This shouldn’t be the norm. If a company hired one salesperson to run all their sales accounts, it would be unheard of. Companies need to understand that the tasks they’re hiring for if done expertly and fully, require more than one person. At the very least, companies should be hiring separate graphic designers, photographers and videographers to capture content to be used across marketing channels.
Demanding this all of one person (or even two people) at a major company? That’s a swift road to burnout.
A different kind of ‘always on’
The challenging conditions placed on social media professionals are particularly troubling because these are often people on the front lines of a company’s brand. As seen with the NBA post, one tap of a social media professional’s finger can impact the public’s perception of a brand.
Take a similar yet different situation of Entertainment Weekly’s viral tweet (or X post) reply. When a Twitter troll replied to one of the brand’s posts, the social media manager broke the third wall with her reply, “I am a 31-year-old with student loan debt, a useless journalism degree and bills to pay. Just like the tweet and go.”
Similar sentiments, completely different execution and results. By leaning into the dark humor of the situation, the social media manager was able to co-opt the moment into a viral sensation with users cheering her on for her resilience and honesty.
Social media professionals being burnt out is nothing new. According to a 2023 Sprout Social study, 42% of marketers plan to stop working in social media within the next two years. Meanwhile, 63% of social media professionals are either experiencing burnout or have experienced it within one to three months.
Simply looking at the list of tasks required from a social media professional can reveal what a massive undertaking it is to cover a million different jobs in one. To show up every day with the pressure to be “always on.” To keep scrolling, keep consuming negativity, keep grinding. Even simply being called a “manager” without often being given many of the monetary and benefit perks of a managerial position is an exploitative practice within the role.
If you’re a company leader, take some time to reevaluate your social media positions. If you were in this position, how would you feel about your career? Would you feel valued or exploited?
What companies can do
These are not normal, healthy working conditions yet we’ve tried normalizing them for far too long. So, why are social media managers finally speaking up?
Because we’re finally growing as an industry beyond the hustle-hard culture. The old-school mentality of grinding until you’re physically spent never really resonated with many of us. But now, new generations are leading this industry that prioritizes rest, mental health and humanity.