Social media may seem inevitable even to casual users. On average, users spend nearly 2.5 hours on social media every day, which adds up to more than a full month of the year. No wonder so many of us experience social media burnout.
For social media professionals, this can be even more overwhelming. How do you take a break from social media if that’s your job?
There’s a reason why social media managers are prone to burnout. Social is a responsible role that is hard to give up at the end of the day. “Take your work home with you”has a more literal meaning when your work is always hidden behind the icons on your phone.
Dealing with social burnout is not easy. But it is necessary, especially when more and more employees are tired, stressed and overwhelmed. In November 2021, a record number of workers quit their jobs. This means that taking care of mental health is not only in the interests of employees, but also of the company.
What is social media burnout?
Burnout is defined as “a feeling of being drained of energy or exhausted due to constant stress “. In 2019, the World Health Organization recognized burnout as an occupational phenomenon.
There are three main indicators of burnout: exhaustion, cynicism and loss of professional performance. If you’re tired, distant, and unable to find pride or pleasure in your work, you’re at risk of burnout. One recent study found that 89% of employees surveyed had experienced burnout in the last year.
Social media burnout is a related phenomenon recognized by researchers in 2018. People experiencing social media burnout may feel:
- Exhausted or tired
- alarming
- Emotionally distant
- Constantly distracted or unable to concentrate
- Unable to find meaning or value in their work
It is also linked to social media addiction: the more you use social media, the more likely you are to experience burnout. And using social media during burnout can increase negative feelings and stress. It’s especially hard when you feel like you can’t disconnect, like the 73% of social media managers who think they need to be “always connected.”
people who work in social networks! Do you feel like you need to be very online to be good at your job?
dm or answer! this is for a future newsletter!
β Rachel Karten (@milkkarten) September 23, 2022
For social marketers, social media burnout is a result of workplace conditions. That’s why the WHO defines it as a “professional phenomenon”.
And this is exacerbated by systemic and social inequality. A 2022 Deloitte study on Women at Work found that LGBTQ+ women and women of color report higher levels of burnout and stress.
This means that decisions must take into account individual behavior as well as the broader culture of the workplace.
12 Ways to Avoid Social Media Burnout
1. Set boundaries
The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge changes in the way we work. For many, this has blurred the lines between personal and professional lives. When your home is your office, do you ever leave?
If you’ve ever caught yourself opening your phone to “quick check one thing”and then resurfacing 30 minutes later, you know how easy it is to get confused.
hi, do you doomscroll and find out about another twitter protagonist? there is a good chance you will do it again tomorrow. How about showering, moisturizing and getting a quick nap? This will make you feel better and relax.
β Karen K. Ho (@karenkho) August 1, 2022
Your device can help with this. If you are an iPhone user, you can set Screen Time Rules. This will allow you to schedule downtime away from the apps that suck you up.
Opting out of receiving social media notifications after business hours can help you avoid this constant tension. Even better, your work email and accounts are removed from your personal devices.
If you are a manager or leader, you should also set an example for your team. The best way to show them that it’s okay to go offline is to do it yourself.
At Hootsuite, our work-life balance policy ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding communication after hours.
2. Test yourself
If you pride yourself on being a good team member and highly effective, you’re probably used to pushing yourself. But this can lead to ignoring the warning signs of burnout until you start working from scratch.
@drjuliesmith π What are your early warning signs of burnout? #burnout #stress #anxiety #therapy
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- Do you feel physically or emotionally exhausted?
- Is it difficult to cope with the load?
- Is your work-life balance suffering?
- Do you feel isolated, unsupported, or unappreciated?
- Do you feel dissatisfied even with your successes?
- Have you lost a sense of purpose or value in your work?
Learn more about the signs of burnout (and tips for preventing it) from a neuroscientist.
If you’ve encountered one or more of the warning signs of social media burnout, don’t wait for the situation to get worse.
Plan a mental health day, talk to your manager about your workload, or use the other tips below.
3. Get support at work
Social media manager positions have particularly high turnover, in part because so much work is expected of employees. It’s not unusual for one role to require graphic design, copywriting, video editing, advertising strategy, customer support, and more.
In small teams, it can feel like the entire social media strategy is on your shoulders. It’s not sustainable even at the best of times.
Sally Poggi, director of social media at UC Davis, shared some helpful mental health tips for social media managers. One of them was to ask for help before it was needed. βTalk to your managers,β she told us. “Make a plan so you can go on vacation and someone can cover for you.”
And here are tips #4 and #5 from @SallieB: Get in the habit of asking for help. – Create and return support to your community.
Social media marketing tips on how to prevent burnout can be found here π https://t.co/KSaXUIwZpy #MentalHealthMatters pic.twitter.com/y4sx5l2oij
β Hootsuite π¦ (@hootsuite) May 10, 2021
One of the best things you can do to prevent social media burnout is to develop a social media crisis management plan.
Online backlash is almost inevitable these days. Every company posted a bad customer review or a pre-planned tweet that should have been deleted.
possibly permanently deleted tweet pic.twitter.com/EWbUZxc4Lj
β Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 8, 2022
When a crisis strikes, having a plan will keep you from panicking. Your strategy should also include responsibilities so that an individual or small team does not have to deal with the consequences alone.
While you’re at it, make sure you have a detailed employee social media policy in place – the best defense against a social media disaster!
To learn more about how to protect your mental health during a crisis, visit our webinar on fighting mental fatigue.
5. Set aside time for self-care
Burnout cannot be fixed by balancing bad work habits with good personal ones. If your workplace causes you constant stress, yoga classes will not fix it. But incorporating self-care into your daily routine can help you get through tough times.
unfortunately they were right. 3 meals a day, exercise, no alcohol and 8 hours of sleep make you feel good.
β β° Samantha β° (@milkygoddess) September 15, 2022
Making time for this can also prevent you from working around the clock. Here are a few things to try:
- If you’re used to working during breaks, put them on your calendar and set an alarm.
- Eat foods that make you feel better and drink plenty of water.
- Schedule reminders to stretch and break between screens.
- Enjoy the benefits of health and wellness! Don’t wait until December to book this massage.
- Sign up for a class. It can be anything from spinning to ceramics if you like it! Regular activity will motivate you to make time for it. (This is especially true if your studio charges you when you miss classes… ask me how I know.)
6. Do nothing (really!)
In this age of biohacking and productivity hacks, many of us feel like every moment counts. But often we treat our leisure as work and get too stressed out doing ambitious crafts or cooking gourmet meals.
Celeste Headley, author of Doing Nothing: How to Get Rid of Overwork, Overwork, and Underexposure, believes in the power of true downtime. When managing social media burnout, downtime means distance between you and your phone.
“Your brain treats your phone as work,”Headley told NPR. Try to leave it at home when you go for a walk around the block. Or, as Headley does, schedule one “untouchable”day every week when you don’t check social media or email at all.
7. Resist the Hustle Culture
On average, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, people have been working two more hours a day. And a 2020 study found that 73% of millennials worked more than 40 hours per week.
It doesn’t just lead to burnout. Research by the World Health Organization has shown that long working hours are associated with premature death, heart disease, and diabetes.
There’s a reason why one of the most popular buzzwords of 2022 is “silent rejection. “Sounds more radical than it really is. According to TikTokker Zayd Khan, quitting smoking quietly is just an acknowledgment that there is more to life than work.
@zaidleppelin On quiet quitting #workreform
If every action has an equal and opposite reaction, then quitting quietly is the answer to hustle culture. One Gallup poll found that half of the American workforce identified as “quiet quitters.”
@loewhaley Toodaloo! #relatable #corporate #wfh
We are not advocating that you passively retire at work. But if you work too many hours, talk to your manager.
8. Find flow throughout the day
One study by Adobe found that Americans spend six hours a day checking their email. Nine out of ten respondents check their work email at home, and four out of ten admitted to checking their email in the bathroom.
In the same way, social media managers feel the siren of engagement: they constantly check how effective publications are.
Entrepreneur Steve Glavesque notes that many people are constantly distracted from meaningful work. Social media notifications, emails, Slack messages from your co-workers all keep you from getting into the stream. They also fill your day with work, leaving you exhausted by 5pm.
Here are some tips for staying focused:
- Schedule time without interruption. Lock down your calendar so you can focus on your most important tasks.
- Block distracting tasks by time. Sally Poggi also recommends blocking time for things like notifications and emails.
- Single task. Focus on one thing. Ideally, start with the hardest task when your energy and focus are at their highest.
- Shorten your appointments. Try setting the default meeting time to 30 minutes, 25 minutes is even better, so you always have a buffer between calls.
9. Measure results, not time
The rise of remote work has also led to an increase in the popularity of employee monitoring software. But a digital look over the shoulder of your employees is a poor way to measure how hard they work or how well they spend their time. It can even exacerbate burnout by forcing employees to work all the time.
In addition, there are many creative ways to get around digital surveillance.
@zuniandzeppelin for legal reasons this is a joke #vineenergy #wfh #workfromhome #BearWeek #Phrog #BeatsDaisyChallenge #keepingbusy #fyp
Instead of keeping track of your team’s hours, you should focus on their results.
And social marketers need to look at how they spend their time and what efforts pay off. Tracking key social media metrics will help you be more effective. The goal is to work smarter, not harder.
To showcase your value, make sure you create social media reports that quantify results. And if you manage a team, set them SMART goals that align with your business goals.
10. Protect your vacation
Here’s a familiar scenario: You go to bed after a long, stressful day at work. Even if you’re tired, you’ll find yourself endlessly scrolling through TikTok or watching Netflix. You know you should probably get some sleep, but you find yourself hitting play for one more episode.
This phenomenon has a name: β revenge for bedtime procrastination. β When your day is busy and busy, it’s tempting to relax with your phone until late at night. But this behavior ruins your rest and makes you more tired the next day.
Learned a very useful term today: “ε ±εΎ©ζ§η¬ε€”(revenge of bedtime procrastination), a phenomenon in which people who don’t have much control over their daytime life refuse to go to bed early to regain some sense of freedom during the late hours of the night..
β Daphne (@daphnekylee) June 28, 2020
Try leaving your phone outside the bedroom at night. Get an old-fashioned alarm clock so you don’t get tempted to “just check the time”.
11. Take a real break
Many of the tips above are great for preventing social media burnout. But what if you’re already burned out? If that happens, you need a chance to really recharge. There’s a reason why runners take a week off after a marathon.
In July 2021, Hootsuite closed the entire company for a week so that every employee could rest. We learned that many employees checked their mailboxes or notifications even while on vacation. During the company-wide health week, everyone was offline, which meant there was no temptation to check email.
We are not alone in taking a collective vacation. Companies such as LinkedIn and Mailchimp have taken similar steps.
After our week together, 98% of employees reported feeling rested and energized. So we did it again in 2022, this time moving it to the end of August based on employee feedback.
It’s health week at Heyday by Hootsuite – and most of our team has taken a break for the next 5 days to recharge (including me, a social person!)
We’ll catch you from the other side world βοΈ pic.twitter.com/iVCaLxmOYD
β Heyday by Hootsuite (@heyday_ai) August 26, 2022
12. Protecting mental health resources at work
You can curb your own burnout, but chances are you’re not the only one experiencing it. Deloitte’s 2022 “Women at Work”survey found that a third of employees took time off due to mental health issues. However, only 43% of them believe that they can talk about these problems at work.
Those with power in the workplace must use it to change culture and expectations. It is important to start by normalizing conversations about mental health.
One study found that while 91% of executives believe employees know they are being cared for, only 56% of employees actually feel cared for. This gap is partly due to a lack of resources in the workplace. It’s one thing to say you’re supporting the well-being of employees, but it’s another to provide support they can access.
Failure to address a mental health issue has big business implications. A 2021 study found that 68% of millennials and 81% of Gen Z quit their jobs for mental health reasons.
Making changes to the office can also help eliminate some of the root causes of burnout, such as isolation or constant distractions. In 2021, Hootsuite looked into the needs of employees and reconfigured our office to accommodate them. These changes go deeper than design: office layout can actually make us happier.
Give employees the opportunity to socialize and have fun together. One recent study found that 22% of people don’t have a single friend at work. Strong social connections are important for building functional teams and maintaining mental health.
No job is worth sacrificing your mental health. And no business goal is worth compromising the well-being of your employees. Preventing social media burnout and addressing it when it occurs should be a priority for every company.