Hire a social media manager — or hand the posting to OttoSocial
Most of a social media manager's week is the posting workload: ideas, drafts, scheduling, timing, publishing. Here is what hiring one costs, what the work actually covers, and the part OttoSocial does instead — in your voice, set-and-forget, from $24/mo.
People describe the hire a few ways — a PR person, a virtual social media manager, someone to “just handle our social media.” Underneath the title, the job they are paying for is mostly the same: the posting workload — ideas, drafts, scheduling, timing, and publishing, every day, without fail. This page prices that hire honestly, then shows which part of it OttoSocial takes off your plate.
What a social media manager costs
There are three ways to hire one, and the honest answer is a range, not a number — rates move a lot with market, experience, and how many platforms and posts are in scope:
- Freelance manager: commonly a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month — roughly $300–$2,500/mo is a typical quoted band for ongoing posting on one or two platforms.
- Agency retainer: usually starts around $1,000/mo and climbs past $5,000/mo for multi-platform, multi-format programs.
- In-house hire: a full-time salary — commonly $40,000–$70,000 a year in the US — plus payroll taxes, benefits, software, and management time.
Whichever route you take, you are also buying coordination: briefs, feedback rounds, and someone keeping the calendar full when you are busy. That overhead is exactly what makes the posting workload a good candidate for software.
The work you are actually paying for
A social media manager’s week splits into two kinds of work:
- The posting workload — content ideas in the brand’s voice, drafting posts, threads and polls, keeping a calendar full, choosing publish times, and posting consistently.
- The human work — replying to DMs and comments, community engagement, PR outreach, partnerships, and strategy calls.
OttoSocial does the first kind. It does not pretend to do the second — see the honest limits below.
The part OttoSocial handles
Describe your brand once — your niche, tone and topics. From that brief, OttoSocial runs the posting workload on X:
- Drafts tweets, threads, polls, quotes, replies and captions in your brand voice — unlimited AI draft generation on paid plans
- Fills your queue ahead of time on a visual calendar, so the week is planned before it starts
- Generated posts land in the queue already set to post, placed at Smart Timing slots — edit, delete or reschedule any of them in the queue right up to their slot
- Publishes on autopilot through the official X connection, up to your plan’s daily pace (12 posts a day on Pro, 24 on Creator and Business)
- Set-and-forget once it is running: no approval step, no daily check-in — the queue is your control surface
Pro — the full posting workload with autopilot — is $24/mo. Starter is free (manual scheduler and calendar), and every account can try full Pro free for 2 days with no card.
What OttoSocial doesn’t do
A human manager still earns their keep where conversation and judgment live. OttoSocial does not answer DMs, reply to your community, do PR outreach, or make strategy decisions — and it only posts to X today (Threads, Instagram and Facebook are labeled Coming soon). You keep the brief, the topics and the calendar; strategy stays yours. If you need the human half too, the two pair fine: a person for engagement and strategy, OttoSocial for the posting workload.
Which should you choose?
If your problem is “we don’t post consistently,” that is the workload problem — OttoSocial solves it for $24/mo, starting today, with no hiring process. If your problem is “nobody talks to our audience,” hire the human. Most small brands have the first problem and hire for it at manager prices; this page exists so you can price the difference before you do.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to hire a social media manager?
It depends on the route. A freelance social media manager commonly runs a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month (roughly $300–$2,500 is a typical quoted band); agency retainers usually start around $1,000/mo and climb past $5,000 for multi-platform work; an in-house hire means a full-time salary — commonly $40,000–$70,000 a year in the US — plus payroll costs and tools. Exact figures vary widely with market, experience, and how many platforms and posts are in scope.
Can OttoSocial replace a social media manager?
For the posting workload on X, yes — that is the job OttoSocial does. It drafts tweets, threads, polls, quotes, replies and captions in your brand voice, keeps your calendar full, times each post with Smart Timing, and publishes them. Generated posts land in your queue already set to post at their scheduled times; you can edit, delete or reschedule any of them right up to their slot — there is no approval step. What it does not do: DMs, community replies, PR outreach, or strategy. You keep the brief, the topics and the calendar; the queue is your control surface.
Is OttoSocial a done-for-you social media service?
For posting on X, yes: describe your brand once and the drafting, scheduling, timing and publishing are handled — set-and-forget. It is software, not an agency: there is no account manager, and it does not run your DMs, community engagement or PR. Pro is $24/mo, Starter is free, and every account can try full Pro free for 2 days with no card.
What does a virtual social media manager do?
A virtual social media manager is a remote freelancer or service that handles a brand's social posting: content ideas, drafting, scheduling, publishing consistently, and reporting. OttoSocial covers the posting slice of that job — ideas, drafts in your voice, the calendar, Smart Timing and publishing — while the human parts (conversation, community, PR, strategy) stay with you or a person you hire for them.
Which platforms does OttoSocial manage?
X (Twitter) is live today. Threads, Instagram and Facebook are labeled Coming soon in the product, and OttoSocial only manages the posting workload on the platforms it supports — it does not post to every network the way a generalist agency might.
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