Social Media Management Services: What's Included
Hiring social media management services means paying a freelancer or agency to run some or all of your social accounts: the plan, the posts, the replies and the reports. Below: what each service delivers, how to grant access safely, who should own the accounts, and red flags.
Selling these services yourself? Start with how to become a social media manager, then price the work with social media management packages.
Table of Contents
- What’s included
- The service menu
- Core services
- Access without passwords
- Ownership when you cancel
- Who should do the work
- Red flags
- Where Outfeed AI fits
- FAQ
What Social Media Management Services Include
A service can include up to eight parts: strategy, content creation, scheduling and publishing, community management, reporting, paid social, audits and account setup. Ask which ones the fee covers, and on which platforms.
The Service Menu at a Glance
Use this table as a checklist, whether you’re comparing offers or writing your own.
| Service | What you get | Cadence to agree | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Goals, audience, platforms, themes and KPIs in writing | Reviewed quarterly | Which goal does each platform serve? |
| Content creation | Captions, graphics and short videos for each platform | Weekly or monthly batches | Who supplies photos? How many revisions? |
| Scheduling and publishing | A shared calendar, and posts out on time | Weekly or monthly | Who approves posts, and by when? |
| Community management | Replies, spam removal and escalations | Set hours on agreed days | How fast, in which hours, and what’s escalated? |
| Reporting | KPIs against a baseline, with next steps | Monthly | Which numbers, against what baseline? |
| Paid social | Campaigns, targeting, budgets and ad reports | Reviewed monthly | Is ad spend separate from your fee? |
| Audits | A review of profiles and results, with a fix list | One-off, then yearly | What do you check, and what do we get? |
| Account setup | Profiles, business portfolio and roles | One-off | Will our business own the accounts? |
Strategy, Content, Publishing, Community, Reporting: What Each Service Covers
These five are the day-to-day work; audits and setup are one-off projects, and paid social is an extra. Each needs one written limit.
Strategy
A written plan, revisited quarterly. Our free social media strategy template gives both sides one outline.
Content creation
Agree who supplies photos, footage and offers, and how many revision rounds the fee includes. Unlimited revisions turn a fixed fee into open-ended work.
Scheduling and publishing
Agree an approval deadline, such as two business days before a post’s slot, so a late approval moves the post instead of rushing it.
Community management
Define it in hours a week and a response window, such as replies within one business day.
Reporting
Compare a few agreed KPIs with a baseline and name next month’s change. Our free social media report template does the engagement and growth math.
Do Social Media Agencies Need Your Password? How to Give Access Safely
No. Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn each give businesses an official way to let an agency in without a password, and Meta’s and LinkedIn’s terms say not to share one. Use partner access and admin roles, keep the owner role yourself, and turn on two-factor authentication first.
Meta’s Terms of Service say you must “Not share your password, give access to your Facebook account to others, or transfer your account to anyone else (without our permission)” (Meta Terms of Service, effective 1 January 2025, checked 3 October 2026). LinkedIn’s User Agreement says “You will keep your password a secret” (effective 3 November 2025, checked 3 October 2026). Instagram’s Terms of Use bar soliciting or using other people’s login credentials. Checked against Instagram Terms of Use
Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts: share them from your business portfolio, Meta’s current name for Business Manager (setup is in our Meta Business Manager guide). The agency needs its own portfolio, and only people with full control of yours can add it:
On a computer:
- Go to Settings in Meta Business Suite for your business portfolio.
- Click Partners in the Users section of the left menu.
- Click Add, then select Give a partner access to your assets.
- Enter your partner's business portfolio ID and click Next.
- Choose the assets and the access level (and tasks, for partial access), then click Assign assets.
Checked against Meta Business Help Center: Give a partner access to business assets in your business portfolio.
LinkedIn Company Pages: a super admin adds the agency’s people as content admins under Settings > Manage admins. Content admins create and manage Page posts; only super admins can add admins. You can only add a 1st-, 2nd- or 3rd-degree connection who follows the Page (LinkedIn Help: admin roles and adding admins, checked 3 October 2026).
Who Owns the Accounts and Content When You Cancel
Your business should own every account from day one, so ending a contract means removing the provider’s access, not asking for your accounts back.
In Meta’s system, the portfolio an asset sits in decides who owns it:
- “When you add a Page to your business portfolio, your business owns that Page.” Checked against Meta Business Help Center: Add a Facebook Page to your organization's business portfolio in Meta Business Suite
- An Instagram account can sit in only one portfolio. Checked against Meta Business Help Center: How do I add an Instagram account to my business portfolio in Meta Business Suite?
- A partner can’t share your assets onward: “only the organization that owns the asset can share it with another business portfolio.” Checked against Meta Business Help Center: Give a partner access to business assets in your business portfolio
So keep the Page and Instagram account in your portfolio, with the agency as a partner. On LinkedIn, keep a super admin in-house.
Creative ownership is a contract question. Write down who owns the photos, videos, captions and templates, what’s handed over, and the notice period; our free social media contract template has those clauses. It’s a template, not legal advice: rules vary by country and state, so have a lawyer review it.
When the work ends, remove partner and admin roles, change any password that was ever shared, and disconnect the provider’s apps; on Instagram, they’re under Website permissions > Apps and websites. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Manage the privacy settings for apps and websites that you've logged into or connected on Instagram
Freelancer, Agency, In-House or a Tool: Which Fits?
Choose by how much of the work you can keep and how much control you want. A tool keeps it all with you; an in-house hire gives the most control.
| Option | Scope | Your control | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| You, with a scheduling tool | Publishing; the rest stays with you | Full | As fast as you can create |
| Freelancer | A set scope, within one person’s hours | High and direct | Depends on one person’s capacity |
| Agency | Several services, including ads and video | Shared, often through an account manager | After onboarding; a team can cover absences |
| In-house hire | The whole role, plus product knowledge | Highest | Slowest: you hire first |
For costs, see how providers build social media management packages; for small-business budgets, our small business social media guide.
How to Choose a Social Media Management Company: Red Flags
Pick the provider with the clearest scope, access and exit terms, not the boldest promises. Watch for:
- Guaranteed follower or engagement numbers. Platforms decide who sees a post.
- Bought followers or “growth” apps. Instagram says not to use apps that offer likes or followers in exchange for your login, and that using them can lead to removed engagement, limited features, or a disabled or terminated account. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Why you should not use apps that offer likes and followers on Instagram
- Requests for your passwords instead of partner access or admin roles.
- Accounts in their name, or your Page in their business portfolio.
- A long minimum term with no exit terms: no notice period, file handover or access removal.
- Undefined community management: no hours, response window or escalation rule.
- Reports with no baseline to compare against.
Ask who does the work and which tools they use (some bill per seat; see per-seat vs per-account pricing), and ask for an audit first. Our free social media audit template gives you a scored baseline either way.
Where Outfeed AI Fits (and What It Does Not Do)
Outfeed AI covers one line of the menu: scheduling and publishing. We make it: a chat-based scheduler in which you schedule one post that can target several accounts across networks, handy for several clients. It has no analytics, inbox, social listening or client reporting, so community management and reporting need other tools.
Two limits matter for client work. LinkedIn: “Connected with LinkedIn sign-in to your personal LinkedIn profile. Outfeed posts as you, the member; it does not post to LinkedIn Company Pages.” TikTok: Posts currently publish as private (visible only to the connected account) while TikTok reviews the Outfeed app. Pricing: Starter and Pro are flat monthly prices, not billed per seat. Agency is billed per seat. Enterprise is custom.
If publishing is the part you’ll keep, start with Outfeed AI. Starter includes a 3-day free trial with 100 AI credits. Card required. Pro and Agency are billed from the first day.
Social Media Management Services FAQ
What do social media management services include?
Usually some mix of eight services: strategy, content creation, scheduling and publishing, community management, reporting, paid social, audits and account setup. Get a written list of what the fee covers, and check whether ads, video and audits cost extra.
Are social media management contracts month-to-month?
Some are, and some have a minimum term. Before you sign, check the term, the notice period, who owns the accounts and content, and what’s handed over when you leave. Have a lawyer review any terms you’re unsure about.
Can I manage social media myself with a tool instead of hiring?
Yes, if you can spare a few hours a week and make the content. A scheduling tool handles publishing; strategy, replies and judgment calls stay with you. Or hire help only for what you can’t cover, such as video or community management.
How involved will I be with a social media management service?
Even with full management, you’ll agree goals, supply product details and photos, approve posts if your agreement includes approvals, and handle the issues the provider escalates. Put an approval deadline, a response window and a monthly review in writing.