Are you suffering from social media burnout? Tips for how writers may better cope.

 

According to a NewsLab study, 80% of journalists use social media in their daily work1. Journalists told us that they’re using social media to complete a variety of work-related tasks, including story promotion, networking, sourcing information, and receiving PR pitches. Naturally, time management becomes a challenge and social media burnout is imminent.

On top of the rising demand for content output, journalists are expected to be always listening and always engaging. Monitoring the latest news and user-generated content and promoting their own stories on social media can take up a large amount of time in a journalist’s day.  

So how can journalists find and maintain a balance between staying on top of the latest news, connecting with their audience, and getting everything else accomplished?

When you’re checking social media platforms daily for your job, how can you tell when you’ve reached your mental limit? To help you recognize some signs of social media burnout and provide you with a few tools to manage it, ask yourself the following questions:

Are you dealing with social media burnout?

While in no way an exhaustive list, here are a few common signs of burnout:

Apathy: Perhaps you used to love engaging with social media, but it now causes a feeling of detachment. You’re noticing a lack of enthusiasm or motivation for this task you used to enjoy.

Brain fog: If you’re having trouble focusing and accomplishing the task at hand, it could be a sign of burnout.

Avoidance: Are you putting off replying to comments, emails, etc.? While you can’t go completely silent – because it could harm relationships with followers and sources – you need to find a middle ground.

Overuse: Are you zealously checking your phone or computer for social updates, yet feel like you aren’t getting anything done?

Anxiety or frustration outside of work: All you can think about is work and that post you need to take care of tomorrow. This lack of work/life balance is a common struggle for journalists.


There are many strategies for limiting your social media use and structuring your day to increase efficiency and productivity. These are some writer's favorites.

1. Set a schedule.

Try only visiting social media sites during a specific window of time. For example, give yourself an hour each morning to check messages, mentions, replies, etc. Outside that window? Close the apps or sites to avoid temptation.

Time-tracking tools like StayFocusd for Chrome and the Cold Turkey app can help you boost productivity in other areas and even enjoy some quality free time. You also could consider having a weekly day to unplug.

Minimize distractions - distractions cause a drop in productivity
Plan your day it helps to stay on task.

2. Block out the noise.

By filtering out posts that aren’t related to your work, you can avoid distractions from the rest of the your content platform.

Subscribing to appropriate newsletters, a slower mode of listening, is another option to focus on news relevant to you.


3. Delegate your tasks in a team setting or by hiring a freelancer.

Do you have teammates that can help with social media and other writing tasks? While you don’t want to distract from their own responsibilities and projects, if spreading the workload around is an option, it may be something to consider. Also hiring a freelancer to help with research can help you be more productive and might cost less than you think.

And if you and your team aren’t already using a social media management tool like Brandwatch, get started to organize your content calendar, track mentions, set up an approval process and more.

 
Make sure you leave enough time between meetings and tasks to make sure you’re on time and ready mentally for the next challenge of the day.

4. Leave social media platforms that aren’t advantageous for you.

But when you evaluate the time spent on these platforms, are you gaining useful insights from all of them? Consider which platform your target audience is engaging with most; this might be the most useful one for you — the others are just noise.

Conclusion

In this environment of the never-ending news cycle, it’s easy to get distracted from the constant flow of information on the web. But because journalists are having to complete more work with fewer resources, it’s important to realize your limits and create a more sustainable system to help you manage.

1 Source: Cision 2022 State of the Media Report