How to do social media management
Social media management is six repeating jobs: connect your accounts, decide what to post, write the post, tailor it per network, schedule it, and reply to the comments. One tool covers all six for $0 to $99 a month, the range from Buffer's free plan (3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel) to Hootsuite's Standard plan ($99 a month, 10 social accounts), both checked 29 July 2026.
How to social media management?
Work the six jobs in order, on a repeating weekly loop. Connect, decide, write, tailor, schedule, reply. Once the accounts are connected a week of posts is one sitting, because the slow part is writing, not the tool.
- Connect your accounts. Pick the networks your customers use, not all of them. A local business needs Facebook, Instagram and Google Business. A B2B one needs LinkedIn and X.
- Decide what to post. The reliable source is what happened this week: a job you finished, a question a customer asked twice, a photo from the shop floor.
- Write the post. One idea per post, written the way you talk. Buffer, Hootsuite, Later and Sprout Social all assume you reach this step with the words ready.
- Tailor it per network. X caps a post at 280 characters, LinkedIn rewards a strong first line, Instagram needs an image, Google Business wants an offer. This is where the hour goes.
- Schedule it. Two or three posts a week you can hold beats a burst then nothing. Check that your tool retries a failed publish rather than dropping it.
- Reply to what comes back. Comments arrive on the network, not your email. Read them in one inbox and answer the same day. Hootsuite and Sprout Social sell this as a shared team inbox.
How to do social media management?
Set a rhythm you can hold and batch the work. Two or three posts a week, written in one session from what happened in the business, scheduled in one go, comments answered the same day. Then pick the tool that covers the step you are worst at, because these five are not interchangeable. Prices checked 29 July 2026.
- Buffer. Free for 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel, then $5 per channel a month billed yearly. The cheapest scheduler if you already know what to say.
- Hootsuite. From $99 a month for Standard, covering 10 social accounts, 14-day trial and no card. Worth it when several people touch the account and someone approves first.
- Later. Starter is $25 a month, or $18.75 billed yearly, for 8 profiles and 1 user. Pick it if Instagram and TikTok are the business and you plan the feed visually.
- Sprout Social. Essentials is $79 per seat a month billed annually, $99 monthly, for 5 profiles, 30-day trial. The deepest reporting here, priced for a team that presents numbers.
- posthell. Assistant is $49 a month, or $37 billed yearly, for 10 accounts across 15 networks. It does steps 3 and 4: send a sentence of notes, it writes and tailors the posts, and nothing publishes until you approve.
The honest split: the other four assume you reach step 3 with the words ready. posthell is for the owner who never gets there. If you enjoy writing the posts one of the other four is cheaper, and if a free plan is a hard requirement use Buffer, because posthell has none. Two posthell limits: it is 7 days free with a card, and X charges per API call so it is metered at 200 X posts a month on Assistant, where a post with a link counts as 13. The other 14 networks are unlimited.
FAQ
How to social media management?
Do six things on repeat: connect the networks your customers use, decide what to post from what happened in your business that week, write the post, tailor it for each network, schedule it, and reply to the comments. One tool can cover all six, from $0 on Buffer's free plan to $99 a month on Hootsuite Standard, both checked 29 July 2026.
How to do social media management?
Set a rhythm you can hold, two or three posts a week, and batch the work into one session. Write from what actually happened in the business, tailor each post to the network it is going on, schedule the week in one go, and answer comments the same day. The step that stalls most owners is writing, not scheduling.
How much does social media management cost?
Doing it yourself with a tool costs $0 to $99 a month: Buffer is free for 3 channels, Later starts at $25, posthell is $37 billed yearly, Sprout Social is $79 per seat billed annually, and Hootsuite starts at $99. Paying a person costs more: done-for-you services run $99 to $199 a month and a freelancer runs $500 or more. Prices checked 29 July 2026.
What is the best social media management tool for a small business?
Buffer if you write the posts yourself and want the cheapest scheduler with a real free plan, Later if Instagram and TikTok are the business, Hootsuite if several people need approvals, Sprout Social if you have to report numbers to someone, and posthell if the reason you are not posting is that you never get round to writing anything.
Can AI do social media management for you?
It can do the writing and the per-network tailoring, which is the part that takes the time. It cannot know what happened in your business, so you still supply that in a sentence or two and read every post before it goes out. On posthell nothing publishes until you approve it.
Skip steps 3 and 4
Tell posthell what happened this week. It writes the posts, tailors them per network and schedules them. Nothing publishes until you approve it.
7 days free, then from $37/mo billed yearly. Cancel anytime.