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Community Managers: Are You Addicted toSocial Media?By Darryl Villacorta on March 16, 2015

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Community Mgmt

One thing is clear: If you read this blog, you like social media. You might even say

you love social media. But when it comes to being wired in 24/7—a path

where social media management often leads—how much is too much?

New research suggests that if you find yourself constantly checking your phone

and responding to your brand’s online community, you might have

an addiction. There’s even a doctor-developed test to see if you truly need help.

But take a deep breath, because prevention is key. If you put the right strategy in

place, appropriately manage expectations and deliver results, you will see that

it’s OK to unplug every now and then without compromising your brand’s

overall communication.

Burnout is Real

True, social media is evolving, and to stay on top of it, social media managers

dedicate significant amounts of time to reading about trends. Add this to

monitoring real-time brand chatter, engaging with community members,

dissecting social analytics and keeping pace with pop culture, and it can be

exhausting. But, as others have pointed out, exhaustion is not a status symbol.

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Social media burnout is very real, and at times, it creeps up when you least

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expect it (monthly reports, anybody?). It has been documented that 86 percent of

social media professionals have experienced some form of burnout in their

careers. The causes range from keeping up with the ever-changing social

landscape to creating large volumes of high-quality content.

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Of course, brands all have different expectations for achieving their social goals.

Some say social media management only takes 15 minutes a day. Others, such

as Social Media Strategist Mark Smiciklas, put it closer to 15 hours:

Conversations: 4 hours

Community building: 2 hours

Listening: 2.5 hours

Strategy: 2.5 hours

Updating social networks: 4 hours

Striking the Right Balance

In light of the variety of tasks to complete each day—and not having historical

perspective on proper staffing, appropriate bandwidths and ideal resource

allocation in a relatively nascent discipline—social media management can seem

impossible for a party of one.

Speaking to The Washington Post, University of Houston Professor Brené Brown

stated this case quite clearly.

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“I think it’s a combination of technology and the economic realities, where so

many people are doing more than one job,” Brené said. “It’s the whole adage of

doing more with less. To be really honest with you, I don’t think it’s doable. The

expectations of what we can get done, and how well we can do it, are beyond

human scale.”

Most social media managers can relate. Sure, there are times when checking

status updates on a Thursday at 8 p.m. feels like nails on a chalkboard, but I

often find myself gravitating back toward my phone or laptop anyway, eager to

pick up where I left off. My body may be tired, but my brain somehow finds a way

to focus in. Still, is this a mindset we’ve created for ourselves?

“The expectations of what we can get done, and how well we can doit, are beyond human scale.” —University of Houston Professor BrenéBrown

Trial and Error

Some professionals have tried to cure themselves. A few years back, CNN

Producer Kiran Khalid attempted to spend five days off social media. She vowed

not to read or post updates while on vacation and even locked her BlackBerry

away in a safe.

While Khalid made a brave attempt to unplug, the testimony of her five-day

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experiment paints a different picture:

“Resisting the urge to cheat—it’s daunting dining alone, without an

electronic companion—I take out my journal and start writing about my

day. So far, so good, I think.”

“Every time I go for a swim, come back and lie in the warm sun, I reach for

my BlackBerry that’s not there—it’s become second nature.”

“This [reggae party] would be exponentially more amusing if I could

Tweet it or take a picture and post it to Facebook, but I resist the urge.”

“OK, so that whole ‘I don’t miss social media’ stuff isn’t true. It’s been four

days since I logged onto my accounts, and I’m anxious to see what my

friends are up to and fill them in on my reclamation-of-sanity tour here in

Antigua.”

Nearing the conclusion of her trip, Khalid reminisces: “I feel rested–I do think

there has been a beneficial disconnect.”

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AMID A BEAU TIFU L S U NS ET, CNN P R O DU CER KIR AN KHAL ID CHECKS HER EMAIL .

Experience First, Post Second

Curiosity is essential, regardless of discipline. For social media managers, it’s

especially important to keep this top of mind. Remember, there is an actual world

outside that should be influencing how we are engaging with our community.

Conversations are essential online, but they tend to be enhanced in person.

Checking out a museum may inspire some great ideas, but it doesn’t

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necessitate that you check in on Foursquare too. Social isn’t just the end; it’s also

the means.

Boundaries Inspire Better Engagement

If you’ve developed bad habits of working yourself to exhaustion, tackle them

head on by setting some tactical boundaries:

Dedicate time each day to being unplugged—this is when your best ideas

might come.

Remember the relationships you’ve built offline—they can inspire new

ways to engage with your community.

Don’t sleep next to your phone—it’s just not healthy.

It’s natural to get caught up in the rush of doing good work as a social media

manager, but the onus shouldn’t be on you entirely. Social is—wait for it

—social. Thus, your main charge is fostering a culture of social engagement, both

with your online audience as well as with your coworkers.

That means getting your entire organization—from marketing and sales to R&D

and human resources—in on the action. Equip everyone with the right tools to

serve as brand ambassadors, as you collectively publish content, engage with

your community and analyze your efforts together. In doing so, you will find that

no man is an island—but that doesn’t mean he can’t escape to one every now and

then.

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DARRYL VILLACORTA

Darryl is the Social Media Manager at Sprout Social. He has a

background in digital media and loves all things related to

tech, social media and video. Outside the office, his favorite

things include acting, songwriting and writing teleplays.

9 days ago

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contrapuntist

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Balance for anyone working in social media is a challenge. But I certainly hit a point inmy career when I simply had to shut things off. I am more than happy to tune thingsout and not feel stressed about it. Frankly, I feel more at ease when I do. It also takes

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the business leadership to understand that it requires more than a single individual tobe solely responsible for all things social media, it needs to be a business activity.

I've also learned that the best creative ideas don't come from being plugged in, theycome from experience. In order to understand ordinary human behavior and how thebehavior can come online, well.. it's incredibly important to live in the real world versusallow the digital universe to run your life.

If this gives me a lesser than average klout score... great. I don't care. Talk to me andyou'll get a better understanding of who I am, what I know and how i've helpedbusinesses prosper in social media.

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2 days agoDarryl Villacorta moderator

@contrapuntist Hi, there. Thank you for taking a moment to not only givemy piece a read, but also for sharing your insight. You hit the nail right onthe head that a single individual cannot be solely responsible for all thingssocial. However, it is unsurprising to come across brands that have a socialteam of one, which is highly debatable considering not all budgets arecreated equal.

As for generating creative ideas, I'm one-hundred percent with you on that. Ithas been documented that our brains are more active when we're idle, soany type of leisure activity that we embark on stimulates the brain tocommunicate with other parts of it, giving us the chance to recountmemories and/or create new ideas from old ones as a result of not beingplugged in.

While social media helps to extend our reach and create relationships notpossible in years prior, there's nothing like a good ol' human-to-human meetup. Thanks again for your thoughts!

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9 days agoandrewjcoate Love this, Darryl. I certainly struggle with this. Working at a startup I've been playingthat "many marketing hats" role, with social media manager being one of those hats.My "other" roles have continued to expand and I've feel the crunch and exhaustion ofkeeping up on social trends, data, reports, etc.

I'm also going Ireland for two weeks in the summer and have promised myself I'd do thewhole "unplugged" thing, or as your put it, "experience first". I'm anxious about it.

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8 days agoDarryl Villacorta moderator

@andrewjcoate Great to hear from you, friend! From past experience, I cancertainly attest to the multitude of hats you're currently wearing. Outside ofthe daily responsibilities, I often read that the fear of missing out is the onemajor factor that affects social media managers most, to which I am notsurprised to hear – perhaps we can slowly change that.

I've said this before, but when we read/hear the word "addiction", there's thestigma that predominantly relates to drugs and alcohol. Addiction comes inmany forms, however, I wrote this piece not with scare, click-bait, or evenhumor tactics in mind, but to share my voice on a topic that rarely ever getstalked about.

Taking a moment to reflect on how much time we spend online, whetherpersonal of professional, is healthy, and I'm so glad to hear you're going tounplug, let alone be in Ireland! Take lots of pictures, however, resist the urgeto post them online until AFTER the trip.

Thanks again for your insight, Andrew. It never surprises me to see theamount of sentiments shared with my peers. Have fun!

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