Social Media Content Cost for Long Island Businesses

For a Long Island business, what social media content costs depends on who makes it: an in-house hire, a freelancer, a management program, or a production studio. A production studio's monthly tiers run $1,500, $2,750, and $4,000 per month. The comparison points below are national figures, not Long Island prices, so treat them as a range to sanity-check any quote you get.

What are the ways to get social media content made?

There are four common routes. You can hire someone in-house, hire a freelancer, pay for a management program, or work with a production studio on a monthly plan. They are not the same product, and the price gaps mostly reflect what you are actually buying: a person's time, a service that runs your accounts, or finished video and photo content.

Keep one distinction in mind through the rest of this post. Making content (planning, filming, editing, captioning) is one job. Posting it and running the account is another. Some options bundle both, and some do only the first.

What does an in-house hire cost?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes national median wages, which is the cleanest public benchmark for a salaried hire. These are national numbers, not Long Island numbers, so read them as a benchmark rather than a quote.

• Public relations specialists: the median annual wage was $74,750 in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $44,110, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $135,150.
• Film and video editors: the median annual wage was $75,420 in May 2025.
• Camera operators, television, video, and film: the median annual wage was $74,990 in May 2025.

One person rarely covers all of it. Someone who edits well may not shoot well, and someone who handles the account may not produce video. A business that wants planning, filming, and editing in house is often looking at more than one of these roles, plus equipment. Sprout Social's cost guide lists a social media specialist salary at $4,700 per month, which is a useful reference if your hire is mostly about running the accounts rather than making footage.

What do freelancers charge?

Freelance pricing varies the most. Sprout Social's guide puts a social media manager's freelance rate at $20 to 150 per hour, based on experience. That is a wide band, and it describes account work, not necessarily video production.

For the production side, Thumbtack publishes national averages. These are averages across the country, not Long Island rates:

• Event videography: $500-$760 national average.
• Video editors: a Thumbtack city page (Davis, CA) gives an average total cost of $85-$600.

Those numbers are fine for a one-off. The catch with freelancers is stitching it together. One person shoots, another edits, and nobody owns the monthly plan, so consistency is on you.

What do social media management programs cost?

Sprout Social says a basic social media management program can cost anywhere between $500 to $5,000 per month, and a comprehensive program is roughly $5,000 per month. A management program is a service where someone runs your accounts for you.

Core Media Co. is a production studio. The business posts its own content and runs its own accounts, and Core Media Co. does not post, boost posts, or run ads. The Sprout figures are here only as a comparison point, so you can see that the money in a management program is paying for account operation, not for the filming.

How much does a production studio's monthly plan cost?

Core Media Co. is a photography and video production studio in Saint James, and its business monthly content comes in three tiers with a six-month minimum, then month to month. Full details are on the pricing page.

Every tier includes shooting, editing, captions, platform cuts, and a shared delivery folder. You own the finished work, with no usage restrictions. A content day is usually half a day, at your business or at the studio in Saint James, and the month's pieces are batched in that one visit. The content plan takes one week before the first shoot, so you see a month-one calendar first.

How do the options compare side by side?

The figures are not apples to apples, and that is the point. A salary buys availability. A freelancer buys a task. A management program buys account operation. A production studio's monthly plan buys a batch of finished content on a schedule.

Which option fits which business?

• If you need someone answering comments and running the accounts every day, a hire or a management program fits, and the price reflects that.
• If you need a single event or a one-time edit, a freelancer is usually the cheaper path.
• If you already have someone posting but nobody making good video, a monthly production plan fills that gap. Your team posts; the studio hands over edited, captioned, platform-ready files.

A production plan is about a steady supply of finished footage, not about who posts it. For what that looks like on Instagram specifically, see business Instagram content on Long Island, and for the partnership model see the For Business page.

What should you ask before you pay anyone?

1. Does the price include filming, or only account management?
2. Who posts the content, and who owns the files afterward?
3. How many finished pieces arrive each month, and how fast?
4. What is the minimum term?
5. Is the quote for your area, or a national average?

Our own answers: the studio films and edits, you post, you own the work, and the minimum is six months. If you want a plan priced for your situation, get in touch and describe what you need.