Your social media manager or agency is doing a good job if your posts could only be about your business, your reach is moving month over month, and they can tell you which posts led to messages or customers. The clearest sign of a bad fit is a feed a shop across town could publish unchanged.
How do I measure my social media manager?
- Cover your logo. Read your last ten posts with your name hidden. If most could be any business in any city, they do not know what makes yours different.
- Compare reach month over month. Reach is the number of unique accounts that saw a post (Meta's metric definitions, read October 2026). Pull this month and the three before. Sliding reach under steady posting needs an answer.
- Find the outlier. Find the median views of your last 20 posts. A post with roughly five times that is an outlier. None in 90 days means nothing is breaking through.
- Read your comments and DMs. Count the questions about hours or prices from the last two weeks that waited days for a reply. A good standard for whoever answers them at your business: comments within the hour, DMs the same day.
Launch Social, a social media marketing agency in San Diego, looks at your account and your competitors before every free strategy call. These are the checks worth running yourself first, and the Monday Morning case study shows what the numbers looked like at day 90 for one San Diego shop.
Seven signs it is time to switch
| Sign | What to ask them |
|---|---|
| Your posts could be anyone's | "What makes us different, and which posts showed it?" |
| You still decide what to post, or film it yourself | "What part of the work do you do each month?" |
| Nobody can say why a post worked | "What did our last outlier have that the others did not?" |
| Reports show likes, not customers | "Which posts led to messages or walk-ins?" |
| Reach is flat month over month | "What changes next month, and why?" |
| Comments and DMs sit unanswered | "Who replies, and how fast?" |
| You do not hold the logins or the footage | "If we stopped tomorrow, what would I keep?" |
Paying an agency and getting nothing?
Run this check this week, before the next invoice.
- Ask for last month's deliverables list and lay it next to the contract.
- Count the posts actually published in the last 30 days. Your feed is the record.
- Ask who filmed and on which day. Filming at your business leaves a date and footage behind.
- Ask for the report: reach, saves, follows, and which posts led to a message or a customer. How to measure Instagram results explains each number.
A cheap retainer is often scheduling and copywriting sold as content. Three signs: nobody has filmed at your business, the posts would fit any business with the logo swapped, and the report has no numbers you can check against your own insights.
If the check comes up short, put the ask in writing: what you pay for, what arrived, what you expect next month. Give them one month with specific deliverables, a post count and a filming date rather than "more engagement". If that falls short too, switch, using the steps below.
How long should I give them before deciding?
Ninety days, with a look at day 30 and day 60; how long organic social media takes says what should change at each. By day 90 your manager should name your top five posts and the conversations traced to them.
How do I switch without losing my account?
In this order, before you give notice.
- Check who holds the logins. The Instagram account, its email and phone number, and any Meta business tools belong under an email the business controls. Move them first if they are not.
- Ask for your raw footage in writing, with a delivery date: every clip, photo and project file from the past year. If the contract is silent, ask anyway while they still want to keep you.
- Export recent reports and insights screenshots so the next person has a starting line.
- On the day you end it, change every password, turn on two-factor authentication, and remove their access to any scheduling tool or ad account.
- Leave the old posts up. You paid for them.
Then hire with better questions, or weigh agency vs freelancer vs in-house.
If most of the seven signs are missing and customers mention Instagram, ask for a written 30-day plan instead of firing them. Before a free strategy call we look at your account and competitors, so Danny can say which signs show up in your feed.
Questions people ask
When should I fire my social media manager?
Fire a social media manager when the posts are still generic at day 30, or when reach and customer conversations have not moved by day 90 and they cannot explain why. Secure the logins and the raw footage before you tell them.
Is my social media agency a scam?
A social media agency that charges you and shows little for it is usually not a scam but a thin service: a cheap retainer that buys scheduling and stock-style posts. To tell, count last month's published posts against the contract, ask who filmed and when, and ask for the report. Before paying again, read the contract for the monthly deliverables in numbers, who owns the footage and the account, the notice period, and whether the price is the whole bill.
Is follower count a good way to judge a social media manager?
Follower count is one number, and a slow one. Reach month over month, saves, shares and messages say more.
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Want this done for you? Book a free 15-minute call with Danny. We look at your account and the businesses you compete with, and you leave with a written plan for your next 90 days, whether you hire us or not.