6 Social Media Management Companies for Small Businesses: My Top Picks
Anytime I’ve gone out looking for the best social media management company for small businesses, I’ve always zeroed in on the scope of the services they cover and the quality they provide. Having been a social media manager myself, I’m well aware that social media marketing entails a myriad of tasks, from planning and creating…
Anytime I’ve gone out looking for the best social media management company for small businesses, I’ve always zeroed in on the scope of the services they cover and the quality they provide. Having been a social media manager myself, I’m well aware that social media marketing entails a myriad of tasks, from planning and creating content to monitoring results to setting up ad campaigns.
It’s certainly not a one-person operation, which is why, for businesses that don’t have an in-house social media team, I always recommend hiring a social media marketing agency instead.
The good news is there are a good number of agencies specifically for small businesses, and I looked for the best of the best that balance a wide scope of services covering various industries, reasonable pricing, and results to back up their claims.
Review my top picks for the best social media services for small businesses.
LYFE Marketing: Overall best social media management company
WebFX: Best social media marketing agency for getting new leads
If you need more than just social media marketing, Straight North offers a comprehensive digital marketing solution tailored to your business’s needs and goals. The Straight North team can craft a strategy based on your marketing goals, covering SEO, website design, asset creation, and paid ads. And they can follow your campaigns all the way through, reporting results and refining messaging as they go for the best result.
LYFE Marketing: Overall best social media management company for small businesses
Advertisement
WebFX: Best social media marketing agency for getting new leads
Thrive Agency: Best for building a social media reputation
Advertisement
SEO Discovery: Best for building a social presence from scratch
Fiverr Pro: Best for individual social media projects from freelancers
Advertisement
$99Social: Best cheap social media marketing services for organic content
What I look for in a social media agency
When looking for the best social media agency for your business, start with those that include the social media strategies you need most. As much as possible, look for one with a free initial consultation that lets you ask questions about the strategies and results you can expect, as well as timelines and costs.
Strategies: The agency should be able to clearly outline the specific strategies and social media plans they recommend for your business.
Results to expect: Agencies should be able to readily provide performance statistics and metrics for existing clients (either as case studies or in aggregate).
Collaboration: Ideally, the agency you choose will offer to meet with you regularly (e.g., quarterly or monthly) to review results, tweak campaigns, and touch base on ways to improve performance.
Timelines: Agencies should also be able to give you estimated timelines for each strategy to help you determine whether it fits into your marketing plan.
References: Ask to speak with an existing client about their experience with the agency, such as the agency’s communication style, reporting cadence, transparency, and results.
Cost: If the agency has prices listed on its website, verify them during your initial call. If not, ask about their prices and any contracts or cancellation policies you’ll need to know about.
How I chose the best social media marketing agencies for small businesses
There are dozens of social media marketing agencies around, but I’ve been evaluating these companies for a few years now, and I wanted to zero in on the very best of the best, specifically for small businesses. This means agencies that understand the unique needs of a small business, like limited time and resources, and have a track history of working with them. So, cost is one factor in my evaluation, but the others are the scope and quality of each agency’s services, their customer support, and my expert score.
Methodology weights
Pricing 25%
Scope of services 30%
Quality of services 20%
Customer support 15%
My expert score 10%
Every agency is priced differently. Therefore, I scored pricing based on whether or not the agencies had transparent pricing plans, month-to-month contracts, a money-back guarantee, and options for individual projects. However, I did give a little extra point to agencies with a starting cost of less than $500.
This covers how extensive each agency’s social media services are, i.e., if they include both organic and paid social, content creation, account management, social listening, or community engagement, and if they cover several social media platforms.
It’s not just what they can do but how well they do it. I also evaluated whether each agency provides custom social media strategies and analytics reports and whether they do audience research before creating a strategy. I also gave higher scores to agencies that have worked with multiple industries and have proven to increase engagement, leads, and sales on social media, as evidenced by their published case studies.
Every agency is only as good as its customer support. This involves 24/7 availability, multiple channels like phone calls, email, and live chat, and a dedicated account representative to handle your business.
My expert score: 10% I did my own research on each of these agencies as a digital marketer (and former social media manager) and evaluated them based on my overall experience. My score also involves their value for money and average review score on third-party sites like Trustpilot.
Advertisement
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
If you’re managing your social media in-house, start with a social media strategy. Research your audience, find out the social platforms they frequent the most, and then plan content that centers around their needs and interests.
Publish and monitor your content’s performance and continue engaging with your audience through comments, stories, and DMs to build your credibility. You can also hire a social media marketing agency like LYFE Marketing or WebFX to let experts handle your social platforms for you.
It depends. It can start at $99 for purely organic content from an agency like $99Social or up to $3,000 for a full-service agency like WebFX that handles everything for you. However, other full-service agencies, like LYFE Marketing, start at $650 a month or $150 a month from SEO Discovery. Another option is to hire a social media freelancer from Fiverr Pro, where services start at $250.
Start by evaluating your biggest needs from social media as a small business. Is it to get more engagement? To advertise your holiday campaign and increase sales? This is important because agencies specialize in different social media strategies. Most agencies have websites or social media profiles listing their services that you can check.
Then, evaluate how much you’re willing to allocate to an agency to narrow your choices. Once you have a few of the best options, set up an initial consultation with each agency and ask questions about the kind of strategy they’ll set up for your business before finalizing your decision.
Bottom line
The best social media marketing company for small businesses will ultimately come down to your unique needs as a business. Social media marketing covers a large ground, so start by outlining what you need most, whether that’s gaining new followers or getting website traffic. There are dozens of agencies around, but the ones in this guide I’ve thoroughly researched and evaluated are my personal best picks for small businesses.
Audrey has over six years of marketing experience for startups and small businesses, handling roles from website building to social media management. She also worked in agencies growing online brand presence and holds a BA in Broadcasting from Mapua Malayan Colleges Laguna (summa cum laude). Audrey has been writing about marketing for Fit Small Business for nearly three years and has also contributed to Marketing Interactive, Noissue, and SnippetMedia, focusing on small business, marketing, and lifestyle news.
Loading more content…
Our mission is to provide small business owners with the information you need to succeed. Learn how to start, market, run, and grow your business today!
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.