Anytime I’ve gone out looking for the best social media management company for small businesses, I’ve always zeroed in on the scope of the services they cover and the quality they provide. Having been a social media manager myself, I’m well aware that social media marketing entails a myriad of tasks, from planning and creating content to monitoring results to setting up ad campaigns.
It’s certainly not a one-person operation, which is why, for businesses that don’t have an in-house social media team, I always recommend hiring a social media marketing agency instead.
The good news is there are a good number of agencies specifically for small businesses, and I looked for the best of the best that balance a wide scope of services covering various industries, reasonable pricing, and results to back up their claims.
Review my top picks for the best social media services for small businesses.
An overview of the best social media marketing agencies
If you need more than just social media marketing, Straight North offers a comprehensive digital marketing solution tailored to your business’s needs and goals. The Straight North team can craft a strategy based on your marketing goals, covering SEO, website design, asset creation, and paid ads. And they can follow your campaigns all the way through, reporting results and refining messaging as they go for the best result.
LYFE Marketing: Overall best social media management company for small businesses
Pros
- All plans include organic and paid social media marketing
- Has worked with a variety of small business industries, from consumer goods to medical clinics
- Creates a custom plan for your business’s needs, objectives, and audience
Cons
- Only offers packaged plans for Facebook and Instagram or TikTok and Instagram (other platforms require extra costs)
- Only does sponsored content and follower ads — image and video ads require a separate cost
- Has a set number of social media posts per month (12 or 20)
Pricing:
- Organic social media: From $650/month for three posts a week
- Social media advertising: From $750/month for two platforms
- Organic vertical video marketing: From $1,000/month for two posts a week
- Vertical video advertising: From $800/month (plus ad costs)
Key services: Content strategy and creation, social media monitoring
Covered platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Pinterest, Linkedin
LYFE Marketing’s long been a favorite of mine and is still my best overall social media management company for small businesses. This is primarily because of its extensive experience with small businesses and its dozens of case studies to back it up.
As an agency, LYFE Marketing’s specialty is social media marketing — both organic and paid — and its primary clientele is small businesses. It also offers a tailored approach to every client, meaning you won’t get generic cookie-cutter services.
This is especially important because social media is all about creating your unique brand image and finding your community. The LYFE Marketing team creates a custom strategy specific to your business’s needs and goals and content that caters to your target audience’s interests and preferences.
It’s clear that this is an agency that knows what they’re doing, but I will also remark that its content designs tend to be a little less modern compared to something from $99Social, whose social content always follows new trends and formats.
LYFE Marketing’s content tends to engage an older audience. But with the diversity of brands and industries it’s worked with, from skincare to automotive parts, I don’t see it as being much of a problem.
LYFE Marketing creates social media content tailored to your target audience. (Source: WebFX)
WebFX: Best social media marketing agency for getting new leads
Pros
- 29-year (and counting) digital marketing history and expertise
- Uses data for precise audience targeting (and more qualified leads)
- Creates a custom social media plan for each business, encompassing organic and paid social and multiple platforms
Cons
- Social media is not WebFX’s primary expertise
- The quality of the services you get depends on the team assigned to you
- The team can sometimes be difficult to contact as they handle many other businesses
Pricing: Custom, from $3,000 a month
Key services: Audience research, custom content creation and publishing, competitive analysis, real-time leads and ROI tracking
Covered platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, Linkedin, TikTok
WebFX has a lot of experience with small businesses, but that’s also its biggest weakness. It has such a big client base that you can’t guarantee getting the team’s undivided attention at all times or the one-on-one expertise you pay for (and it’s not exactly a cheap social media marketing agency).
But its biggest selling point has always been its data-driven approach. Every strategy is guided by meticulous audience and platform research, so it’s a good choice if deep data is what your strategy is lacking.
All of this is good stuff to have in a digital marketing agency, but WebFX is also notoriously opaque about what its services actually include. It lists its services on its website, but they differ for every business. You may not get comments monitoring, for example. This means you’ll need to clearly agree on your strategy and deliverables during your initial setup.
But what WebFX doesn’t skip out on is ensuring that all its strategies bring measurable results — especially leads. And it gives clients a real-time view of all the leads your campaigns are bringing in through its built-in CRM platform, RevenueCloudFX, and it’s one of the most advanced measuring dashboards I’ve seen from a marketing agency.
Combined with its dedication to data, WebFX’s dashboard and results make it the most ideal, by far, for generating leads from social media.
Thrive Agency: Best for building a social media reputation
Pros
- Monitors and manages your social media profile’s reputation via comments and reviews
- Crafts strategies not just for likes and engagement but for leads and conversions
- Covers Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest, TikTok, Linkedin, and YouTube (more than most)
Cons
- Plans and contracts tend to be long-term (not month-to-month)
- Works with many other clients; the services you get will depend on the team assigned to you
Pricing: Custom, from $1,000, according to Capterra
Key services: Monitoring social media comments, collecting reviews, publishing content, setting up social media ads
Covered platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube
The main reason I’m including Thrive on this list is it’s one of the few agencies that understands the importance of building a reputation on social media.
This understanding means they’re monitoring your comments and replying where necessary, addressing concerns, and collecting positive reviews for your social media profiles — the latter of which is especially helpful if you have a local or service-based business.
I also like that you can bundle these services with others, like content creation and boosted posts, so you get a full strategy tailored to your business. What’s also great about Thrive is it creates a long-term strategy for your social media growth — but that also means you may be locked into long-term contracts, and prices are custom to your business’s needs.
Unfortunately, Thrive is super secretive about its prices, and you’ll need to get in contact to get a quote, but previous clients say it starts somewhere above $1,000. In a sense, it’s a good agency to partner with if you don’t have a social media strategy yet and want to leave it to the experts.
SEO Discovery: Best for building a social presence from scratch
Pros
- Social media services include profile optimization and building an initial following
- A smaller agency means better focus on your business compared to bigger agencies
- Specifically targets audiences in your niche to turn into followers
Cons
- Limited experience with social media marketing compared to others
- Plans can risk being cookie-cutter, not tailored to your business
- Doesn’t do social media advertising
Pricing: Custom, from $150 for basic and $300/month for advanced social media services
SEO Discovery offers four basic plans, although pricing will be custom to your business. The social media platforms it covers are Facebook, Instagram, X, and Linkedin.
- Basic plan: 12 posts on one social media platform
- Advanced plan: 16 posts and one video on two social media platforms
- Professional plan: 20 posts and two videos on three social media platforms
- Enterprise plan: 30 posts and three videos on four social media platforms
Key services: Social media profile optimization, audience research, initial content creation, and publishing
Covered platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, Linkedin
Don’t be fooled by its name: SEO Discovery is also a reputable social media agency for small businesses. It’s different from other agencies in that its marketing services start from scratch: they include optimizing your profile and gaining new followers.
These apply to all its plans; prices only increase for more social platforms. This model makes it the best option for new businesses that want to start building their social presence on the right track. Also included are up to 12 initial posts on your profile.
My only big issue with SEO Discovery is it doesn’t have much experience with social media marketing yet compared to the likes of LYFE Marketing or WebFX. But I am familiar with their SEO services, and if they’re anything to go by, SEO Discovery always delivers on their promises. It also has plenty of experience with small businesses, so the team will be familiar with your needs. It’s also a smaller agency, so you’ll get a more focused, attentive team.
Another reason I chose SEO Discovery as a top social media marketing company is its prompt customer service. Compared to other big-name agencies, being a smaller agency makes SEO Discovery easier to contact, which many of its previous clients also attest to. So, while it has less experience in the social media realm, all its previous work makes me think it’s worth a shot.
Fiverr Pro: Best for individual social media projects from freelancers
Pros
- Easier to work with than agencies (and often cheaper) because there are no long-term contracts
- Can look for people who specialize in certain projects (like Facebook Ads or user-generated videos)
- Services available for just about any social media task
Cons
- Not all freelancers have the same output quality
- Takes time to find the right freelancer for your specific needs, and they’re not always available
- No dedicated account manager — you’ll need to manage everything yourself.
Pricing: From $250/project, depending on the freelancer
Key services: Social media account management (one or multiple platforms), content creation and strategy, ad setup
Covered platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest (and more, depending on the freelancer)
As you may already know, Fiverr Pro isn’t technically a social media management company for small businesses but a freelancer hiring platform. But it’s still a decent source for getting professional social media services.
And there are a good many on Fiverr Pro (there are 115 for social media marketing alone), and you can search for the specific service you need. For example, if you only need some Facebook Ads set up, then you can find people who specialize in that and only pay for that specific service.
Fiverr Pro also has freelancers with packaged services, which can be like hiring a social media manager to add to your team. They often have lower costs per project than a regular marketing agency, but they also don’t have the same kind of detailed reporting you’ll get from an agency. And you’ll need to communicate with them yourself as you won’t have an account manager.
But if that’s not much of an issue and the work output is your number one priority, Fiverr Pro is a good place to find talented social media freelancers without all the bells and whistles of a full-scale agency.
Fiverr Pro is also reliable for quality, as all its freelancers have a rating of 4.7 and above. My only advice is to take time to find the right freelancer to suit your business needs, as some specialize in certain industries over others or have specific design styles.
Hundreds of social media freelancers are available for hire on Fiverr Pro. (Source: Fiverr)
$99Social: Best cheap social media marketing services for organic content
Pros
- High-quality social media content tailored to your brand from $99 a month
- The team will also schedule posts for you after an approval process
- No long-term contracts; everything is month-to-month
Cons
- Can’t combine both image and video in the same plan
- No social media ads, reporting, or monitoring — just content creation
Pricing:
- Standard Plan: $99/month for 10 image posts
- Plus Plan: $189/month for 20 image posts
- v $279/month for 30 image posts
Add-ons:
- Short-form videos from $99/month
- Email marketing from $149/month
- Blog posts from $49/month
- Instagram Stories from $49/month
- Instagram carousels from $5/month
Key services: Custom social media content creation and publishing on your profile
Covered platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Linkedin, Pinterest
$99Social does social content really well: modern, eye-catching, and trendy. But unfortunately, that’s about as far as its services go.
Aside from creating and publishing content, $99Social doesn’t provide any other social media services — not ads, analytics reporting, or comments management. But if you need social media content, especially short-form vertical videos, this is a good agency.
As its name promises, all plans start at $99 for 10 posts a month, although the frustrating thing is you can’t combine different content types like images and video. To combine both, you’ll need two separate plans for a total of 20 posts. The team will also do the scheduling and posting for you.
But what I really like from $99Social is the quality of the content they produce. It’s professional, polished, and the kind of content that catches attention and brings credibility to your brand. In many cases, it’s a convenient alternative to hiring a full-time social media content creator, especially if your primary focus is just organic (non-paid) social content.
$99Social’s biggest expertise is creating social media content, both image and video. (Source: $99Social)
What I look for in a social media agency
When looking for the best social media agency for your business, start with those that include the social media strategies you need most. As much as possible, look for one with a free initial consultation that lets you ask questions about the strategies and results you can expect, as well as timelines and costs.
- Strategies: The agency should be able to clearly outline the specific strategies and social media plans they recommend for your business.
- Results to expect: Agencies should be able to readily provide performance statistics and metrics for existing clients (either as case studies or in aggregate).
- Collaboration: Ideally, the agency you choose will offer to meet with you regularly (e.g., quarterly or monthly) to review results, tweak campaigns, and touch base on ways to improve performance.
- Timelines: Agencies should also be able to give you estimated timelines for each strategy to help you determine whether it fits into your marketing plan.
- References: Ask to speak with an existing client about their experience with the agency, such as the agency’s communication style, reporting cadence, transparency, and results.
- Cost: If the agency has prices listed on its website, verify them during your initial call. If not, ask about their prices and any contracts or cancellation policies you’ll need to know about.
How I chose the best social media marketing agencies for small businesses
There are dozens of social media marketing agencies around, but I’ve been evaluating these companies for a few years now, and I wanted to zero in on the very best of the best, specifically for small businesses. This means agencies that understand the unique needs of a small business, like limited time and resources, and have a track history of working with them.
So, cost is one factor in my evaluation, but the others are the scope and quality of each agency’s services, their customer support, and my expert score.
25% of Overall Score
Every agency is priced differently. Therefore, I scored pricing based on whether or not the agencies had transparent pricing plans, month-to-month contracts, a money-back guarantee, and options for individual projects. However, I did give a little extra point to agencies with a starting cost of less than $500.
30% of Overall Score
This covers how extensive each agency’s social media services are, i.e., if they include both organic and paid social, content creation, account management, social listening, or community engagement, and if they cover several social media platforms.
20% of Overall Score
It’s not just what they can do but how well they do it. I also evaluated whether each agency provides custom social media strategies and analytics reports and whether they do audience research before creating a strategy.
I also gave higher scores to agencies that have worked with multiple industries and have proven to increase engagement, leads, and sales on social media, as evidenced by their published case studies.
15% of Overall Score
Every agency is only as good as its customer support. This involves 24/7 availability, multiple channels like phone calls, email, and live chat, and a dedicated account representative to handle your business.
10% of Overall Score
My expert score: 10%
I did my own research on each of these agencies as a digital marketer (and former social media manager) and evaluated them based on my overall experience. My score also involves their value for money and average review score on third-party sites like Trustpilot.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Bottom line
The best social media marketing company for small businesses will ultimately come down to your unique needs as a business. Social media marketing covers a large ground, so start by outlining what you need most, whether that’s gaining new followers or getting website traffic. There are dozens of agencies around, but the ones in this guide I’ve thoroughly researched and evaluated are my personal best picks for small businesses.