It’s still a tough time to work in Social Media

Last night I sat in front of my computer working. That work was scrolling thru Facebook to collect screenshots of the millions of tiny changes Facebook has made as I update slidedecks for my next round of trainings.

But I never actually got a screenshot. I was too horrified by what I was seeing in my newsfeed. I won’t bother to enumerate all the things here, but suffice to say no work got done and no sleep was had.

I’m pretty sure that the above paragraphs could have been written in some form or another by every social media <insert your favorite title here> we know. All political jobs are difficult but I truly believe that social media professionals have an added burden now of *having* to be on Facebook and Twitter and ….because that’s what we get paid to do. So how do we do our jobs? How do we take care of ourselves? If you were to do a google search for “self care” of any kind the list you find always includes “get off social media” …and I always want to scream. So I reached out a few social media professionals I know and trust and asked for their suggestions* and I thought I’d share it with you.

Set a timer. Literally. Set a timer and focus on your work…open the social accounts of your employer/client if you must but do not, repeat do not, spend time on your own newsfeed or even the page’s newsfeed. Work on data thru insights- work on creating content but focus for a set amount of time whatever that is for you. Then take a break and set a timer again and allow yourself a quick scroll thru your newsfeed. Then take an actual break, set the timer again and get away from the computer all together. Take a walk, fold laundry, cook, go to the gym anything. Rinse and repeat this cycle throughout the work day.

Have a 24/7 buddy. Ask one of your fellow social media professionals who is facing the same thing to be your 24/7 buddy. Set regular check ins..email, message, skype whatever timing and channel works for you. Cry together, laugh together. But don’t be the hero who tries to through this alone. You can do this with friends as well but I’ve found that friends who don’t work in social media don’t quite connect with how painful it is when it’s your job to be on social media. The number one response I get from my non political friends is “well just close facebook and ignore it while you work” cause yah I don’t actually work while on facebook right? So yeah, talk to your non social media pro friends but make sure there’s at least one social media person you can talk to as well.

Live your life. In the current state of the world we are in a 24/7 news cycle and people working in political social media especially are feeling the pressure of being available for rapid response 24/7. This just isn’t realistic so a few tips just on this one:

If you are part of a team:

• Set up a rotation of who is on call to get news alerts after hours and on weekends.
• Have images ready to go, anticipate what’s coming
• Have a rapid response grid filled out to make it as easy as possible (see this slide from my Rapid Response training for suggested columns for your grid)

If you aren’t part of a team:

• See if anyone else in your organization would be willing to help cover non working hours so you can have some life time
• If there’s no one in your organization, see if you have coalition partners that you can work with on a coverage rotation
• Have a rapid response grid filled out to make it as easy as possible (see this slide from my Rapid Response training for suggested columns for your grid)

Acknowledge your own humanity. For me this has been the hardest one. “I’m too busy to cry” is the mantra I hear in my brain but the reality is that letting it out lets you refocus and get back to work. We may be the best social media professionals to ever exist, but we are still human. There’s only so many stories about families being ripped apart that we can read without feeling as if our soul has been run over by a MAC truck. So let yourself cry. Let yourself throw that stress ball at the wall. Let yourself open a tab that’s nothing but cat videos that you look at for 5 minutes every hour on the hour.

This is not an easy time to be a professional in social media world. At the end of the day we all need to make sure we are taking care of ourselves so we can do what we do. What other ways do you suggest for dealing with these things?

PS: I was talking to a fellow social media pro the other night and we thought it might be good to do a monthly “social media pro happy hour google hangout” …let me know if you’re interested by signing up here and we’ll let you know when we schedule the first one.

PPS: I’m reposting this June 2018 because it’s not getting any easier any time soon.