Social Media Burnout: How Business Owners Can Set Limits and Protect Their Sanity
Social media burnout is when you feel exhausted from the prolonged use of the different platforms. This is often experienced by entrepreneurs who are managing their business’s social media page alone in terms of advertising, keeping in touch with customers, and maintenance.
It may seem like the negative effects are only suffered by the business owner. But in reality, once the owner is in this state of exhaustion, everything else will start to deteriorate. Your management performance and engagement quality with customers are some examples of the things that will be negatively affected when you’ll experience social media burnout.
Part of being a good solopreneur is to avoid yourself from going into this state. And there’s no better way to do it than setting limits to your use of social media. How, you ask? Read on and find out.
1. Set boundaries, expectations, and objectives
The problem with having a social media page for your business is that once your customers join, they will interact with you and other customers in any way they like. It’s important you must set rules such as being polite to one another, posting topics related to the business, and when you’re available. Then, explain to them the purpose of your page and what they can expect.
2. Know your worth and show it
Another issue with running marketing campaigns on social media is that there will be skeptics who will challenge your efforts. Some will say you’re scamming or spreading misinformation. Others will harass you. You must be ready to answer with facts and learn to ignore the trolls. These strategies are the only two ways to prevent yourself from getting tired of logging in daily.
3. Be selective with your platforms and target audience
You might wonder why despite the mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, there are still business owners who go to Gab Social or MeWe. This is because it’s less crowded there. It’s also important that you really have a specific customer demographic when you’ll advertise. The “spray and pray” strategy only invites chaos into your page.
4. Always have a FAQs page
As a follow-up to #1, having a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page on your business social media will help you provide an answer to all the common questions asked by your customers. This will ease your role as an admin and help you focus on attending to customer concerns that require personal interaction.
5. Understand that less is more
Post when you have something important to say and not for the sake of just being able to say something. Don’t pressure yourself to always appear on your customers’ newsfeed just because big businesses do. Not only will it lead you to stress and creative burnout, but you’ll also appear annoying in the eyes of your customers causing them to unfollow your page. You don’t want that.
The most important tip to protect your sanity from social media use is knowing the early signs of burnout and taking a break after. It’s because no matter how many limits you set, you will eventually go over them. By knowing the signals of danger in advance, you can quickly step back to safety even if you’ve started to overdo yourself.