Important: The contents of this post are not meant for everyone and are not to be taken as medical advice. I am simply sharing what has worked for me.
There are a few ways I could come at this post. I could say, “As a social media manager…” or “As a small business owner…” I could even say, “As a human on social media…” But, I’m going to attempt to do it from every point. Why? Because as a small business owner you might also be the social media manager and if you’re reading this, you probably already have social media.
For a long time I would get envious of people “taking a break” from Facebook. So many times I have said, “I wish I could do that. Just for a week. I wish I could deactivate my account or delete the app.” I did it one time my freshman year of college. I gave up Facebook for Lent. Hear me out, it was hard at first but it forced me to submerge myself into school and this new place I called home. It allowed me to figure out who I was in a new environment with new people. It was a little bit blissful but mostly, I enjoyed the challenge.
I love a good challenge. Recently, it’s been my mental health. As people, we do a lot everyday. It has taken me a long time to be able to say that. Why? Because, do we really? A typical day looks like –
Wake up, check social media, make breakfast & coffee, get ready, head into my office
Check emails, check social media, do some other work, plan out the socials calendar, do some other work
Check my business social media, check some emails, make lunch
Hopefully at some point (usually during my lunch) I work out or go for a walk
Check emails, check social media, finish my work day (Checking social media a handful more times in the remaining 4 hours)
Get off work, check socials, make dinner (usually post it on socials), watch a tv show while eating
Maybe have a phone call, usually doing some sort of work or designing (while posting videos on socials or recording to later post on socials)
Head to bed between 9-11
Check socials until I fall asleep, wakeup, and repeat.
Did you catch how many times I checked social media in that day? Granted I manage 7 Instagram accounts, 6 Facebook accounts, 3 LinkedIn accounts, and 6 Twitter accounts. Those do not count my personal accounts. That’s a lot of social media, every single day.
I absolutely love what I do. I have to in order for it to consume my life this much. However, I hit a rough patch. I’ve felt close to burnout before but, nothing like I expereinced last week. I was crying mutiple times per day. My content suffered. My designs were nowhere close to my capabilities. My friend could hear it in my voice when speaking that I was not well. I do not say this for pity, I say this to be transparent. I was told over the weekend, by a very close friend, if you looked on my social media you would think I have everything figured out. “You have your shit together and you’re so happy with your life.” While that is not completely inaccurate, I do not have it all figured out. I struggle silently. But, what I am learning is that we all make mistakes. We all have lapse in judgements or let things get to us and handle them incorrectly. It’s ok if you need to take a break. I need one. I didn’t even want to be around my dog last week. If you know anything about me, it’s probably that Brookelynne is my entire life and I can’t even be away from her for a few hours without feeling guilty. Last week, I looked at Vrbo’s for a full month, without taking her.
So, I finally found a way to take a break, without uprooting my life or throwing out all my hardwork for my career. You see, Hootsuite has a free plan. I have created by kierst linked up on there. Sprout is what I use for my full time job and as long as I keep my accounts activated, I can still run my business and do my job, without being on social media. Is this effective long term, probably not. However, I downloaded the Ads Manager or the Meta Business apps for engaging. None of my professional accounts use Snapchat so that wasn’t a problem. Oddly enough, Instagram and Twitter are my favorite platforms and do not get to me, so I was able to keep those. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat had to go.
If you don’t want to learn a new platform or you aren’t financially ready for an expensive one like Sprout, login to Ads Manager and Meta Business Suite apps. You can create posts, make ads, respond to comments, see who is engaging, and so much more for Facebook and Instagram.
All of this to say, you can take that break you need from Facebook, even when you have to run a business account. I simply deleted the apps from my phone and my post day drinking anxiety was immediately gone. Out of sight, out of mind.
all the love & espresso,
kierst
(This post was originally written in the moment, in late August 2022. At the time of writing, I was almost one month out of deleting the apps and doing well).