5 Ways to Avoid Social Media Burnout

22 Jul 5 Ways to Avoid Social Media Burnout

By Sarah Dawley

One morning a few years ago I finished my bowl of cereal, put everything away, started brushing my teeth while simultaneously putting on my shoes, and heard my roommate laughing at me from the couch. Suspicious of anyone even remotely happy at seven-something in the morning, I demanded she explain herself but all she said was, “open the fridge.”

There was the box of cereal, sitting beside the orange juice. I opened up the cupboard and—you guessed it—there was the carton of milk, sitting beside the canned beans. Derp.

In my defense, I had been up working until midnight the night before. But that wasn’t unusual. I was averaging 55 hours a week of work as a social media manager, alongside weekends packed full of events, hobbies, and social obligations. I was a getting burned out.

This mindless little mix-up in the kitchen is one of the more humorous ways stress can manifest itself, but according to the Mayo Clinic, burnout can lead to far more serious consequences, including insomnia, depression, anxiety, heart disease, and more. As she exhausted herself building The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington once fainted in her office. She hit her head on the desk and broke her cheekbone, requiring five stitches around her right eye. “It got me thinking about what kind of life I was leading. I was getting four to five hours of sleep a night. I had to slow down and reevaluate the choices I was making,” she said.

Here are five ways I’ve learned to avoid burnout, along with tips from our community and the social team here at Hootsuite.

1. Structure your time

Logging in and aimlessly hitting refresh on your social media networks all day is a surefire way to get overwhelmed and worn down. Instead, structure your time by assigning parts of your day to specific activities.

For example, set aside one hour per day to do each of the following tasks:

• Review new mentions and posts, answer questions from followers, and resolve customer service inquiries
• Find and share relevant content from followers
• Post new content on each platform
• Schedule posts for the evening, the weekend, or an upcoming campaign

Structuring your time on social media will not only make you more efficient, it will keep you focused and working with purpose. View Full Article >>

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