Stop Guessing Your Social Media Setup
How you set up social media now matters more than any single trick, trend, or viral sound. Ad costs keep rising, algorithms flip with no warning, AI fills feeds with bland posts, and people scroll past anything that looks even slightly average. Structure is not a boring back office topic; it is the engine that decides if your content cuts through or gets ignored.
Most brands guess their setup. They copy what a competitor seems to be doing. They stick with whatever model the last CMO liked. They bolt social onto someone’s job and hope for the best. That guesswork is how you end up with bloated teams, dead retainers with legacy agencies, or one burned-out marketer trying to do five roles.
By the end of this guide, you will have a clear way to pick between outsourced, in-house, and hybrid social media management, with simple role breakdowns and a maturity roadmap you can actually act on in the next quarter. We are a London-based challenger agency, so we come at this from an anti-establishment angle: fast, outcome-focused, and not interested in tying brands into long contracts.
Why Most Social Media Setups Fail Before They Start
A lot of social fails are baked in at the structure stage. Before the first post is live, the model is already holding you back.
Legacy agency problems often look like this:
Long contracts that you cannot easily change
Big fluffy decks about "brand building" but no clear link to leads or sales
Slow turnaround, with content stuck in review hell
Senior people on the pitch, then juniors in the day-to-day
Reporting built on vanity impressions, not useful KPIs
On the flip side, in-house can be just as messy. Many brands hire a "social media unicorn" and expect them to be strategist, designer, copywriter, community manager, and analyst, all in one. Then there is no budget for proper tools, no cover when they are off sick or on holiday, and social gets pushed under "whoever has time" in the wider team.
The real gap is simple. Most businesses do not match their social media structure to their growth stage, budget, or content needs. They pick outsourced, in-house, or hybrid because of habit, politics, or fear. What you need instead is a calm set of lenses to look through.
A Simple Decision Framework for Your Social Stack
There are three core models, in plain language:
Outsourced social media management: a specialist external team handles strategy, content and scheduling for you
In-house: your own employees run everything from planning to posting
Hybrid: some roles live inside your team, others sit with an external partner
To choose between them, look at three levers.
1) Budget and cost predictability
What can you spend each month without giving your CFO a headache? You want a setup that feels steady, not like a rolling surprise.
2) Speed and volume
How much content do you need, and how fast? If you want daily posts across multiple platforms, with quick reactions to trends, your setup must support that pace.
3) Control and risk
What needs to stay close to the business? For example: sensitive topics, regulated products, or complex customer issues. What can be safely delegated?
Give each lever a quick score from low to high. For the next 12 months, not forever:
Low budget, high speed needs, medium control: outsourced or lean hybrid
Growing budget, high control, medium speed: in-house plus some targeted external support
Higher budget, high speed, high control: structured hybrid, with clear role splits
The key is to revisit this each year as your brand matures, rather than treating the first decision as permanent.
Role Breakdowns, Costs and the Hybrid Sweet Spot
Let us break down the core roles that sit under social media, no fluff:
Strategist: sets direction, themes, channel picks and goals
Content creator: video, design, templates, edits
Copywriter: hooks, captions, scripts and calls to action
Community manager: comments, DMs, basic support and brand tone in replies
Analyst: reporting, testing, learning and refining what works
In tiny teams, you can combine roles, but you pay for it in slower testing, weaker ideas and burnout. The classic "one person does everything" role is usually stretched thin and spends more time firefighting than building a real social engine.
With in-house, remember you are not just paying salaries. You also have:
Employer costs like NI and pension
Hardware, software and tool subscriptions
Training, coaching and events to keep skills sharp
Time from other departments pulled into reviews and approvals
Outsourced social media management works differently. Instead of one generalist, you get access to a pool of specialists who already work together, with clear deliverables and a fixed monthly subscription. Challenger setups break from the old retainer model, so you get speed, testing and outcomes, rather than endless pitch theatre.
Hybrid sits in the middle. A common pattern for scale-ups is:
Internal: a marketing lead who owns strategy sign-off and knows the brand inside out
External: a partner running day-to-day content, design, copy and scheduling
You keep control and context close, but avoid building a big, slow internal team before you are ready.
Match Your Model to Your Social Maturity Stage
Think about where your brand really is, not where the board deck says it is.
1) Early Brand
You are still testing your offer and message. Here, either the founder or a senior marketer holds the voice, but outsourced support handles production so you actually ship content.
2) Growing Brand
Revenue is steady, and social needs to be consistent. Hybrid works well: you own direction in-house, a specialist team handles execution and reporting.
3) Scale-Up
You are active in multiple markets or channels. Hybrid is still smart, but you might add some in-house roles, like a strategist or community lead, and lean on external partners for volume and creative variation.
4) Established Brand
There are more stakeholders, more risk and often compliance needs. A well-run hybrid keeps you agile and focused on results without slipping into bloated in-house teams or slow old-school retainers.
Seasonal timing matters too. The first quarter of the year is usually a calmer spell, with people back from winter breaks and planning for spring campaigns. It is a good window to test a new model before big launches and busy summer periods hit.
Building a Hybrid Setup That Actually Works
When hybrid is done badly, it feels like confusion. When it is done well, it feels like breathing room.
First, be clear on ownership. Inside your team, one person must be the decision maker. Often it is a Head of Marketing or founder. They should own:
Brand direction and what you stand for
Final say on sensitive topics or product claims
Overall goals and non negotiables
Your external partner should own execution. Let them plan content calendars, write captions, design visuals and schedule posts, within clear guardrails.
Keep the operating rhythm simple:
Weekly: content sign off, fast and light
Monthly: performance review against agreed KPIs
Quarterly: reset strategy based on what you learned
Guardrails should protect the brand without killing speed. Think tone of voice notes, no go topics, escalation paths for PR issues, and basic response times for DMs. Enough structure so people feel safe, not so much that every post becomes a committee project.
Make Your Next 90 Days a Test, Not a Gamble
Instead of locking into a year-long deal or rushing to hire a full social team, treat the next 90 days like an experiment. Pick one clear goal, such as more qualified leads from social or deeper engagement on one key channel.
Then:
Be honest about your maturity stage
Choose a provisional model, outsourced, in-house, or hybrid
Decide which roles you need covered
Set a steady monthly budget
Agree the metrics that will prove the setup is working
Use those 90 days to test structure, not just creative ideas. Drop legacy habits that no longer serve you, like massive pitch decks, vague "awareness" KPIs or expecting one in-house hire to do the work of a whole team.
From our base in London, we built Kraken as a direct challenge to old-school social media agencies, with a subscription approach to fully managed social. If you want to treat the next quarter as a clean, low-risk experiment rather than another gamble, that is exactly the kind of problem we like to solve.
Unlock Consistent, High-Performing Social Content With Expert Support
If you are ready to stop guessing at what works and start using a clear strategy, our team at Kraken can help. With our outsourced social media management, you gain a dedicated partner focused on growing your brand, audience and results. We handle the planning, content creation and optimisation so you can focus on running your business. Get in touch today to explore how we can tailor a solution to your goals.
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