Combat Community Manager Burnout With These 5 Tips

A brand reaps immense benefits such as ROI, recognition, and super users from a highly-engaged online community. But the effort that a community manager puts in to get those numbers comes with its own set of cons.

Even the most successful community managers aren’t immune to burnout and stress. Especially when they’re responsible for tasks such as community monitoring, moderation, and more.

Community manager burnout could look like having emotional fatigue, accomplishment doubts, reduced productivity, exhaustion, and depersonalization.

Research suggests that 50% of community professionals[i] experienced a high degree of burnout.

Relatable? Here are some keys to staying productive and keeping burnout at bay.

1. Create a Work-Life Balance: Many organizations, today, are embracing remote work culture which is blurring the line between work life and home life – leaving you always on-role.

For instance, some community members get active and demand engagement when they have time to connect. And because you are the community manager, you take it as your duty to stay at the front foot of the community.

Well, many community managers ally with the above-mentioned situations. They always stay a call away, for the community. And if you are in this situation too – we suggest, do not fall into this never-ending work loop.

Consider illustrating your working hours and clearly defining what an emergency means in a community. Explain to your peers, you can be available in your off-hours only in a situation requiring immediate action.

If you need to lay off the burden, make sure you do not sit and check emails at night, weekends and stress yourself enough to burn out.

Creating a work-life balance and working on the designated hours with a focused mind will always help rupture the stress and reduce burnout.

2. Find Like-Minded Folks Who Understand Your Daily Hurdles: As a community manager, you manage programs (contests, webinars, giveaways) to drive adoption and success within your community. Your main goal as a brand is to find ways to assist community members to look for information swiftly.

So, find a group of community managers or an online community where you can share your thoughts with like-minded peers.

Finding a place where you hear about their experiences, where you participate in discussions for new ideas, or where you simply share the challenges that you face.

3. Set Aside Some Time to Pump-up Your Creative Energy: Doing what pleases you will keep the creative juice flowing, preventing burnout.

Whatever is the quietest day of your week, block a couple of hours in that day and work on a project you have always dreamt of. Devote some time to reading what you like. You can also invest time in performing activities that ease your mind to combat burnout.

4. Take a Break: A complete disconnect from your daily routine is a much-needed therapy to overcome stress.

If you think your community will suffer without you – it’s not true! Because, [ii] When Jamie says, “No one is going to die while you’re away,” believe that.

Your short break from laptops, phones, and work will help you beat the fatigue. And while you’re away, your subordinates and members can take care of the community.

5. Consider Delegating and Setting Boundaries: When you are unavailable, the work still needs to be on track. And to make that sure, you need to plan a few things to keep the process on course.

The planning will however take a lot of tasks off your shoulders.

Here’s what you should do:

• Set expectation boundaries and stick to them
• Communicate clearly about your availability
• Pre-define your work and use automation tools for moderation
• Spot members who are as invested in the community as you are and lean on them or your subordinates to answer the questions that come up in the community when you are away

Seeing the nature of your job, facing occupational burnouts seems inevitable.

You must evaluate your options, discuss concerns with peers, and seek help to structure your routine to combat burnout.

This routine will allow you to be more creative, organized, stress-free, and make you more ingrained in your work.

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References:

[i] https://www.higherlogic.com/blog/online-community-stats-you-should-know/
[ii] https://www.commsor.com/post/community-manager-burnout