The business needs to show up properly on social media, and the options are on the table. Hire a social media manager. Brief a freelancer who comes recommended. Or appoint an agency. Each option sounds like the answer, and businesses in Kenya often try all three in turn. The choice between a social media manager or agency, or a freelancer in between, comes down to a question most businesses skip: who decides what the social media is for.
What a social media manager, a freelancer and an agency each give you
A social media manager on staff gives you presence. They know the business, its customers and its day-to-day news, and they can respond to a comment within minutes. The cost goes beyond the salary: tools, design software, time to manage them, and cover when they are on leave or move on. A single hire is also expected to be strategist, writer, designer, photographer and analyst at once, and few people are strong at all five.
A freelancer gives you production. A good one turns a clear plan into consistent, well-made posts, often at a lower monthly cost than either alternative. What a freelancer rarely provides is the plan itself, and most will not push back on a brief that is aimed at the wrong audience.
An agency gives you a team: strategy, writing, design, community management and reporting under one contract. The trade-off is distance. An agency knows your business only as well as you brief it, and its work is only as close to your customers as the access you give it.
Which question each option answers
Each option answers a different question.
- A social media manager answers “who is here every day?”
- A freelancer answers “who will make the content?”
- An agency answers “who will plan, make and measure it?”
None of them automatically answers “what is our social media meant to achieve, and for whom?” That question sits with the business. When nobody has answered it, a manager posts busily, a freelancer produces what was asked for, and an agency fills the gap with its own assumptions. The same logic shapes the choice between an agency, a hire and a fractional CMO for marketing as a whole.
When the problem sits upstream of the hire
An advocacy NGO founded by two specialists from a large international institution asked for a website and social media training so the team could run its own channels. The plan they wanted to execute was modelled on the institution they had left: steady content, an activist audience and the expectation that visibility would bring funding. With two people and a finite founding grant, the organisation needed a funding pipeline more than a following. The strategy was designed for an organisation they were not yet. Training the team, hiring a manager or appointing an agency would each have executed that plan faithfully.
A test before you hire for social media
Answer three questions before choosing.
- Can you state in two sentences who your social media is for and what you want those people to do?
- Who in the business will approve the content and judge whether it is working?
- And how much content, of what kind, does the plan need each week?
If all three answers are clear, the choice becomes practical. A freelancer suits a business with a clear plan and someone in-house to manage the work. A social media manager suits a business with enough daily activity to need a person on the inside, and the budget to support them with tools and design help. An agency suits a business that wants planning, production and reporting handled together, and a single team accountable for the result. Comparing prices only makes sense at this point, and what each option costs in Kenya varies as widely as what each one delivers.
If the first answer is unclear, every option will be working from a guess. That is the gap to close before anyone is hired.
When the right answer is a mix
Many growing businesses end up with a combination: an agency to set the plan and produce the core content, with someone inside the business handling daily replies and capturing behind-the-scenes material. The arrangement works when roles are written down and one side owns the plan. A team that will eventually run the channels itself can build that capability through structured training and playbooks while the programme runs.
If you want planning, content, community management and reporting handled by one team, shaped around the goals you agree with us, see how Qallann’s social media management works. Where your strategy is not yet in place, we scope it with you first.
