Hiring, contracting and leaving a social media vendor
Choosing between a freelancer, an in-house editor and an agency, what the contract has to say, and how to leave with your accounts and files.
Short answer
Choose the vendor from your video volume and from who is accountable when nothing posts on Thursday, not from the monthly price. Then get four things in writing before the first post: output itemised in published pieces rather than files, ownership of the accounts, footage, finished files and project files, delegated access you can revoke in one click, and the notice period. Most of these relationships end badly because none of that existed, so there was nothing to point at. Agreed at the start, leaving becomes a handover instead of an argument.
Editing is now the cheapest thing in this transaction and it is still what most quotes are built around. Instagram's own First Draft feature assembles a rough cut from the clips you select in seconds, which removes the labour a cheap editing service bills for and none of the decisions that make an account work. So compare two vendors on who owns the gap between the export and the post: hook, cover frame, caption, schedule, and the call to re-cut when retention drops. VALORAE Media publishes its tiers as levels of accountability for exactly that reason. If a proposal will not put the output count, the ownership terms and the exit in writing, then the number on it is not really the thing you are being quoted.