If you have a small business, you know how helpful social media can be to growing your business and finding new customers and followers to share with. It’s definitely a great tool that can really help. I can vouch for the fact that my business has been able to grow and change in so many ways thanks to the power of social media.

However, it can be hard to manage with the thousand other things small business owners are managing daily. And burnout is a real issue. One thing we know for certain, though, is that social media is not going away. So what should we do when we start to feel that social media burnout? How do we know how much to feed into social media and how can we moderate? Here are a few tips that I’ve found particularly helpful:

1 – Actively engage on just the platforms that make sense for your business
You don’t need to be everywhere everyday. For Oh Joy!, Instagram and Pinterest are where we have the most engagement and are the platforms that make sense for our kind of content and products. Stick to your best-performing sites and actively post and engage regularly. However, I would still make sure you sign up for any new social media when it arises to claim your username in case it ends up being a place you expand to later. You don’t want to miss out on having your brand handle wherever you can.

2 – Engage with comments and messages after you post
The way that algorithms often work in our experience (especially on sites like Instagram) is the sooner you engage with your audience after a post, the more of your audience that sees it. So try and post when you have time to engage and respond to comments or likes for 15 minutes after a new post.

3 – Set aside time on your calendar each day for social media, and try to stay off outside of that time
A lot of times burnout comes not only from managing your business on social media, but from scrolling, comparing, and FOMO when you’re on the platform. So set aside a pre-determined time on your calendar, log in, post, answer comments, and go like and comment on posts from your close community for your allotted time. Then get off and stay off until the next chunk of time. Setting boundaries with social media, like other areas of your life, is helpful and healthy.

4 – Plan some posts in advance
Sometimes posts can be spontaneous or decided at the last minute…which works great when you’re in the mood and simply want to share. But most posts can be planned in advance—including both your caption and the image. Save yourself the need to be clever or creative in the pressure-filled moment when you’re not feeling it by having some great ones already on hand.

5 – Post regularly
The regularity of your posts will depend on you, your business, and the boundaries you set for yourself. If you have found that social media does help your business, then posting regularly is important. This could be daily for some or a few times a week for others. Don’t let people forget about you or your product or service. And remember, people don’t see all your posts so you don’t have to worry that you’re bothering them if you decide you want to share more often.

6 – Give yourself a break
Small business owners wear many hats when running a business, and sometimes that gets to be overwhelming. So if you need a break, take it. Come back refreshed and excited to share with your followers what you learned during your time away, or new products or services you were creating in your time off the platform.

7 – Have fun!
When social media stops becoming fun, then it’s time to reevaluate if you need it or how you can make it fun for you AND helpful for your business. The great thing is you can test out new types of content all the time. If you’re unsure about something new, just post it! You can always remove it later if it doesn’t feel right. Get weird and push yourself so that it becomes fun again!

Photo by Casey Brodley