Manage your business’s social media yourself or hire someone?
How to decide based on your time, your budget and what you expect to get out of it.
Patricia Lugo · October 12, 2026 · 6 min read
For many businesses, social media is the first shop window. It’s also one of the tasks that quietly eats up the most time: coming up with ideas, filming, editing, writing, posting, replying and starting all over again.
There’s no single answer to whether you should run it yourself or delegate it. It depends on three things we’ll look at, and a fourth almost nobody considers: whether your social media is part of a plan or flying solo.
How much time it really takes
Posting is only the visible part. Behind it there’s planning, content creation, editing, captions, replying to messages and comments, and reviewing results. Keeping an account consistently active means several hours a week, every week.
The question isn’t whether you can do it, but whether it’s the best use of your time.
The three options, compared
| You run it | A freelancer | As part of a project with a project manager | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Your time | Monthly fee | Team + management |
| Knows your business | Better than anyone | Needs to be briefed | Covered in the strategy |
| Consistency | Depends on your schedule | Good | Good, with a calendar |
| Connection with website and campaigns | Whatever you make of it | Usually none | Everything follows one plan |
| Measurement | If you have time | Platform report | Report tied to goals |
How to decide
- Run it yourself if you’re just starting out, your budget is very tight and you enjoy creating content. Set yourself a simple calendar and review results once a month.
- Hire a freelancer if social media is your main channel, your message is clear and you just need someone to execute it consistently.
- Make it part of a project if your social media has to lead somewhere: website visits, bookings, sales or leads. Then it needs to be coordinated with everything else.
Active social media that leads nowhere is constant effort with no return.
Social media as part of a plan
In my projects, social media management is part of the digital marketing area. I don’t offer it as a standalone service because, on its own, it easily ends up posting a lot and contributing little.
Within a plan, social media has a clear goal, a calendar connected to the website and campaigns, and metrics reviewed alongside everything else. The content team and the account manager work from the same strategy, and I make sure it all fits together.
