Social media management means one provider handles strategy, filming, editing, posting and replies, so your account runs without you touching it. To pick a provider, ask for dated results with business names attached and listen for whether they ever say no. This page covers what a real service includes, what separates management from scheduling, and how to judge anyone who pitches you, including us.
A full service covers strategy, filming, editing, posting and community management. Strategy works out who your buyers are and what content moves them, filming and editing produce the posts, posting keeps the schedule running, and community management answers the comments and messages that come back. Get Known runs all five as one service for business owners, and we batch filming into single sessions so you are not picking up a camera every day. If a provider only covers two or three of these jobs, the missing ones land back on your desk.
A DIY tool gives you templates and a calendar and leaves the filming, editing and writing to you, which suits owners who genuinely enjoy making content and have the hours spare. A scheduling service takes content you have already made and spaces it out through the week, which only works while your supply of content holds. Done for you management is different because the provider is responsible for the content existing at all, not just for the timestamp it goes out on. Most owners who call an agency have already tried the first two and watched the account go quiet.
People follow people, so an account fronted by a visible owner has a far easier job than a logo posting on its own and buy from people they feel they know. That is why we build accounts around the owner or someone senior on the team, and why filming is batched into a few hours at a time rather than a daily performance. You do not need to be polished on camera, you need to be recognisably the person a customer will meet.
Ask for results that carry a date and a business name, because anonymous screenshots of view counts prove nothing and could belong to anyone. Then ask what they would refuse to do, since a provider who says yes to every platform, every format and every request is selling hours, not judgement. Anyone worth paying will tell you which platforms to skip and what they would cut from your current plan.
If your work comes entirely from tenders, referrals or a handful of long term contracts, a content calendar will not move revenue and we will tell you so. The same applies if enquiries currently sit unanswered for days, because attention you cannot serve just creates annoyed strangers. Fix the follow up first, then come back to content. Any provider who takes your money without asking where your work actually comes from is not doing strategy.
A cafe, a law firm and an electrician are not selling to the same buyer, on the same platform, with the same kind of post, so a single generic playbook fails at least two of them. Buyers, platforms and the content that works all change from industry to industry, which is why we keep a dedicated guide for each one. Pick yours below to see what management looks like in your corner of the market.
A social media manager plans what your business posts, creates or oversees the content, publishes it on a schedule, and replies to the comments and messages that follow. A full service also includes filming and editing, not just captions on photos you supply. If any of those pieces are missing, that work stays on your desk.
It is worth paying if your buyers check social media before choosing a business and you do not have the time to post consistently yourself. It is not worth paying if all your work comes through referrals or tenders, because content will not shift those decisions. Asking a provider this question directly is a good test, since an honest answer sometimes costs them the job.
A scheduling tool publishes content you have already made at times you set, while a management service is responsible for the content existing at all. Tools cost less but assume you keep filming, editing and writing every week. Management takes that work off the owner entirely, from strategy through to replying to comments.
Ask for examples of results that include a date and the name of the business, and treat anonymous screenshots as no evidence at all. Then test whether the agency will say no, for example to a platform that does not suit your buyers, because a provider without opinions is just renting you their time. Finally, ask who does the filming, since the quality of the raw footage decides whether anything else works.
You do not have to be, but accounts fronted by a real person are easier to grow than logo only accounts, because people connect with people. Get Known batches filming into single sessions, so fronting the account means a few hours at a time rather than filming daily. If you genuinely cannot appear, a senior team member can be the face instead.
Book a content audit. If social media is not your bottleneck, we will tell you.
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