Social media burnout can affect the best of us, and it isn’t something we can ignore. Social media’s 24/7 nature requires publishers to be present at all times, and the demands can take a toll on staff and contribute to a decline in content quality.

The truth is that constantly churning out content is not sustainable for a small team indefinitely. It’s important to help your team find a viable approach to creating content and maintaining quality while avoiding burnout.

What is social media burnout?

Social media burnout is real, and a burnt-out team is a low-performing team. The Mayo Clinic identifies a few common signs of burnout, including cynicism, trouble starting work, irritability, trouble sleeping, and even physical symptoms. Burnout can also come with a sense of inefficacy or an inability to complete tasks.

Studies consistently show that excessive attachment to devices can take a toll on mental health. The high turnover rate for social media managers is not for nothing—death by notification is no way to live.

How do you fight burnout?

First and foremost, listen to your team. Have open conversations about workload, and ensure that those closest to social media are taking healthy hours away from analytics and engagement. If events demand after-hours attention, make sure they get that time back.

Here are some ways to help your team stay healthy in an all-consuming industry:

Help your team set boundaries around social media

Personal and professional social media can be almost impossible to separate, which leads to being always on. We all need a life outside of a screen, and it can be very easy to get sucked into the vortex of social analytics and engagement. Your employees should not feel obligated to watch work analytics while they’re off, even if they happen to be scrolling.

Here are some policies that may help set boundaries for your team:

• No social media on personal devices. If you don’t provide company phones, don’t expect your employees to install every work account on their phone for monitoring. That can be done at work.
• Mandated time away from posting/engagement. Rotate content creation and scheduling duties where possible. If it isn’t possible, ensure that they are not responsible for after-hours monitoring as well. Everyone needs time to breathe.
• 24/7 posting doesn’t mean 24/7 work. Utilize scheduling tools! If scheduling is too tedious, True Anthem can help.

Cut down out the noise

This is easier said than done, but there are steps you can take to eliminate the constant information onslaught/content demand.

First, if a platform isn’t working for you, stop using it. You don’t have to be everywhere! And if you are, you certainly won’t be able to do it all well. It’s okay to focus on one or two platforms if that’s what you can handle!

Second, turn off notifications. Seriously—all of you. It’s too much and can be a massive productivity suck. Nobody needs more things flashing at them all day. This allows your team to focus on the task at hand and not get pulled in too many different directions.

Third, dedicate time to research and exploration. Idly scrolling throughout the day to check out the competition and stay on top of the news is not efficient. If you deal with breaking news, set up channels for alerts. Otherwise, research and exploration can be organized and fit within a designated timeframe.

Delegate!

If you have a large team, be sure to spread duties as evenly as possible and ensure that people get a chance to work on different things. Chances are, though, that you have a social team of one. This doesn’t allow for a lot of delegation.

This is where tools come in. True Anthem’s automation can save an astounding amount of time, and remove the tedium of posting from your day-to-day. Set up a demo today.