How Do I Know What to Charge for Social Posts?

Once you are an established blogger or social influencer, it is very important to create a media kit (I’ll talk about how in a future post) so that potential clients know a little more about you, your stats and how much you charge. But what if you aren’t sure how much to charge? Would you be surprised to know that many bloggers and social influencers are not charging enough and some are not charging at all? I’ve polled a number of established bloggers and social influencers and found that they are charging well below industry rates or just accepting product for trade. Why?

a) They are just happy to be making money (or working with a particular brand), and are happy to accept any offers that come their way, even if the pay is not worth the time they are putting into the campaign.

b) They have no idea how to calculate their rates.

When I started out, there was a free tool that connected to my social accounts and calculated what I should be charging. But as the months went on and more and more people started using it, they began charging a monthly fee. And while I understand that businesses need money to survive, I know that most bloggers and social influencers don’t have the funds to pay a monthly fee when they first get started, especially for a tool they may only use once every few months.

Luckily, I had my base rates calculated and understood that as my traffic and engagement increased, I could also increase my rates. But I had a starting off point, unlike those that started after me and after that particular company started charging.

Luckily, I was contacted by a company that started their own free tool that can calculate exactly what you should be charging for Instagram posts, Instagram stories and Facebook, based on your engagement and impressions. I do believe that eventually, they will start charging as well, but from what I understand, the charge will be minimal and affordable to everyone. This incredible tool is called curro.

How Do You Calculate Your Rate with curro?

Once you log into curro, connect it to your Facebook. You will need to have a business page on FB, that is connected to your Instagram page, in order for this to work. Once connected, give it a moment to analyze your most recent posts.

Once it’s completed, change the number “0” to a “1” and it will automatically give you an estimated rate for Instagram posts, Instagram Stories and Facebook posts. You will see + social network at the bottom, which will eventually allow you to add Pinterest, YouTube and your blog, but currently it appears that they don’t have the capability to calculate your rates for those channels just yet. From what I was told, they will soon!

So, let’s focus on Instagram and Facebook. It’s important to note that the rate that comes up, is only for exposure on those channels. This does not include your time to create content or the time it takes you for photography. When I first started out, I was told to add $200 to your rate for photos and content, but this depends on whether or not you use a professional camera, how long your photo shoots last and how much time you spend editing and writing. I tend to spend at least 2 hours on photos and content, so $200 seemed like a valid amount for time spent. You should adjust that number to fit your needs.

If you scroll down a bit, you will find the “collaboration costs” section.

This is where you can enter in your hourly rate for photography and content. Below that, you’ll find additional charges, if you need to hire a photographer, makeup artist, etc. However, I should mention that I personally don’t believe that those costs should be tacked onto your rate. If you are unable to take the photos yourself or choose to hire a makeup artist, unless the client requested it, it should not be their responsibility and should be part of your own business expenses.

Just below that, you’ll find additional costs. This would be any travel expenses you incur, admission fees or product costs directly related to the campaign. Again, this would be something that the client would specifically request, not something that you just want to do. If you are working with a French baking company and choose to fly to Paris for the photoshoot, those expenses are all on you (wink, wink).

Best Parts about curro

While I love so many things about curro, like how user-friendly it is and how they have really taken the time to understand what bloggers and social influencers need in a tool like this, the best part about it is the mini, customized media kit you can create for each client. This is especially great if you don’t already have a media kit of your own or have a media kit that does not include your rates.

Once you input what the client needs and add in your collaboration costs, click “next” which is just under “your rate” on the right hand side of the main page. Fill in any details you have about the campaign, your contact info, any incentives you might offer (maybe a discount for pre-paying) and click “save”. It will then bring you to your budget page. Click on the campaign you just created, scroll down, and click on “download campaign”.

curro has created a pdf proposal for you to send to your client which not only provides your rates, but also includes your expected performance (expected engagement, expected impressions, engagement rate, CPE and CPM), your hourly rate and demographics for your accounts (at the bottom of the page). This is a very professional way to send your rates to a potential client and gives them all of the information they need to decide whether or not they want to work with you.

I highly recommend taking advantage of curro while it’s still a free service. Once you sign up and play around with it, I’d love for you to come back and let me know if you have been charging enough. I think you will be surprised that you probably aren’t and could be making so much more!  Good luck!

*This post contains an affiliate link, which means I may be compensated for any sign ups to this tool. All opinions are my own.