Over the summer, I was feeling the weight of anxiety over current events and changes closer to home. I had been working from home for a few months already, COVID was experiencing a resurgence, negativity was running rampant, and I was very newly pregnant and extremely anxious about making it through my first trimester.
There was one morning where I held my phone in my hand, looked at my social media apps, and thought to myself, "Nope."
It was time to take a break.
But, as someone who works in the social media realm every day, it can be hard to feel like I'm able to disconnect for awhile. When it's your job, you're actually unable to hit that Deactivate button on Facebook, because then you don't have a way to access and manage what you're responsible for.
Over the summer, I listed out the ways I found to take a social media break for a few weeks, while still maintaining all the control I need to do my job effectively. I never ended up publishing my list, but I think now is another extremely relevant time for those who might be in the same situation.
How to disconnect while still managing business social media accounts
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On your computer, bookmark the Facebook Business Manager and access your pages and notifications through it. If you don't have Business Manager set up, look into setting it up. This became my main method of managing pages during my break period.
- Connect your business Instagram to your Facebook page to manage messages and activity.
- You can also use Facebook's Creator Studio to create and schedule posts for Facebook and Instagram. This can be accessed through the Business Manager as well.
- Use a third-party scheduling tool like Buffer, Later or Hootsuite for your content creation. Each of these do have free versions if you're an entrepreneur or only have a few social media accounts.
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If you need to review posts other businesses or rely on sharing others' content, bookmark your Facebook page's news feed. (And since it's extremely difficult to find your page's feed, use this link, filling in your page's name: https://www.facebook.com/YOURPAGENAME/news_feed/)
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If Facebook Groups are part of your work, bookmark their direct URLs. I created a folder in my browser's bookmarks bar for all of my company's groups, and it has proven extremely helpful in many ways.
- Install the Business Suite app on your phone.
- Log out of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and/or LinkedIn on your phone.
- If you don't want to fully log out of your apps, turn off all of their notifications through your phone settings.
It's always important to take a break from social media when it feels too overwhelming, and sometimes that feeling is even stronger for social media managers. Hopefully this will help give you that break while still doing your job!
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