Last updated: September 2026 · By Kelly Noble Mirabella, Fractional Social Media Director and Founder of Stellar Media Marketing (Aurora, CO)
Quick answer: A month of social media management is roughly four things: strategy and planning, content production, daily publishing and community management, and reporting. In my engagements that means about 12 finished pieces of content, weekly Google Business Profile posts, inbox and comment coverage, and one monthly report. Packages start at $1,200 a month.
Most business owners have no idea what they're buying. That's a problem, because it makes every proposal look the same.
Why is this so hard to get a straight answer on?
Because "social media management" isn't a defined product. Two companies can quote you the same number for wildly different work, and neither is lying.
One might mean 8 recycled graphics and a scheduling tool. Another might mean strategy, filming, editing, publishing, replying to every comment, and a report that ties it back to revenue. Same category, different planet.
So the useful question isn't "how much does it cost." It's "what shows up, who does it, and how will I know if it worked?"
What actually happens in a typical month?
Here's the shape of a month in my engagements. Week numbering is approximate, because real businesses don't run on a grid.
- Week 1. Plan the month against your goals and offers, build the content calendar, request or capture raw assets.
- Week 2. Produce content. Editing, captions, graphics, video cuts, scheduling. This is the heaviest week.
- Week 3. Publish and engage. Comments, DMs, community management, Google Business Profile posts, mid-month adjustments.
- Week 4. Report on what happened, pull the lessons into next month's plan, prep upcoming campaigns.
Running underneath all four weeks: daily publishing, inbox monitoring, responding to comments, watching for anything that needs a human fast.
What are the actual deliverables?
Ask any company you're considering to put these in writing. Here's what mine looks like:
- Around 12 finished pieces of content a month. Not 12 ideas. Twelve things ready to post.
- A content calendar you can see before anything goes live.
- Publishing across your platforms, with platform-native formatting rather than one post copied four ways.
- Community management. Comments, DMs, and questions answered, not left sitting.
- Weekly Google Business Profile posts. This is the one almost everybody skips. In the last 20 free social media audits I ran for Colorado businesses, 18 had a stale Google Business Profile.
- A monthly report in plain English, plus what we're changing because of it.
- Content or media days as an add-on, where we capture a quarter's worth of raw photo and video in one session.
"If a proposal doesn't say how many finished pieces you get and who answers your DMs, it isn't a proposal. It's a price tag with a logo on it." Kelly Noble Mirabella, Fractional Social Media Director and Founder, Stellar Media Marketing
What does it cost, and is it worth it?
My packages start at $1,200 a month for Essentials, which covers strategy, content production, publishing, community management, and reporting, with the client providing their own raw photo and video. Essentials doesn't include YouTube or TikTok, because video-first platforms need a level of shooting and editing that belongs in a higher tier. Denver-area clients get special pricing on packages and content days.
For context on where that sits in a marketing budget: The CMO Survey, fielded in January 2026 with 308 senior marketers, found marketing runs about 8.96% of company revenue on average, with social media taking 14.25% of the marketing budget and expected to reach 17.06% within a year.
The in-house comparison is the one that surprises people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median annual wage for market research analysts and marketing specialists at $78,760 as of May 2025, before benefits, which typically add roughly 30% on top of wages. A full-time hire is not the cheap option, and a junior hire is not the same job.
The full breakdown is here: What Does Social Media Management Cost in Denver in 2026?
How do you know it's working?
Not by follower count. Ask for these instead:
- Reach and views, which tell you whether your work is being seen at all.
- Engagement rate, which tells you whether it's landing with the right people.
- Profile visits, website clicks, and direction requests, the closest thing to intent.
- Inquiries by source, captured by asking every caller and form fill where they found you.
- Review volume and recency. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found 74% of consumers look for reviews written in the last three months.
- Speed to first response. A Harvard Business Review study found firms that contacted a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as those that waited an hour longer.
More on this: What Social Media Metrics Should You Actually Track?
What does a good month look like in practice?
Here's what the work produced for two clients I manage:
- An outdoor kitchen builder: Facebook views doubled to 212,000 in 2025, up 100.9% from 2024, with engagement up 51%.
- A custom pool builder: TikTok views doubled to 36,000 and engagement grew 507.6% in the 90 days from June 19 to September 16, 2026.
Neither happened in month one. Most of my clients stay with me for two years or more, and that's not a coincidence. Social media compounds, and the month where it starts paying is usually somewhere past the point most businesses quit.
Who is actually doing the work?
This is the question that separates good engagements from bad ones, and almost nobody asks it.
At agencies, the person who sells you is frequently not the person who runs your account. Clients have told me they were pitched by a senior strategist and handed to someone three months out of school. One client moved from an agency to me, saved $5,000 a month, and got more specialized work, because they were paying for layers rather than expertise.
I handle it all myself: strategy, content, posting, reporting. That has limits, and I'm upfront about them. It also means the person you talked to on the discovery call is the person writing your captions. More on that here: Why Your Agency Gave Your Account to Junior Staff.
Want to see what a month would look like for your business?
I'm a Fractional Social Media Director in Aurora, Colorado, with 18 years in social media marketing. Denver-area clients get special pricing on content days and packages.
Book a call and I'll walk you through exactly what your first 30 days would include.
Related: What Is a Fractional Social Media Director? and How to Outsource Social Media Marketing the Right Way.
Frequently asked questions
How many posts a month should I expect?
Around 12 finished pieces is a reasonable baseline for most small businesses, which lands at two to three posts a week on a main platform. More matters less than consistency and quality, and a company promising 30 posts a month is usually recycling.
Do I have to provide my own photos and video?
It depends on the package. My Essentials tier is priced on the client supplying raw content, and content days are available as an add-on when you'd rather someone capture it for you.
Does a social media company answer my comments and DMs?
A good one does. Community management is where most of the actual sales conversations happen, and leaving it to chance wastes the content you paid for.
How long before I see results?
Expect 90 days for early movement and a full year for compounding. Businesses with long sales cycles, like remodelers and builders, should plan for longer still.
What's the difference between a social media manager and a director?
A manager executes the plan. A director builds the strategy, decides what gets made and why, and owns the outcome. I break it down in Social Media Manager vs. Social Media Director.
Can I just do this myself?
You can, and some owners should. The real question is what your time is worth and whether it will actually happen every week. I ran the math here: Is DIY Social Media Actually Saving Your Business Money?
What happens if I want to cancel?
Ask before you sign. My monthly social media packages are priced on a 12-month commitment, and you should know any company's terms upfront rather than discovering them in month four.
Changelog: September 2026, first published.