Let’s face it, the Internet is not the most fun and cheery place at times. When your job involves spending copious amounts of time on the Internet, it’s too easy to experience burnout. In fact, burnout is so serious, it has been officially listed as a medical condition according to the World Health Organization.
Beverly Rose wrote in a recent blog post about her experience in the industry.
She said, “After three years as a social media manager:
– My nerves were shot;
– I was afraid to commit mistakes;
– I brought my laptop and mobile WiFi everywhere I went;
– I hesitated to leave my desk in fear of a tweet or comment that could raise flags and eyebrows;
– I had to skip important milestones such as birthday parties or any kind of celebration during big launches;
– I was afraid to leave my phone in case of an emergency;
– I couldn’t take a weekend off. I was “always on” as customer support;
– I was constantly checking my phone due to phantom rings and vibrations;
– I thought myself selfish when I’d book a much-deserved vacation.”
At some point in your career as a social media manager, you may experience one, or all, of these struggles. To help alleviate the stress that comes with working in the social media industry, our small digital team has compiled a list to make sure you’re actually able to enjoy your job!
Get REAL
Just because you’re a social media manager doesn’t mean you need to be an influencer. Whether or not your personal profile is filled with beautifully branded photography and thousands of followers does not prove your worth or your skillset as someone who works in the field. You could live and breathe millennial pink and rosè from nine to five but if that’s just not you personally, that’s just not you. Your job is stressful enough. Our advice: don’t bother spending hours trying to brand your personal pages if it’s going to add more stress to your life.
Get organized, have a plan, and be intentional
It’s easy to go about your day as a social media manager without a plan, scrolling through your different accounts, and getting sucked into trying to gain followers and responding to comments. While that’s important, it’s not the whole job.
Blocking out specific time for different tasks and monitoring your social media screen time all together is important for both staying organized and not burning out. These different tasks can include creating content, reading an industry magazine or blog, organizing your internal systems, or experimenting with a new app, to name a few. Block some time out on your calendar each week and have some intentional “heads down” time to focus on your brand or clients. We promise it will help with your productivity.
Don’t put your heart into your work
This may sound odd to some of you, but being able to emotionally separate yourself from your work may save your career. The reality is that every social media manager out there WILL make a mistake at one point or another. You’re a human. You’re not a bot. It’s okay. It may be an embarrassing typo or a tweet that ends up going viral for all the wrong reasons. There WILL be a day when you spend hours on an Instagram Stories thread only to find out that when you have completed it, there is a minor typo that forces you to delete and start all over again.
You can’t let mistakes consume you and you cannot take any backlash from it personally. Our team has lost sleep from overthinking a few mistakes we’ve made. The downside of our job is that when we make a mistake it seems like the whole world saw it. All you can do is take a deep breath, fix the damage that can be fixed, move on and learn from the situation.
This piece of advice is simple to understand, but it’s the one piece of advice that could save your sanity. Giving your eyes and brain a break will have your body thanking you in the long run. Our team members like to take at least one conscious small break from scheduling or scrolling through the timeline at least once a day.
Here is a list of things you can do to give yourself a short break:
– Go on a walk
– Talk to a co-worker
– Listen to an industry-related podcast
– Catch up on the news
– Do 10 minutes of yoga
– Go grab a coffee
There are plenty of things you can do around the office to step away. Maybe there’s even one part of your job that you absolutely love doing. Consider that your break. It’s more about your mentality about the break than what you are physically doing.
On top of that, it’s always good to take a larger step back from your social media job from time to time. TAKE THOSE VACATION DAYS! Not only will you come back refreshed and rejuvenated for yourself, but you’ll also come back stronger than ever for your clients. Some of our team’s best ideas came right after a return from a good vacation. Taking time off like this can be scary but Business.com states that the benefits of taking vacation days include “stress relief and better sleep, and it goes far deeper, including increased productivity, a brighter outlook, less anxiety and even heart disease prevention (people who take at least one vacation per year are 30 percent less likely to have a heart attack).”
After reading this post you’re probably thinking “why would anyone want to become a social media manager? It seems so stressful!” While that may be true, the pros of the job make it all worthwhile. We get to experiment with emerging platforms and practices daily, get to connect with people on an extremely unique level, and get to celebrate like a proud mom when one of our posts goes viral or our client hits a major goal.
It’s important for all those in the social media industry to figure out what keeps them from burning out. Whatever it is, make sure to continue that practice and keep yourself sane!