a company that says it has is one to be careful of.
5. What does a month actually contain?
Get the count.
How many posts, on how many channels, with how many images made for you rather than bought from a stock library, and how many videos.
"Consistent posting across your platforms" is not a number.
"Twelve image posts a month to Facebook and Instagram" is.
Then compare companies at the same count.
Ten posts at $99 against ten posts at $9 is a fair comparison.
Ten posts at $99 against twenty posts, a carousel and a video at $39 is not.
6. What will you still do?
Every company needs something from you each month.
Photos from the job site, the offer for next month, a yes on each post, answers to questions the writer cannot find on your site.
Ask for the list and ask how long it takes.
A retainer that needs two hours of your week is a part-time job you are paying for the privilege of holding.
The best answer is a company that starts from what you have already published on your website and asks you only for the things that cannot be found there.
The price bands, with who does what
Prices below for named vendors were read from their pricing pages on 16 September 2026.
Freelancer and agency ranges are typical quoted ranges, not a survey; get three quotes.
| Option | Monthly price | Who decides and writes | Who approves before publishing | What is in the month | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software from your website (Boomp Packs) | $9 | The software, from your site | You, by email link; you publish; nothing connected | 10 finished posts with images | Owners who will post themselves but never want to write again |
| Software from your website (Boomp Core) | $39 | The software, from your site | You approve each post in the app; Boomp publishes | 20 posts, 1 carousel, 1 video, to connected channels | Owners who want it handled and will spend about ten minutes a week saying yes |
| Software with a person approving (Boomp done-for-you) | $275 | The software, from your site | Boomp's founder approves; Boomp publishes | Same 20 posts, carousel and video; no ads, replies, shoots or strategy calls | Owners who never want to open the app |
| Productized service (Feedbird) | $99 for 10 posts; 20 and 30 post tiers sold, price on vendor site | Their team, from your brief | Not stated on the pricing page; ask | 10 posts a month; channels and approval not stated on the pricing page | Owners who want a human writer at a fixed count |
| Productized service (Socinova) | $99 Trial, $199 Standard, $349 Advanced, $500 Growth | Their team, with an account manager and a monthly content calendar | You approve or edit before publishing | 12 image posts at $99; 12 image posts plus 2 reels or videos at $199; 20 image posts plus 4 reels at $349; 30 posts plus 4 reels at $500 | Owners who want a human account manager and a monthly calendar |
| Freelance social media manager | $500 to $1,500, typical range | A person, from your brief and your photos | You approve; they publish | Negotiated, often 8 to 20 posts, sometimes replies | Owners who want one human they can call |
| Agency, posting plus ads and replies | $750 to $2,500, typical range; setup fees are common | Their team, from a strategy brief | Varies; ask | Negotiated, often 12 to 20 posts, replies and boosted posts | Businesses that also need ads, video and replies handled |
| Larger agency | $2,500 and up, typical range | A team, with strategy and a media buyer | Agency, with your sign-off | Content, ads, video production, reporting | Multi-location businesses and brands with a real ad budget |
Two things stand out in the table.
Who writes and who approves changes far more across the rows than the post count does.
And the middle of the market, the $99 productized services, sells the same ten or twelve posts that software sells for $9, with a brief as the source instead of your website.
Red flags
These are the signs that a company will not do what the six questions need.
- No real month from a real client.
A portfolio of highlights is not a month.
Ask for thirty days of one client's feed, including the ordinary posts.
- A promised number.
Followers, engagement, leads.
Nobody controls those, and a company that promises them is either guessing or planning to buy them.
- A contract longer than a month.
A company that does the work does not need twelve months of yours to keep you.
- Nobody named as the last reader.
If the answer to question two is "our process," there is no person.
- A price without a count.
"Consistent posting" at $600 a month cannot be compared to anything.
- A writer who has not read your website.
If the first draft calls your bakery a cafe or your practice a clinic, the source was a brief.
- Setup fees that buy nothing you can see.
A setup fee is fine when it pays for a strategy document or a photo shoot you receive.
Ask what it buys.
- Every client's feed looks the same.
Pull three of their clients and scroll.
If you can tell they share a company, so can your customers.
When software replaces the company for the posting job
Software that reads a business's public website and writes social media posts about that business now does the posting job at the bottom of these price bands.
Boomp is that kind of software.
It reads your website, writes the captions and makes the images, adds carousels and short videos on the paid plans, and publishes the ones that are approved to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Google Business Profile and the other channels it supports, nine in all.
It does not do everything a company does.
It runs no ads.
It replies to no comments.
It shoots no photos and holds no strategy calls.
Those remain a person's work, and if you need them, the agency rows of the table are where they live.
What it does do is the part a posting-only retainer is for: the posts, every week, specific to the business, without a brief.
Here is a post it wrote from one paying customer's website, a listing agent on the West Michigan lakeshore, shown without her name.
No brief produced that post.
That is the answer to question one when the writer is software: the source is your site, and the post could not run for the agent across town.
The rule of thumb, then.
If the company you are pricing sells ads, replies, production or strategy and you need those things, hire the company and pay the retainer.
If you were about to pay $99 to $1,500 a month mostly for the posts to exist, get the posts from software, keep the money, and hire a person for the campaign when there is a campaign.
The agency alternative page goes through that split in more detail, and the pricing and packages guide covers what each price band should include.
How to run the decision in one sitting
1. Write down which of the seven parts you need this year.
Be honest about whether you need ads and replies now.
2. If the list is mostly "the posts," read the software option first, because it is the cheapest and you can test it before you pay.
3. If the list includes ads, replies or production, shortlist two companies in the band that matches and put the six questions to each in writing.
4. Compare at the same post count and read one real client month from each.
5. Sign for one month, not twelve.
A company that does the work will keep you without a contract.
The three doors at Boomp
Every Boomp plan starts the same way: the software reads your website and writes posts about your business.
The price follows how much of the approval you keep.
- Packs, $9 a month.
Ten finished posts with images, by email link.
You post them.
Nothing to connect.
- Core, $39 a month.
Twenty posts, one carousel and one video, published to your connected channels after you approve each one in the app.
- Done for you, $275 a month.
The same content, with Boomp's founder approving every post.
You never open the app.
It is not an agency: no ads, no replies, no photo shoots, no strategy calls.
No contract on any of the three.
The done-for-you guide covers what a service at that level should and should not take off your plate.
Before any of them, the free door: ten finished posts made from your own website, with images, a carousel and a short video, before any email, account or card, so you can put question one to the software the same way you would put it to a company.
