Social Media Agency or Influencer Agency? What Each Does and When You Need Which

Written by Jacob Boe with the help of AI

Cover: Social Media Agency vs Influencer Agency

A social media agency runs the brand’s own presence on social media – strategy, content calendar, community management and often paid ads from the brand’s accounts. An influencer agency builds campaigns with other people’s voices: it finds creators and well-known personalities, negotiates fees and rights, produces the content and spreads it through the creators’ channels and paid media. Many brands heading into 2027 need both, but for different jobs.

We have written separately about how to choose an influencer agency and about the difference between talent agencies and influencer agencies. This article answers a different question: should you hire help with your own channels, with creators – or both?

What does a social media agency do?

A social media agency works with the channels the brand owns. Typical services are:

Strategy for which platforms to be on, with what tone and how often.
Content production for the brand’s own accounts: posts, Reels, Stories and short videos.
Community management: answering comments and messages and moderating.
Paid social: running ad campaigns from the brand’s accounts in tools such as Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager.
Analysis and reporting of reach, engagement and conversions.

The strength is continuity. The brand gets a steady presence, a consistent voice and someone who knows the accounts day to day.

What does an influencer agency do?

An influencer agency works with channels and faces the brand does not own. It matches the brand with creators or celebrities whose audience and values fit, writes the brief, negotiates fees, exclusivity and usage rights, produces or coordinates the content, makes sure it is labelled correctly and measures the result. A full-service agency also plans whitelisting: running the creator’s content as ads, for example as partnership ads, which according to Meta let brands run ads from a creator’s or partner’s handle.

The strength is trust and reach outside the brand’s own followers. A familiar face says something the brand cannot say about itself – and reaches people who would never follow the brand’s account.

What is the main difference?

In short: a social media agency makes the brand’s own voice heard, while an influencer agency borrows the voice and trust of others. That leads to different skills. A social media agency needs to be good at publishing rhythm, platform formats and community. An influencer agency needs relationships with talents, negotiation skills, contract and rights knowledge, and an understanding of what makes a creator’s audience act.

The line between them is blurring. Social media agencies run creator content as ads, and influencer agencies plan paid media. That is why the question should be about what the main job is rather than what the agency calls itself.

When do you need help with social media at all?

Many brands can handle a lot themselves. Outside help is usually worth it when:

The channels are important for sales, but nobody internally has time to publish regularly and answer the audience.
You want to enter a new platform – for example TikTok or Snapchat to reach young Swedes – without the in-house knowledge.
Organic reach is not enough, and you need paid distribution that is planned and measured.
You want to work with well-known personalities, where contracts, rights and labelling require experience.

Audience is a good guide. According to Internetstiftelsen’s Svenskarna och internet 2025, 49 percent of Swedish internet users use Facebook daily and 47 percent use Instagram daily, while Snapchat is used daily by 62 percent of those born in the 2000s and TikTok by 42 percent of them. The more platforms your audience is spread across, the more you gain from specialist help.

When should you choose an influencer agency?

Choose an influencer agency when the goal is to reach new people through someone they already trust – a launch, a campaign around a season or tradition, a long-term ambassadorship or a celebrity collaboration. It is also the right choice when the content will be used as advertising, since rights, periods and platforms must be agreed with the creator. Under the Swedish law on names and images in advertising (1978:800), a person’s name or image may not be used in marketing without their consent.

Labelling is the other reason. Konsumentverket says that the company that hires an influencer has the main responsibility for the marketing the influencer publishes for it, and cannot contract that responsibility away. An experienced agency builds labelling into the brief, the contract and the review of every post.

How do you combine a social media agency and an influencer agency?

The best results come when the two work from the same plan. Organic posts from big names can travel far on their own, while paid distribution takes the best content further and deeper into the target group. A combined setup might look like this:

The influencer agency runs the campaign idea, the talents, the contracts and the production.
The brand’s own channels – run in-house or by the social media agency – reuse the content and answer the audience.
Paid media is planned jointly, so that the best creator content runs as partnership ads or Spark Ads with a budget behind it.
Reporting is shared, so that both know which content and which faces drove results.

Decide early who owns the media budget and the ad accounts, and make sure the rights in the creator contract cover the way the content will actually be used.

How does Collabri work?

Collabri is an influencer and talent agency in Stockholm, founded in 2023, working in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. We handle the whole chain: strategy, talents, contracts and rights, production, whitelisting and paid distribution, and reporting – and we are happy to work alongside a brand’s own team or social media agency. For Coca-Cola Loves Tacos, three celebrity duos – including Pernilla Wahlgren and Sofia Wistam, and Carolina Gynning and Carina Berg – created a 360° activation with more than 4.5 million views and 6,300 interactions. For Fazer Domino, creators on TikTok and Instagram were combined with a paid strategy from the start.

Key takeaways

A social media agency runs the brand’s own channels; an influencer agency builds campaigns with creators and well-known personalities.
Choose by main job: steady presence and community, or reach and trust through others.
Influencer collaborations require contracts, consent for name and image, and clear labelling – the brand has the main responsibility.
Many brands benefit from both, with a shared plan for content, paid media and reporting.
Paid distribution takes the best creator content further than organic posts alone.

Frequently asked questions

Can a social media agency handle influencer marketing?

Some can, especially with smaller creators. For celebrity collaborations, rights negotiations and larger campaigns, an influencer or talent agency usually has the relationships and experience required.

Do we need an agency to get help with social media?

Not always. A freelancer or in-house resource can handle regular publishing. An agency is worth it when you need several skills at once – strategy, production, paid media and creators.

Who should own the ad accounts?

The brand should normally own its ad accounts and give agencies access. With partnership ads, the creator also grants permission to run ads from their account.

Want help combining creators, your own channels and paid media? Contact Collabri at info@collabri.se. You can also browse our talents and client projects.

Sources

Internetstiftelsen – Svenskarna och internet 2025: Sociala medier (2025): https://svenskarnaochinternet.se/rapporter/svenskarna-och-internet-2025/sociala-medier/
Meta for Developers – Partnership Ads: https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/ads-commerce/marketing-api/ad-creative/partnership-ads
TikTok for Business – Spark Ads (Help Center): https://ads.tiktok.com/help/article/spark-ads
Konsumentverket – Influencers reklaminlägg – regler för företag: https://www.konsumentverket.se/marknadsratt-foretag/influencers-reklaminlagg-regler-for-foretag/
Sveriges riksdag – Lag (1978:800) om namn och bild i reklam: https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/lag-1978800-om-namn-och-bild-i-reklam_sfs-1978-800/
ICC Sverige – ICC:s regler för reklam och marknadskommunikation (2024): https://iccwbo.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/11/ICC_2024_MarketingCode_Swedish.pdf

This article was written with the help of AI and reviewed by Collabri.