How to Guard Your Mental Health While Managing Social Media 

As a business professional, managing social media is undeniably one of your most crucial tasks. It is no longer a question of whether you like being on social media; if you have a business that you want to grow, you need to be on social media. It can be a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal. 

Yet, there are challenges associated with it. Social media management has never been easy, and the COVID-19 pandemic made it even tougher.

Companies and employees needed to change the way they worked and quickly adjust to new setups. Then, there was a surge in digital content due to soaring demand and expectations from customers and prospects alike.

Inevitably, cases of anxiety, burnout, and other mental health issues arising from social media saw a sharp spike.

Mental health directly affects your physical health and causes innumerable problems. So if social media is causing you more stress than usual, or you’re feeling agitated, that isn’t something to be ignored. It needs to be addressed. 

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Whether you’re a small business owner, influencer, marketer, creator, or anyone else, we hope this post will help you manage your social media, while at the same time protect your mental health. 

Tips for Staying Sane While Managing Social Media

Dedicate Time to Unplug

Don’t get us wrong—we’re not questioning the importance of being on social media for your business. The fact is, being connected through social media is a must-do. 

But so is nurturing your mental and emotional well-being. And in order to do that, you simply have to get offline for dedicated periods of time. 

On a regular basis, make sure you’re allotting time to disconnect from social media. Create a routine and dedicate time for checking and replying to messages and comments. Also, develop a regular schedule for posting on social media and stick to it.

Set Your Screen Time

If you manage multiple social accounts, it’s best to manage time for each platform and dedicate screen time. Your mobile phone might already have a feature to set daily time limits for apps.

Do this for all social media apps on your phone. Apple devices come with a feature called (aptly) Screen Time. Using this, you can set time limits for apps and websites, and manage your time better.

Stop Worrying Over the Metrics

We get it. It’s not always possible to be at the top of your game. There are times when your performance scores may go down. But guess what? It. Happens. To. All. Of. Us. 

So stop worrying about poor performance on social media, and instead, stay focused. Stay calm. Get into the Alpha state. If you don’t know how to do that, check out this article. (You’ll thank us.)

Use your energy wisely, to extract meaningful data that can be used for making actionable plans. 

Avoid Distraction

How many times have you opened the Facebook app for work-related matters but saw a friend's post, and then another, and then another ... and completely forgot about the original task? Each time that happens, you invest an additional 25 minutes on average to get back to your original task. 

In 2008, Gloria Mark from the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and her colleagues from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, conducted a study to determine how interruptions affected people’s ability to complete tasks. In their published paper titled, “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress,” they write: “After only 20 minutes of interrupted performance people reported significantly higher stress, frustration, workload, effort, and pressure.”

Use Automation

Managing social media can be hectic, especially when you’re doing it manually. Make use of the available technology to manage your time better and be more efficient. Starting from generating to scheduling and monitoring, you can do it all easily while keeping your time on social media reasonable instead of ridiculous. 

Some of the tools we recommend using are:

Hootsuite

A comprehensive social media management platform, Hootsuite allows you to manage all aspects of your social media. With a single platform, users can perform simple tasks from curating quality content and post-planning to measuring the social media ROI.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a powerful and easy tool for social media marketers, brands, and agencies. It helps you manage and update social media accounts, curate content, schedule, publish, monitor performance, and do a lot more in one place. 

Hashtag Expert

Hashtags are essential on social media, but researching hashtags is one of the most difficult tasks. Use Hashtag Expert to get customized hashtag suggestions for your account across social platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Our community members save hundreds of hours every month, so join our community and try us out.

Remember … Social Media Is Not Your Enemy

We are humans and humans are social creatures. We go to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube not just for business but also to socialize. While technology has made it possible for us to connect with each other virtually, it’s important to note that spending too much time can be counterproductive—and even harmful to our health.

But … social media is not your enemy. To make sure you reap its numerous benefits while keeping stress at bay, take time off to rejuvenate your mind, use tools to help you manage your time, and whenever you feel stress creeping up on you, unplug for a while and walk away.

You’ll be doing your mental and emotional health a massive favor.