Managing social media profiles for your business can be overwhelming to say the least – the pressure to post regularly, post relevant content, use the right platforms and engage your audience is intense. As is the feeling that you need to respond to people’s messages, comments or posts as soon as they’ve posted them. However, if you’re a one-man band or a small business, it may be just you who has the responsibility to manage all this communication, which can be difficult and time-consuming.
Of course the best way to avoid social media burnout, from a business perspective, is to outsource social media management, and I can help you with that. But don’t panic – if you don’t have the budget right now to outsource your social media management, there are ways to break up your work into manageable pieces, ensuring it gets done but you don’t burnout doing it.
Structure Your Time
Try logging in just once or twice a day – for example, 9-10am and 3-4pm. That way, you’ll still respond to queries/complaints/compliments in a timely manner, but you won’t be a slave to social media. Or allocate several hours one day a week to create content and schedule posts. This allows your brain to focus, so you’re not doing a million things at once. Both Facebook and Instagram allow you to schedule posts from the Planner section of your Facebook Business page, so there’s no need to invest in a scheduling tool such as Hootsuite.
Decide Which Platforms To Invest Your Time In
Don’t try to do it all – concentrate on Facebook and LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram. You’ll soon see which platforms give you the best bang for your time investment.
Take Regular Breaks
This is a tricky one, but it can be done. Ensure your mind is not always falling back into thinking about what you should post next on social media. Structuring your time will help with this, as will ensuring you have a support network that understands and helps you work in regular breaks to your daily routine. Taking weekends off is also a great idea.
Log Off, And Stay Off
Maintain your IRL friendships and relationships. Keep doing those activities that make you happy and fulfilled in the offline world. And when you decide not to be online, make sure you stick to that time off!
The key is to know your limits, and recognise when too much social media is negatively impacting your life.