Social Media Marketing Agreement

What Exactly Is a Social Media Marketing Agreement?

A social media marketing agreement is a formal contract that outlines the terms and conditions between your business and a social media marketing professional with regard to the provision of social media marketing services. A social media marketing agreement is also known as a social media management agreement. This is so because a social marketer basically defines a roadmap on how your social media should work, as well as implements such a roadmap into real life.

A social media marketing template contains the following pillars:

• detailed scope of marketing services (what, when, where, and how should be published);
• proofreading, selection, and approval of marketing materials (who should be responsible for content to be published);
• payment terms;
• confidentiality and protection of privacy;
• termination of a contract and how parties plan to resolve disputes.

A social marketing agreement might be helpful for businesses that advertise or sell their goods and services online. On the other hand, if you are a social media influencer, you might need a social marketer to help you grow in the social media universe.

Even though social media management is partially a creative process, a written contract helps as follows:

• Prevents disagreements.

Having a written social media marketing agreement prevents disagreements that can occur on a daily basis. Social media management is a complex process. Thus, a verbal agreement or a casual email cannot define their scope well enough. A written contract template helps to define parties’ rights and responsibilities so that everyone knows what to do next.

Secure the business’s finances. A social media contract defines when and for what a business owner will be charged. It sets up clear KYE for a social marketer to achieve or implement. So if you have a bill to pay but the work is not done properly, you can ask for improvement. This is how you do not waste money for nothing.

• Protection of a brand.

A good social media marketing agreement helps you to define your brand strategy on various social platforms like Instagram or TikTok. How is your brand being presented to customers? What is your brand’s main message? A written contract also defines which things a social marketer should avoid doing with your brand.

• Ensures clarity between parties.

A written social media marketing contract sets up clear expectations for both parties. If something is not agreed on paper, it means that neither party can request any commitments in relation to it. For example, imagine a social marketer is given the task of making daily posts on Instagram. This is the only task a social marketer is requested to perform under a contract. In that case, a business owner cannot ask, for instance, to organize social media campaigns or collaborations.

• Legal protection.

Having a written agreement template is legal proof of relationships between the parties. This is especially vital if there is a dispute and either party wishes to bring it to a court. If either party violates a provision of a social media agreement, the other party will eventually get compensated for that.

Key Clauses for Your Social Media Marketing Agreement

A comprehensive social media marketing agreement, often developed from a social media management contract template, covers several critical areas.

Absence of either of those critical areas may lead to an incomplete document or a document that cannot be enforced further in a court.

Scope of Social Media Marketing Services

This is the heart and main pillar of every social media marketing agreement. The better the scope of services is defined, the less headache a business owner will have along the road. Social media marketing services could be of different kinds:

• ad campaigns and management of paid traffic;
• creation and/or management of social media accounts;
• management of organic traffic;
• content plan and content creation;
• community engagement, communication with subscribers, visitors, and viewers.
• organization of marketing collaborations and campaigns.

Depending on a business’s needs, a social media contract template may cover either one or several directions at the same time.

Another thing you have to consider is a list of social media platforms a social marketer should work with (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X or Twitter, and TikTok).

A good social media management contract should also define the type of content to be published. It may include reels, photos, videos, AI-generated content, GIFs, texts, etc.

If you plan to use paid ads for your marketing campaigns, it would be wise to set up limits a social marketer has to follow.

Content creation on social media is nothing without a specific posting schedule. Constant frequency of content creates stability in the eyes of your customers. The contract template should address the following:

• monthly or weekly schedules of posting frequency (e.g., exact days of a week and timing to post);
• content plan with a number of posts to be created/posted for each particular social media platform.

If you expect a social media manager to communicate with your subscribers or customers on social media, make sure you both agree on methods of such communication. In particular, a social marketer should understand things they may say and things they have to avoid. Besides that, the response time and the level of engagement should also be discussed in the text of a contract.

Payment Terms

Another important component every social media marketing agreement should have is payment terms. This is not only about the remuneration of a social marketer. It also defines the spending of a business owner.
A social media management agreement defines:

• Fee structure. How should a social marketer be paid—one-off fee, daily fee, hourly rate, or another arrangement?
• Payment schedule. How frequently a social marketer should be paid—every week, at the beginning of a campaign, or at its end?
• Invoicing. How invoices should be sent—via email, at the end of every month, or at the end of every week?
• Extra Expenses. Additional expenses may include using special software (e.g., a photo or video editor), a picture database (e.g., Depositphotos), etc. If a social marketer encounters additional expenses in the course of performance of services, how should those expenses be covered? Not covered at all, covered in full, or partially?
• Ad campaigns. Expenses for ad campaigns are not covered by social marketer normal fees. This is a separate budget parties should agree upon well in advance. A budget could be fixed for the whole campaign or divided into separate monthly allocations.
• Late Fees. If a business owner delays payment, should a social marketer be compensated for that?

Term and Termination

A social media marketing contract should specify the duration of cooperation between the parties. Most social media contracts last between several weeks and several months. It is a rare case when you can find a social media management agreement that lasts for several years.

Every social media agreement should clearly set:

• start date and end date (if a contract is concluded for a definite period of time);
• auto-renewal clause (it allows you to automatically prolong a contract for the same or shorter period of time);
• grounds for termination (it contains a list of situations when either party can exit a contract);
• notice period (it defines the notice period, within which one party should inform the other party about termination).

Intellectual Property Rights (IP)

If you have an online business, it means it widely relies on their social media accounts and content. This is basically the main tool that generates money, as well as your personal marketplace to sell or promote goods and services.

When entering a social media management contract, parties should agree on the following:

• Ownership of accounts. As a rule of thumb, the business always remains an owner of their social media accounts. However, what if a social marketer created a new account for your business in the course of their work? In any case, the ownership rights should be clearly articulated in the text of a document.
• Ownership of content. An owner of content is a person who created it. This is also known as a copyright. If a business ends a contract with a social marketer, a social marketer can request to delete all their content or ask for a royalty. To avoid such an unpleasant outcome, it is better to decide about the ownership rights from the outset.
• Usage of Brand Materials. Content creation work may require your social marketer to get access to your brand materials. Without such access, a work cannot be performed properly. A marketing agreement template should automatically end such a usage right once a contract reaches its end. This protects your business against unsolicited usage of your branding materials.

Confidentiality Clause

Once a social marketer gets access to your social platforms, they are being exposed to a variety of sensitive data, including:

• list of your followers, subscribers, or viewers;
• means of communication (e.g., messengers, comments);
• information about paid and organic traffic;
• information about coverage for certain posts, etc.

While some of this data may represent mere statistical metrics, other data might be valuable insights you wish to protect.

This is why we suggest including a confidentiality clause in a social media marketing agreement. A confidentiality clause restricts a social media marketer from disclosing all sensitive information they got access to in the course of their work. If an event of disclosure takes place, you can always bring a default party to a court.

Some businesses prefer to sign separate non-disclosure agreements with their social media managers. This helps to ensure the highest degree of protection of sensitive data.

Performance Metrics

When it comes to a social media campaign, setting up clear targets and KPIs is a must. KPI plays a dual role:

• First, it helps to evaluate how effective the social media campaign is and if it reaches its target results.
• Second, it helps to assess the performance of a social marketing professional.

For example, if at the beginning of a campaign your business Instagram account has had 20,000 followers, and in three months’ time it grew up to 100,000 followers, most probably the social media campaign is going well.

Communication Protocols

Parties have to maintain effective communication and reporting systems. It ensures that all tasks are communicated clearly and a social marketing professional receives timely feedback.

Force Majeure

Usually a good contract outlines unforeseen events that can impact a social media marketing campaign. General events of force majeure may include acts of God, pandemics, wars, social unrest, and others. Amongst force majeure events that may affect a specific social media marketing campaign are the following:

• sudden drop in organic traffic due to social media algorithm updates;
• health or personal issues on a social marketer’s side, which prevent him from completing a task on time;
• financial problems of a business;
• temporary block of social media account and other events.

While parties cannot predict all possible force majeure events, they can address the way they have to act once such an event takes place.

If a force majeure event takes place, it means that parties can put on hold performance of their obligations under the contract. This is essential to specify an exact period of time within which such events could exist. For instance, such a period can last from a few days to a few weeks. If a force majeure event does not disappear, it allows either party to end the contract without penalties.

Defining Responsibilities and Roles of the Parties

A social media contract outlines who is responsible for what. This is not only about assigning specific tasks; this is also about providing all resources and equipment for a task to be done. When drafting a social media management contract template, consider the following:

• which information social media managers may need and who is responsible to provide them with the same;
• Should the business approve content before publishing? If this is so, does it apply to all or specific content?
• Who should approve the selection of clients or partners for marketing collaborations or campaigns? If this is so, how should such an approval be communicated?

Dispute Resolution Clause

Instead of heading straight to court, which is expensive and time-consuming, the Social Media Marketing Agreement can specify other methods. This might include mediation, where a neutral third party helps you find a solution.

Parties to a social media management agreement can appoint one or several mediators to solve the dispute.

If, however, parties prefer to solve a problem in a courtroom, they can even select the laws of which particular state should apply to their contract. This is called a governing law.

Common Pitfalls when creating a Social Media Management Agreement

Creating a good social media marketing agreement, or any media contract, also means knowing what traps to sidestep. Some common mistakes can undermine even the most well-intentioned partnership. Being aware of these can save you a lot of trouble when engaging a social media marketing agency or individual manager.

• Vague or unclear contract terms.

This is reason No. 1 for disputes between the parties. If a certain wording is clear for one party, it does not necessarily mean it has the same clarity for the other party. For instance, a business owner asks for “regular updates” regarding the social media campaign. While a business owner may expect to receive daily updates, a social media manager may think about weekly updates instead. In that case, the wording ‘regular updates’ can cause problems as it is not clear enough for both parties. It would be better to replace it with “daily” or “weekly” updates.

• Unrealistic expectations.

While every social media marketing agreement should have certain KPIs, the goals should be realistic. The goals a business owner sets should consider the existing situation and metrics of a business.

• Unclear approval processes.

Who needs to approve content before it goes live on the client’s social media channels? How much time do they have for approvals for these media posts? All that should be considered well in advance to make sure the cooperation process is smooth and does not have hidden pitfalls.

• Adapt to changes.

Social media is a constantly changing environment, with emerging trends and lots of opportunities. Make sure your social media marketing campaign reflects those changes.

Getting Your Social Media Marketing Agreement Ready

Once the draft of the Social Media Marketing Agreement is on the table, the next question is, “What should I do next?” Here is a short list of considerations you have to keep in mind to make your document template fully valid:

• Working with a Professional

Before signing any contract, make sure you know well a social media marketing agency you plan to work with. Check their professional background, ask about successful cases, and do your own research. It will give you more sense of how it looks to work with them and what their business ethique, for example.

• Avoid Free Templates

The internet is full of free generic social media management contract templates available online. While these contract templates can be a starting point, it is better to avoid them, and here is why:

• may contain mistakes or typos;
• may not be tailored for your specific goals and needs;
• may not reflect recent legislative trends and changes.

Every business is different. Every marketing campaign has its own nuances, and a standard media management contract template may not be enough.

• Legal Advice

While it is not mandatory, having legal advice from your attorney can be a good decision before signing a document.

• Sign Document

For a document to become legally valid, both parties have to sign it. It does not matter if you will sign it by hand or by using an e-signature. A social media marketing agreement should not be notarized or further registered.