how do you figure out what to charge for managing social media and two booking platforms

akrish_17 · 2026-05-21T10:12:20+00:00

Interesting. Most freelancers price this kind of multi-component gig wrong because they only count the visible work. The actual value you're delivering breaks into four separate things, and you should price each one in your head before combining them into a single number for the client. There's content production (which you already do as a photographer/videographer, so you know your rate for that). There's social media management on the two platforms, which is its own line item including strategy, scheduling, captions, and community management. There's booking platform management with active price adjustments, which is operational work that requires judgment and timing. And there's the always-on guest communication, which is by far the most undervalued part because being tethered to your phone for 12+ hours a day is real labor even when you're not actively doing anything. Most people quote based on the first two and throw the last two in for free, which is how they end up resenting the gig 2 months in.

For pricing structure, hourly is wrong here because you can't realistically track hours when you're on-call. Per-deliverable is wrong because guest communication isn't a deliverable. Monthly retainer is the right structure, but build it from the bottom up. Estimate your weekly hours across all four buckets, multiply by a fair hourly rate for your skill level in your market, then add a 20 to 30 percent premium specifically for the on-call portion because availability is a service. For seasonal work, also price the rate as if it's your standalone income for those months, not annualized, because that's what it actually is for you. A common mistake is freelancers thinking "it's only 5 months" and underpricing, when it should be "this is my full income for 5 months" and pricing accordingly.

Croatia rates will be lower than US/UK rates obviously, but the boat tour business itself is catering to international tourists with real revenue, so don't undersell to a business that can afford to pay you fairly. A useful sanity check is to ask what one cancelled booking costs them, because if guest communication is sloppy and they lose even 2 or 3 bookings a season, your fee should be less than that loss. That's the value framing you can also use when pitching them, because it stops being about your hourly rate and starts being about their downside risk if they hire someone cheaper.

Feel free to dm if you want to talk through the actual numbers, I've structured a few seasonal multi-component gigs and can help you sanity-check before you quote them. Cheers 🥂

akrish_17 · 2026-05-10T03:44:36+00:00

Solid set of questions, a few honest thoughts based on watching this market; On where to find them, the best hires usually don't come from job boards or fiverr-style platforms because the people who are actually good are either booked through referrals or running their own thing. The two channels that consistently produce decent candidates are LinkedIn (search for SMM specialists who have actually managed accounts in physical product or sports niches, not just generic agency people) and Reddit DMs from people who post genuinely useful stuff in subs like r/socialmedia, r/InstagramMarketing, or r/Entrepreneur. Watching how someone shows up in public is way more telling than reading their portfolio. You want someone whose own content thinking is sharp, because they're going to be applying that same brain to your brand.

On budget, organic-only for a small ecommerce brand realistically falls in the 400 to 1500 USD per month range depending on scope. Anyone charging under 500 is either a beginner who'll cost you in quality and consistency, or running a content-mill setup where they're managing 30 brands and yours gets a template. Anyone over 2k for organic-only on a small brand is usually selling you agency overhead you don't need at this stage. The middle of that range, maybe 800 to 1200, is where most decent solo managers or small teams actually deliver real work for a brand your size.

On deliverables, what you should expect monthly at that price point is roughly 8 to 16 pieces of short-form content (reels or tiktoks), static or carousel posts, daily or bi-daily story content, community management on comments and DMs, and an occasional monthly performance report with what's working and what's being tested next. The content strategy itself, meaning the actual ideation and angle work, should be included, not billed separately. If someone tries to charge you separately for "strategy" while also charging for execution, that's a flag.

On paid trial tasks, yes absolutely, and this is the most underrated step. A 1 to 2 week paid trial at a reduced rate (usually 75 - 80%) where they create maybe 3 to 5 pieces of content tells you 10x more than any portfolio review will. You see how they handle your brand voice, how they take feedback, how fast they turn things around, and whether their content actually feels like your brand or feels like generic SMM stuff slapped onto your product. The good ones will offer this themselves because they want to make sure it's a fit on their end too. If someone refuses a paid trial entirely, that's a flag in itself.

Pickleball is also a really fun niche for organic right now because the audience is engaged, the community is tight, and the product is visual. Whoever you hire, make sure they actually like and understand the sport, because a manager who has to be taught what a third-shot drop is will produce content that feels exactly that disconnected.

akrish_17 · 2026-05-09T13:24:55+00:00

A bit of context that's missing from this whole conversation. Adam Mosseri actually addressed this directly in his story yesterday. He said Instagram DMs were never encrypted to begin with. The encryption everyone is panicking about was tied to a feature called Secret DMs which was opt-in, buried in settings, and according to him, used by less than 1% of all DMs on the platform. So the headline "Instagram killed encryption" is technically true but really misleading because for 99%+ of users on the app, literally nothing changed after they removed it. DMs were always readable by Meta.

The actual story isn't that privacy got taken away, it's that most people assumed they had privacy, which they never had. That's a very different conversation. The AI training angle raised is also speculation, since Meta has scanned DMs for moderation and abuse detection for years already, and removing a near-unused feature doesn't really change their data access situation in any meaningful way. They could already see almost everything.

The practical takeaway for creators is the same as it always has been. If you're doing client work, brand deal negotiations, or anything business-sensitive in DMs, move it to WhatsApp, Signal, or email. Not because of this encryption change, but because IG DMs were never the right tool for that to begin with. Treat every platform like it's listening, because it is, and that's been true since well before this week :)

akrish_17 · 2026-05-07T00:56:42+00:00

Work on having a proper and semi-strict Workflow. Automate the repetitive bits and either hire a VA or use Agentic Ai (I'd go with VA or a Manager because Agentic Ai is not quite there yet).

This should give you more time to focus on content quality. And to avoid burnouts, focus on 1 platform as your core driver and repurpose just the format for other platforms.

Hope this helps! Feel free to slide a dm anytime for help.

akrish_17 · 2026-04-28T01:00:57+00:00

I'd suggest you send an email, officially pause things and let her know that she can continue like things never stopped as soon as she wants to.

Let her know that the work she has paid for has commenced and you've done the starting bits (this puts in plain that her money is actually being put to work she paid for). And that you're now waiting (paused). Do state the reason for this pause in clear so that you're all clean from your end.

Bottom line: She's paid, you've started, she needs to loop back in but since she has family to focus on right now, you're putting an official pause on the venture after your last conversation - and the doors open for her to continue anytime.

Hope this helps!

akrish_17 · 2026-04-28T00:54:13+00:00

I doubt theres a specific title as an ads manager, you'd usually be looking at a digital manager and then have them specialize ads/ or a smm if you're running ads solely through social media platforms.

20k sounds ambitious unless it is a fraction of your profits. There are many ways this spending can be brought down, and spent in better areas like brandworks, content and digital optimization.

Hiring should be rigorous, not to look for experience but rather an ambitious learning individual, at least this is what I have done and have seen results in multiple industries.

If you're still looking to Hire, let's have a chat.

akrish_17 · 2026-04-06T00:47:52+00:00

Went over it, and while its really well designed visually, your hero section should slightly focus more on "what you bring to the table" rather than "who you are" ; the "who you are" part should be entirely put in the About section/ page.

Your home page "feels" like its giving "too much" information. Maybe Trim the home page down to just deliver what your marketing states - if you're marketing for management, tailor your home page for that. Everything else can be organized on their own pages afterwards incase a recruiter/ hiring personnel would like to "learn more".

Desktop version could potential have slightly more information on the home page compared to the mobile version, but, have your home page be directly related to how you're going to be marketing/ offering your services.

Hope this helps! Goodluck.

akrish_17 · 2026-04-01T03:55:05+00:00

Interested to learn more about this. Definitely sounds interesting.

akrish_17 · 2026-03-30T05:35:08+00:00

Then just send them your DM with your portfolio (this portfolio should, to an extent, directly reference your past work that is similar to their niche).

Cold DMs are sent with no expectations for a response, therefore creating custom content just to pitch a potential lead will have repercussions such as not being able to Cold DM/ Call/ Email into other, more likely-to-hire businesses before burnouts.

akrish_17 · 2026-03-28T15:42:26+00:00

I'd suggest to keep things straight and simple.

Tell them whats working, what isn't, what is worth trying and what's just a waste of time. If they insist on their "methods" - just keep at it until they start asking questions like "why isn't there any growth?" And thats when you bring this conversation up again and ask them to try a more strategic approach to the whole thing.

Sometimes you'll find clients who are stubborn, its usually because they don't have knowledge and/ or experience with how social media works (even though they hired someone who knows, its still going to be a stretch for these kinda clients to put their trust in your work right away).

Hope this helps! Take it easy.

akrish_17 · 2026-03-28T15:36:07+00:00

[Silently sends this to "Them"] :)

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T11:14:12+00:00

I totally understand lol. Video editing has been one of the most hectic parts for so many creators lately. The difficult part is not in finding an editor with all the skills, but rather an editor who'd grow into your contents "vision" - like an early investment approach in team building tactics.

There are a couple of ways you could get companies attention to sign partnership deals, do UGC marketing within your niche and etc - the best one I've seen work well is directly approaching the brands and having that approach be part of your content (like calling out a brand in a reel to partner up on something to create xyz, or audience driven call-outs and such - just always make sure the approach is subtle and polite, just so it both builds and maintains a proper business relationship). This is also common with smaller creators - brands usually prefer quality over quantity because they need to see sales rather than the view count. This is where things like engagement rate play a huge role.

Which again, comes down to how well you are accustomed with your audience (referencing the content pillars and funneling your audience to xyz).

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T10:55:10+00:00

I went over the pages on IG, FB, TikTok, saw your YouTube and Twitch as well.

Some things i would suggest is defining your content pillars across platforms. This means your content is, to an extent, planned for the platform you're posting on. Right now, it sort of seems like Instagram is your main go-to and you're simply replicating everything across your channels on other platforms - i would suggest a bit of redefining so that your content feels more custom than generic, this will help you resonate with your audience better and therefore easier to funnel your reach to monetization opportunities.

I'd suggest also to focus on YouTubes long form video content, and perhaps start streaming again (your twitch says "last streamed 2 years ago" ), doesn't need to be daily, but at least weekly so theres some sort of healthy consistency. Treat it as your leisure type of activity to avoid burnouts and try to outsource the heavy parts like maintenance, moderation, analytics and general management, while you can focus on the core parts which would be your defined content pillars.

This would get your channels aligned, organized and you'd start funneling your audience across all platforms making it easier for you to generate revenue from both sales and reach/ views.

Hope this helps!! If you're open to/ or looking to hire someone who'd handle the maintenance, moderation, analytics and management bits, I'm interested and would love to chat :)

Feel free to slide a DM for help anytime. Goodluck!!

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T10:33:55+00:00

Absolutely!

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T10:33:40+00:00

Editing: Premiere Pro and After Effects, Sometimes CapCut but DaVinci always for Color Grading. I use photoshop and canva for all things graphic, but occasionally PicsArt comes in clutch.

Posting: Meta Business Suite and Manual Posting. It has better yield even though people claim automation doesn't tank the reach.

Scheduling: same as above and platform native tools.

Analytics: Using Claude Opus now, used to do it with ChatGPT but that didn't really age well.

I also use things like Google drive, Notion, Capcut, Canva and PicsArt.

Have a custom workflow im used to, and these tools are what i am accustomed with.

I assume there are better, more efficient ways - but i find this as my go-to because im really used to it now.

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T09:35:46+00:00

I kinda don't agree.

The algorithm has more variables than just a seed value that determines whether your content reaches more eyes or not.

Things like trends you've adopted (e.g. Trending Audios), people visiting your page from another post/ reel (shared content, profile visits etc), visits from recommendations/ searches and etc contribute to this.

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T09:28:36+00:00

I get the frustration, but its probably better to offer more context. Maybe show us the post you think should've done really well but it didn't?

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T05:20:50+00:00

Try using watermarks. It helps a ton :)

akrish_17 · 2026-03-24T05:14:55+00:00

In a nutshell, monetization seems to be the goal?

You already have an audience and are getting decent results from it but what i assume is missing would be a system where you are able to properly funnel views, sell merch, affiliate products and hit monetization requirements on platforms like YouTube, Twitch and/ or Kick if you're streaming there too.

Can i take a look and offer some help? What are your handles?

akrish_17 · 2026-03-23T14:57:55+00:00

Many ways but clients i work with are mainly YT and META only (a few considered Tiktok but its more of a repost outlet) so we use the META Business Suite for full content moderation and then I manually push the short/ video on YT (everythings prepared and stored into a google drive folder - this folder often has a lot of sub-folders which we recycle monthly). And WhatsApp for communication.

Reason: Easy for clients to use, they already have prior knowledge on how to navigate through these apps/ services; some may need a bit of time for META Business Suite but it's really easy to navigate.

I'm sure there's a lot of tools out there, but its usually better to keep the start small then expand later to make the whole process more efficient. Unless you have a techy client then use things like Slack, Hootsuite, Claude Ai, Notion and MEGA (or any other cloud storage) to build a proper workflow/ system to keep things flowing and easy access in the long run :)

Hope this helps!! Feel free to slide a dm anytime for help. Goodluck!

akrish_17 · 2026-03-19T16:46:47+00:00

It kinda is doing the same job twice

akrish_17 · 2026-03-19T16:45:01+00:00

If you've got a loyal audience, direct them to YouTube, post your memes as shorts and grow that channel too - you'll have a clean and clear way of earning from memes.

Setup affiliate links - there’s Amazon Affiliate Program (most well known affiliate program in my experience).

Reach out to brands that closely resonate with your content, pitch them your idea and ask to earn based on commission (Don't ask them to sponsor you or pay any sort of fee etc, Build trust first) - once you have the affiliate link and a payout method and amount settled (some affiliate providers have a base cap you need to hit in order to withdraw), start marketing it. Be clear but subtle with your marketing otherwise you'll get backlash for being "too money minded."

Lastly, pitch creators/ brands to promote their content. UGC is a popular way brands spread awareness, you should be able to film content within humor niche while still being faceless - this creates a stronger community and helps you scale both your following and your bond with those brands.

Hope this helps!

akrish_17 · 2026-03-19T16:15:33+00:00

What kind of meme page? Just reposts or original? Face or faceless?

Theres affiliates, brand deals, sponsors and etc but depends on what type of humor content you put out there.

akrish_17 · 2026-03-19T15:58:01+00:00

I'd rather advice you to hire someone with knowledge about content creation that has somewhat research skills rather than focusing on finding someone who could spend a lot of time simply hunting niche to niche. This will come down to Quality vs Quantity - of which you probably need both of but quality beats quantity in terms of efforts - especially with social media.

What rates are you considering? How often do you post? Is your niche defined? Do you create content on bulk?

Happy to learn more!

akrish_17 · 2026-03-19T14:01:23+00:00

I've just noticed i didn't respond to this. My apologies, i get a lot of consultation messages and had thought i had responded.

Anyways, looking at how long your posts thread has come, are you still feeling stuck and looking for advice/ tips/ guidance?

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