Direct Answer
If your revenue is under $500K and you don't have a dedicated marketing budget, do it yourself with an AI-powered tool. Hire a human when you need community management, DM-based sales, or influencer outreach that AI cannot handle yet.
Why This Matters
The real question is which tasks you're trying to offload. Content creation and scheduling are fully automatable now. Community management (responding to DMs, handling complaints, building relationships in comments) still requires a human. Most small business owners conflate these two jobs into one hire, paying $400-$800 per month for someone who spends 70% of their time on tasks a $99 tool handles better. The remaining 30% (engagement, customer service, strategic conversations) is where human judgment matters. Separating these roles saves money and improves results.
Real-World Example
A solo real estate agent was debating between a $500 per month freelancer and doing it herself. She chose a done-for-you AI tool for $99 per month that generated listing-adjacent content (home staging tips, neighborhood guides, market updates) and scheduled it across Instagram and Facebook. She spent the $400 she saved on a part-time virtual assistant for 5 hours per month to handle DM responses and comment engagement. Better content, better engagement, lower total cost.
What Most People Get Wrong
"Doing it myself" doesn't mean writing every post manually. It means choosing tools that eliminate the creative bottleneck. The business owners who burn out on social media are the ones treating "DIY" as "open a blank document and stare at it." That's not DIY. That's unnecessary suffering.
Related reading:
- How Much Does a Social Media Manager Cost?
- Can AI Replace a Social Media Manager?
- Best Social Media Automation Tools for Small Business
- How to Save Time on Social Media Marketing