Burnout in the PR and social media marketing fields is rampant.
Many communications pros are exhausted. The non-stop news cycle. The demand to be “always on.” The rising stress level, as day-to-day responsibilities continue to grow.
Surveys repeatedly show that those working in public relations and social media marketing experience some of the highest rates of burnout.
It’s no wonder, because, more than almost any other group of workers, we’re under pressure to stay in touch with our audiences, even during the most challenging circumstances. We’re so consumed with worrying about what our audiences need, we may have forgotten about taking care of ourselves.
So what can we do about it?
My guest, Breanne A. Mertz, DBA, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Tampa, and I talk about burnout and how practitioners and their employers can address it.
Mertz has extensively researched social media marketer burnout and shares insight on how her findings apply to those working in PR, comms, and social media.
Show summary:
In this episode of PR Explored, host Michelle Garrett, a PR consultant, discusses burnout in public relations and social media marketing with Dr. Breanne Mertz, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Tampa.
Dr. Mertz shares her extensive research on social media marketer burnout and provides insight into the mental health challenges faced by professionals in these fields. Prolonged social media usage can negatively impact mental health, leading to anxiety, decreased well-being, and more serious issues.
Dr. Mertz introduces the concept of ‘social media wellness,’ emphasizing awareness and intentionality in social media consumption. She discusses practical strategies for individuals to manage their screen time and for managers to create healthier work environments.
They also discuss practical strategies for individuals and managerial practices to mitigate burnout, thereby improving employee well-being and organizational outcomes. Key recommendations include setting boundaries, leveraging technology to reduce workload, and fostering empathetic work cultures.
The episode highlights the importance of maintaining a balance to ensure the well-being of individuals in these high-pressure fields.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:31 Guest Introduction: Dr. Breanne Mertz
00:36 Dr. Mertz’s Background and Research
02:45 The Impact of Social Media on Wellbeing
04:56 Burnout in PR and Social Media Marketing
19:17 Exploring Social Media Wellness
23:26 Strategies for Managers and Individuals
23:56 Introduction to Resources and Multitasking
25:25 The Impact of Multitasking on Productivity
26:53 Practical Tips for Managing Screen Time
27:59 The Importance of Time Blocking and Disconnecting
29:29 Developing Hobbies Away from Technology
30:24 Challenges of Constant Connectivity in the Workplace
32:19 Managerial Strategies for Employee Wellbeing
33:40 Empathy and Awareness in Leadership
35:22 Encouraging Healthy Boundaries and Work-Life Balance
42:17 Employee Advocacy and Its Benefits
44:50 Final Thoughts and Takeaways
Show notes:
Dr. Breanne Mertz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/breanneadelemertz/
Dr. Breanne Mertz on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cQ7aJgkAAAAJ&hl=en
Articles that Dr. Mertz referenced:
- #SocialMediaWellness: Exploring a research agenda and conceptualization for healthy social media consumption (the original article that inspired my stream of research in this area)
- Are Your Students Aware of Social Media Wellness? A Necessary Macromarketing Curriculum Extension
Study: 64% Of Comms Professionals Have Experienced Burnout In The Past Year
Books recommended by Dr. Mertz:
Rewired: Protecting Your Brain in the Digital Age
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Burnout in PR and Social Media Marketing with Guest Dr. Breanne Mertz
Michelle: [00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to another condition of PR explored. Thanks so much for being here today. PR Explored is a video podcast where we delve into trends and topics related to public relations. I’m your host, Michelle Garrett. I’m a public relations consultant and writer. And today we are talking about burnout in the fields of PR and social media marketing, and I am very pleased to welcome my guest today, Dr. Breanne Mertz. Welcome, Bre!
Breanne: Thank you so much.
Michelle: Breanne is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Tampa. She has extensively researched social media marketer burnout, and she was kind enough to spend some time with me today to help shed some light on this important topic. And I wanna also just thank Karen Freeberg for connecting us.
So yes. Welcome Bre.
Breanne: Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m honored. And [00:01:00] yes, I echo what you said about Karen. She’s amazing. I look up to her in so many ways. And if you haven’t watched that episode, you should. It’s a good one. She,
Michelle: that was a very good episode. I loved that conversation and I’m sure this conversation is going to be so helpful as well.
So I, first of all, as. Everyone kind of gathers and gets settled For this, I wanted you to just tell us a little bit about yourself, and I will share some links so that people can learn more about you as well as you tell us about yourself. Sure.
Breanne: Sure. Yeah. Thank you again. I’m so glad to be here.
I am excited for you to share some of the links in case people wanna reach out or have questions. I am very much in the camp of being collaborative and working anybody in this space who’s interested. It’s always fun to talk about what’s being done because I think that forefront some important research and.
Yeah I’m. Very passionate about this space and grateful to be able to share a little bit more about it. I always like to say, when people ask me like, [00:02:00] what do you research? What are you into? Obviously my doctorate is in marketing. But I have a background on a doctoral level in quantitative analysis and psychology as well.
Before that it was management and working in higher education, my undergrads in management and. I’ve worked in like higher ed and marketing before I, I went the academic route. But I now for the past five years have taught social media marketing and then buyer behavior. That kind of mashup of psychology and marketing together and understanding why people do what they do.
So a lot of my students that I am. Putting out, if you will, into the workforce, are going into roles where they’re social media heavy digitally based. And it definitely is tied to that from a pedagogy standpoint. And then from a research standpoint, I always like to say my research really just focuses in on anything that impacts the wellbeing of individuals.
That’s like at the very top, I always describe it as an umbrella. And really that’s the only thing that, that would interest me in research a lot of [00:03:00] times. Like how does this impact the wellbeing of people? And so I’ve looked at that in my role. As a marketing professor in kind of three spheres, if you will.
So under that umbrella of the wellbeing of the individual, I’ve looked at it in vulnerable populations. So that’s one we’re not gonna talk about today. But vulnerable people groups, so modern slavery, human trafficking interventions, things like that. Secondly has been consumer wellbeing. So in that space looking at.
The impact of social media on consumer wellbeing. And that’s a really fascinating one because of course I’m a consumer of social media as well. Like I, I love it on a personal level. I consult in it, I do social media and digital marketing consulting as well, and have since 2020. So I’ve worked in it and then I teach it, and then I research in it, so I.
Though I will be making some statements about social media and this dark side of it, if you will. I also know it’s not going away at any point. And obviously it’s an incredible tool as well. There’s just kind of things to be aware of. So there’s research in that sphere. And then thirdly how it impacts employees.
And that’s [00:04:00] more where this paper that we’re gonna be discussing some of those findings, some those implications focus more in on how does social media usage. Impact you professionally if you are in pr, if you’re in comms, if you’re a social media marketer. And you’re heavily working with social media.
What is the impact on you? What are those implications? And then what can you do about it to empower you and to help hopefully? One of the big goals of our research is not just mine. I have incredible co-authors. What can we be doing to. Empower each other, empower our students. Depending on who I’m talking to in this audience, you may be the educator, you may be the practitioner, you may be the student the individual.
There really are implications across the board no matter what your role is. So all of it is very much if you have a smartphone, if you have social media, like the stuff we’re gonna talk about today totally will apply to you, which is I think really incredible.
Michelle: Yeah, I think, as we were preparing for today, I noticed, [00:05:00] some of the things that we’re gonna talk about apply to me as a person and in addition to me as a professional, because one of my goals is to stop spending so much time online, on social.
It just gets in your head. I don’t always think it’s a great, thing for us, for our mental health in general. And then when we are working in this field, in these fields that are very related, I feel PR and social media marketing very, there’s some overlap, a lot of things we share in common.
Yeah, I feel like that just compounds that because you do feel like you, you need to know what’s going on, and if you’re out of the loop. It’s tough for you to help your clients and jump on trends, and all that stuff. So I feel like this applies really to every person, but we are gonna hone in on how it impacts those who work in, I would say social media marketing, public relations, communications all of that.
Breanne: Absolutely.
Michelle: Somebody has just already commented, deleting Instagram, Twitter, Facebook is a hundred percent better.
Breanne: [00:06:00] Aw. Sometimes I do think we would be a lot happier and our wellbeing would be much more improved if we could just have never been on social media in the first place. I would agree.
However, if you are in this space, you know that. It’s not super realistic to completely disconnect though. Maybe little digital detoxes could be something that benefits you. Yeah. Yes.
Michelle: Yeah, that’s for sure. That’s absolutely true. I, I thank you for sharing a little bit about your background.
We are going to jump in here. We’re gonna. Set the stage. We’ve a lot to talk about and I do welcome questions and I’m sure Bree welcomes questions. I do. And yeah, we’ll do our best. We probably won’t save those to the end, so if you have a question that’s relevant to what we’re talking about at the moment, go ahead and post it and we will do our best to address it when we, when, as soon as we can.
Sounds good. If there are questions you have that you don’t feel comfortable asking, I’m sure Bree would welcome, a DM or something too. That’s also available I’m sure for you. But just to set the stage a little bit we know. We were just talking about, [00:07:00] social media isn’t going away.
Of course, usage continues to grow. You cite a number in your research, 4.9 billion global social media users spending approximately two and a half hours on average on social media platforms a day. And I think that’s, a staggering number.
Breanne: I agree. I agree. And honestly, that is one of the. Things that stop me in my tracks early on in my doctoral program, just wondering, wow, am I really spending that much time?
And then what does that look like over a lifetime? Just a little fun fact for you. The global life expectancy of individuals and is technically. 73 in the US it’s a little bit different women. It is 79 minutes, 77. But let’s just go off of the 73 number globally. Any guesses on what the average amount of time is in years that you would be spending on your life in your, on your phone during your lifetime?
Any guesses? [00:08:00] Michelle you, I think I might have given you the answer.
Michelle: I do. I do. Does anyone in
Breanne: the chat wanna maybe throw in a guest? Because this is, this was shocking to me. All right. I to look at it in the context of a pie. No, it’s not great. It’s essentially one third, one third of our lives right now being spent digitally on a device.
And then of those, 21 years-ish, over 21 years seven of those years are spent on social media. Which I think is really crazy and that’s not, that’s for the average user. Now, if you’re obviously a professional in this space we’d have to do the math on that, but it would be much higher, right?
Yeah.
Breanne: So as far as just sheer consumption and usage it is, as much as we’re sleeping, ’cause you sleep another third of your life, right? So then that leaves one third of maybe free time or no, that would be work, right? Like that, that, that is Then a lot of that is your work your nine to five or whatever that looks like for you.
It is a substantial, there’s a substantial, my point is so very substantial amount of time going to that. So let’s check [00:09:00] in with that. Let’s see how that’s impacting us. Let’s explore it. And that was imp. Threw me into this work and noticing some of the impacts for myself, from just a user in a vulnerable population group.
’cause especially young females are more susceptible to some of these more negative ramifications. And I was experiencing a lot of those and yet at the same time I was teaching them and I was consulting in them, you, or using this, these platforms and all I had heard from the literature in. Marketing and comms was, it’s a great strategy.
Social media is a great strategy. It can help you make money. It’s a great channel to leverage, which is true, but there’s also the impact that it has on our wellbeing, and there was a gap in the literature there. And so I’m really hoping that starts to close. We empower each other in this space in practice and in research.
Michelle: Yeah, no, I, that’s what I say. It’s a concern. I think it should be a concern for just about everybody. And of course as a parent, I also have young adults who are [00:10:00] I think they’re aware of how much time they’re spending and they’re even trying to I. Move away from some of that.
So I think we all just need to be aware of it. And I think some of your numbers are really highlighting and you know how because people are probably brush it aside, oh sure. I’m sure it’s not that much, but then when you look at it like that it is quite as astounding actually.
Breanne: Yeah.
Michelle: Of course now you were talking about, how the growth of social media and social media marketing and the jobs are growing as well. So they are and as we see more people working in the field, of course the burnout rates are also, going up, and I know working in PR there are multiple studies and articles and surveys about how stressed out, we are as well.
So I think there are a lot of things that kind of dovetail here and, but I wanna dig into that a little bit. Yeah. Talk about some of the reasons, why burnout in these fields is so high. So let’s dig into [00:11:00] that a little bit.
Breanne: Yeah, sure. Absolutely. To your point there, there are more jobs now than ever, and that’s simply following the money in the marketplace as far as.
The projected, and I’ve got a stat here, 247.3 billion to be spent on 2027 by 2027 on social media, just in advertising alone, right? And so of course with that, these social media marketing and comm PR related jobs are at an all time high, and so we see that. But the paradox here that’s so interesting, and I’m pulling from the notes of a study that my, my colleagues and I are actually on the third round review of.
But the paradox is that social media marketers, and I’ll use that term, but blanketing in all of the roles that fall within that.
42% intend to leave their positions within two years, which I think is staggering. So that’s really high. 20% intend to leave the marketing industry altogether.
And so while we were doing this research, we were like, why is this, it almost sounds like the. Nurses in the pandemic, in the medical industry when [00:12:00] they were just getting so burned out that there was just these incredibly high rates of turnover. And so we were trying to understand this more.
And we started with looking at, some of the detrimental impacts that social media has just as a personal user, not even as an employee, but what are some of those, what are some of those ramifications that are associated with social media usage? High social media usage, and a lot of them are related to, your mental health and it can detract from that.
So decreased wellbeing, increased anxiety, decreased self-esteem, body dissatisfaction. Compromised mental health. There’s a lot of these things that are pretty serious just on a personal usage level. And then when we look at that in the professional context we are seeing, these higher levels of exhaustion and, negative, this negative impact on just work performance in general.
So screen time alone, just these increased amounts of time or this increased amount of time on screens can. To burnout and mental health issues. And we see that in literature, then what do we do [00:13:00] about that? And that’s your role. That’s something that is required when you’re in this space.
You have to be on personally a lot of times, but then also professionally. And we were finding that there really wasn’t a whole lot out there at least academically in the literature. And so our study. Really trying to kind explore and highlight the experiences, social media marketers and looking at what are,
If you will to counteract some of those undesirable repercussions, right? How that social media, so really with the goal of we still need to have our personal and professional usage for our jobs to carry things out, but is there a state of balance that we could achieve or what we coin social media wellness in the literature?
Yeah, that, that was where the beginning of this study came and where we really started looking into this more. I might have gotten a little bit derailed from the question, but I think that was what you were asking, like setting the stage for that,
Michelle: yeah. Yeah, I think so.
I think from my perspective, I think, one of the reasons or some of the [00:14:00] reasons are, these industries, they’re, they never sleep. It’s a 24 7 news cycle. People are online around the clock. It’s not like we have a nine to five job that we can compartmentalize, show up, go home, and turn it all off.
A lot of people, and I would say. PR as well, but more so in social media marketing feel like they have to be, monitoring all the time. Absolutely. And absolutely. Even if you have a team, which some are just a sole one person team or whatever you know that, that’s a lot of pressure. And you just you feel like you always have to be on.
You feel like you’re, a lot of them are tasked with doing more than one job because, there’s overlap in PR with social and vice versa. And then we Breng in content marketing, we Breng in communications, corporate communications. Yeah. So it’s, there’s a lot of like responsibilities and from a PR perspective, we have to know what’s going on so we can help our clients protect their reputation and all of that.
And with social media, if you drop the ball. [00:15:00] The moment is over, it’s gone. So there’s just anxiety, stress, pressure from that perspective, I think too.
Breanne: One of our respondents from our study, to your point, they said that they feel being in these roles is a recipe for burnout. Burnout as they stand right now with the out the outlines, the parameters, the expectations, the job description in a lot of ways.
Mostly due to some of these just really intense expectations and this constant. Being on, this constant state of being on. As far as burnout goes, just defining that. I think it’s always important just to set the stage for what are these terms, what are we defining burnout as, at least in our research, we say that social media marketer burnout is a mental and or physical exhaustion that can emerge related to the demands and limited resources within a social media marketing role.
So again, Michelle, to your point, just those. Demands those limited resources kind of feeling like you’re always on. And that kind of being the perfect storm for a lot of people where they do then end up feeling [00:16:00] burned out and from that then turnover happens. And so I think it’s really important to.
Have this discussion, not just let it continue going on without any form of discussion. What can we do about that? As individuals, what agency do we have in, in our lives and in our roles? And then also as leaders and educators, how can we make some improvements and put some things in place to hopefully offset some of these issues.
So yeah.
Michelle: Yeah, I think it’s important too. This just popped into my head because it’s graduation season as people are choosing, to enter the field, they should be aware, and this is not to scare anyone away, but there are just pressures that come with these roles that you need to be aware of so that you can be on the lookout.
And take care of yourself, protect yourself a little bit, look for a company and a manager that, is also gonna be, playing a role in helping you. Just looking out for you. I guess we’re gonna talk about some specifics that those in leadership roles can can do to help [00:17:00] their teams and so forth.
But anyway, I just, that just popped into my head. It’s that’s
Breanne: important.
Michelle: It seems glamorous. I know in PR it does. And I think social media marketing too, sometimes people are like, whoa, it, see, it looks so glamorous and this Yeah. But really, you have to be and not to say it is, it can’t be fun.
But and rewarding. But you do have to be aware that unlike maybe other roles, these roles are I don’t know if I wanna say on the front line, but definitely social media marketers are on the front line ’cause they’re, yeah. Interacting with everyone, so yeah,
Breanne: Said.
I would totally agree. I think there’s, you should always look at two sides of the coin, in any scenario, always try to understand something holistically, especially before you, commit your career or your education to it. And obviously I have, I love it. And I think it’s, such an incredible.
Space to be in an incredible field to be in. But I would be remiss if I was just to say, it’s all sunshine and roses and. As there is with everything in the world, there’s the pros and cons, right? I [00:18:00] think we’ve definitely relied very, or leaned heavily on the positive sides and we haven’t talked a lot about what’s going on, but people have that kind of almost, it’s a little bit systemic in that way, where then I think there’s been a lot of just quiet. Suffering, if you will. That might be a bit dramatic, but it’s is this normal? I was never told that this would be something I might feel or experience.
Yeah. And that’s where I think it’s really important and we’ll talk about this more towards the end, but towards community and having resources and having empathy and understanding of yeah. Community in this space. Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah. When you’re younger and newer to your profession, I think, you’re learning about, what is expected, what’s normal, learning about balance, and you wouldn’t necessarily recognize or understand, that you could be at risk for burnout or, whatever. So that’s, I think it’s great to have these conversations and just make people aware that, I. Again, not to scare anyone. I never like to couch it in those terms. ’cause I, I know a lot of like tactics with the media are to scare people into reading people.
We’re not fearmongering. No we’re not. [00:19:00] No. Yeah. We just want people to be aware so they can protect themselves and take care of themselves. ’cause that’s really, I think, if we’re looking out for ourselves, taking care of ourselves, that’s. That’s all we can do really, right?
Breanne: Yes.
Michelle: Yes. Oh gosh, my next question is too long for me to post it. Let me see if I,
Breanne: no, that’s okay.
Michelle: I’ll read it. One goal of your study was to help those who work in social media marketing develop strategies to counteract the undesirable repercussions so they can achieve better balance. Thus. What we were just leading into there.
So you coined the term social media wellness, and let’s just talk about that a little bit and I’ll
Breanne: Yeah, I’ll see if I
Michelle: can edit this so it fits on the screen while we talk.
Breanne: Yeah, no, gladly. So if you’re familiar with this space you may have heard the term digital wellbeing, which is the, a big umbrella term for essentially the ability to stay mentally and emotionally balanced while being constantly.
Digitally connected, right? And communicating digitally. And so our definition that was just published in 2024, falls underneath that. So social media [00:20:00] wellness the technical definition is the optimum state of wellbeing that a consumer is pursuing while intentionally managing social media consumption.
Accessible on mobile devices and other digital technology through the awareness of how much such consumption affects one’s mental health, wellbeing, and priorities. So really the emphasis here, there’s some like academic jargon in that. But the emphasis is on awareness and intentionality.
So checking in with yourself on an individual level and asking yourself. How is my social media usage impacting my values, my wellbeing, my mental health? Is it in line? Is it serving me in those areas or is it detracting? And this is, there’s not gonna be a one size fits all answer formulaic, formula that I can give you and say, okay, plug and play just like this.
And then you’ll be social media. It doesn’t work like that, right? But I think it’s super important for us to. Have that awareness and that reflection, and then from there, make some smart goals and make some tangible potentially changes [00:21:00] to how. Those things are important to us.
Our, our values, our priorities, and our mental health. So that’s the emphasis of social media wellness. And of course that’s something that we could all benefit from, right? No matter what our role is, even just as an individual consumer using social media. ’cause I don’t know about you, but I have definitely gone down the rabbit hole of scrolling through TikTok videos for two, three hours and then I come up for air and I’m like, oh my gosh, I just, those two hours, was that how I wanted to spend my time? Was that in line with my values? Absolutely not. Do I feel good after spending time in that way? No. Like I, no, there were other priorities that I had that opportunity cost wise. It was not in line. And it’s not to say you can’t scroll into on TikTok for a while, but again, having those moments of checking in because day by day, if I was to. Use social media in that way, unBredled and unchecked. At the end of my life, I’m looking back and I’m like, I spent seven years, scrolling through stuff in a way [00:22:00] that was not how I actually wanted to live my life and what I actually wanted to do with my time.
And so I’m hoping that, with some of this awareness, we can yeah. Realign ourselves, in a way that we can be more proud of and flourish in.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think the awareness is always the first step. And then being, just being more intentional. I think that word’s a little overused, but that was my word.
Yeah. For this year was I wanted to be a little bit more intentional. Yeah, it’s a good word. With my time professionally and personally, and just across the board. So I feel like we just, we’re making choices whether we really recognize that always as we sit and scroll. But we. We are, we absolutely are making choices.
So
Breanne: 1000% inaction is action. It’s, that’s a decision, every, whatever, as time passes, like whatever you’re doing, that’s a decision. Yeah. No, I love the word intentional. Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah, I saw, I think it’s, I think it’s, I think it’s, borderline. I’ve seen it a little bit too much, but I think it’s perfect for my, where I’m at [00:23:00] because I just, it’s just too easy to get in your groove and your mode and just do your thing.
And that works sometimes, but we should always be stepping back occasionally and just looking at it like, are we really, is this. The right way for us to be, spending our time and approaching these situations. People are enjoying the discussion. I see. Thank you.
Breanne: Oh, good
Michelle: Michelle for saying, say
Breanne: another Michelle.
Yes. Thank you, Michelle.
Michelle: And if people have questions again we’re happy to address. Yeah. So the next thing that I wanna talk about is, what can managers do to help the situation, help their team, maybe help create an environment or support system, or, let’s talk about that a little bit.
Breanne: I would love to, I would love to, do you mind if I mention personal strategies first and then managers? Does that matter? Or the order? I could say managers first. No, doesn’t know. There’s definitely strategies individually too.
Michelle: Yeah,
Breanne: absolutely. Cool. Okay. Okay. I am referencing a few of my, because I’ve got lots of [00:24:00] resources, and again, if anyone has.
Questions or if they want certain resources, I’m happy to share. I know Michelle’s gonna be sharing like Google Scholar and LinkedIn and things like that, and some of the articles that were just recently published with my awesome coauthors. And I actually do talk about a lot of these implications.
We actually have a whole table of resources in the macro marketing one. Yeah. As far as just small little tips and tricks or practical technology recommendations for an individual time blocking is one that can be really impactful because though we may think that in this space we’re good at multitasking.
Multitasking is not actually something that is beneficial. And I think social media a lot of times is used in a way where it is very heavily, you’re looking at this and then you get distracted by something else and then you pop over to that and maybe you’re still trying to write up a report for your social media marketing strategy and you’re doing lots of things at once.
Or if you’re just using it as an individual, a lot of us are watching TV and then we have our phones as well, or [00:25:00] maybe we’re trying to write a report or do something in our personal lives, and then we get pinged and there’s a notification from social media. To the extent that you can, it is very beneficial to try to time block, make times and spaces where you’re like, okay, this is what I’m going to check.
Social media, this is when I’m going to be on my screen if I am going to be doing something on my screen or on social media digitally, that you are all in on that. And then all of your other notifications are turned off. I do have some interesting stats related to this whole idea of multitasking that I think are totally relevant to our conversation.
The brain can’t actually do two tasks at once. It’s rapidly switching. So it is continually draining our cognitive energy, and if you try to multitask, you’re actually reducing your productivity by 40% according to American Psychology Association. So that was fascinating to me because back in the day I always used to say I’m such a good multitasker, and I wore that as a badge of honor, and I thought that was a good thing.
It’s really not. So we have this illusion that we feel like we’re doing more, but you’re actually [00:26:00] increasing mental fatigue, your errors. Your tasks are taking two times as long, it’s increasing, distracting, decreasing performance, and then ultimately, detracting from your ability to do whatever you’re trying to do.
So time blocking that’s important. Even just a small little notification can throw you off. One last stat I’ll give on this that I think is really impressive. Or not impressive, but just. Enlightening for me. It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain deep focus after being distracted by your phone or any interruption.
So
Breanne: studies show that even just hearing a phone notification or having a ding go off without you even checking it, can cause a drop in attention and task performance. That’s, that’s, so I think important to remember, not only on a personal level, but if you’re a teacher, an educator, this is why we tell our students like, Hey, no phones, or turn off the messenger to where you’re not getting text on your test text up on your snack or whatever. Yeah, time blocking would be one. Turning off notifications, trying to disconnect from your screen [00:27:00] in intentional ways. Back to the time blocking discussion. Having blocks of time when you’re on and on the time that you’re off, making sure that off time is in line with what you’re actually wanting to do.
How are you filling your cup? I like to say, is that calling a friend or a family member? Is it exercising, spending time with your kids, plaguing a hobby. I love Brene’s Brown, Brene Brown’s emphasis on play. There are other little tips and tricks like going gray scale. You can actually, on your iPhone, make everything go to black and white.
So it’s a little less visually appealing and visually involving. So that’s, there’s been research on that. You can add a screen time widget. So if you’re familiar with the psychology literature and the importance of feedback loops or the impact that feedback loops can have, sometimes it can help you to be checked by yourself of oh I’ve spent five hours today already, like on, whatever. Is that in line with what I want or not? And so having that loop of being presented with the amount of time that you’re spending and. Checking in with yourself in that way, just having that kind of level of accountability.
Now I [00:28:00] know a lot of us have probably, and Michelle, tell me if you’ve done this, have you set up screen time limits on certain apps? Because I have. And then I blow through them and I say ignore. And I’m the girl that talks about social media wellness. It is, it’s sometimes easier said than done.
Yeah. But still having some of those things in place. So those are a few kind of practical things. Value ads or value recommendations. No phones in the bedroom or while driving. Obviously while driving, I.
Yeah, that’s, no, I know. Dangerous engaging in meditation and mindfulness practices, so I, I think it’s really good to check in and have those moments of reflection. Maybe even if it’s five minutes and you’re setting your intentions for the day, you’re setting some goals. Or maybe it’s at the end of the day where you’re checking in again and saying, did I live out today in a way that I wanted to, that filled my cup?
I was in line with my priorities and my values. And checking in with yourself in that way. I have my students do reflection activities where they actually have to reflect on [00:29:00] how social media usage made them feel and whether it was good or bad, and breaking that down and if it was in a bad way, like what would they wanna change?
So anyways and part of that is taking stock of what are your responsibilities, your values and priorities. And so we go into that as well. And. That takes a little bit of reflection and some time. Some introspection, which I think is important. Yeah. Anyways, yeah, that’s on a personal level, but we can shift.
I know we need to shift to the managerial ones as well.
Michelle: We have time, but I just wanted to make to say a couple of things. I think it’s good to develop hobbies away from technology, right? Yes. So I took knitting. That’s just an example my. I love that. Convince me to give that a try so it gets me off.
Yeah. What have you made anything? I have made some things. Okay. I have made some things but, mostly it’s just something else to do, with my hands. That it engages your brain too, and it’s just, it’s been a good way for me in the evening not to be sitting with the phone.
Yes. With the TV on, with the phone, and I’ve even seen like they’re developing programs for people to have on with their, like that they’re [00:30:00] doing that with that in mind. Like people are gonna have their phone while they’re like watching the show. I’m like, oh man.
Breanne: Yeah. I’m not
Michelle: surprised, but you.
Breanne: Giving consumers maybe what they want, but probably not what they actually need in that way. No,
Michelle: nobody does that anymore. Really. Let’s be honest. Yeah, if there’s a buck to be made they’re, they’ll do it. Whether it’s good for consumers or not. Unfortunately.
Yeah. Yeah.
Michelle: You were talking about also being interrupted and I was thinking about a study I saw about Slack people using Slack at work.
Yeah. And how that’s just a constant like stream of interruptions and you get off task. You can’t, I don’t know how people do that without having set times when they’re gonna. Be, have, engage in, in Slack interaction, because that would just drive me crazy.
Breanne: And there’s we’re programmed to be vulnerable to that in a way like that the FOMO and the, the sphere of missing out and wanting to be in the [00:31:00] know, and shifting from a personal level to a professional level, if those are the parameters in which you’re expected to perform, and that’s where things get really challenging if the way that things are set up are for you to be always on, and the expectation is for you to answer the DMS within 20 minutes.
Then that gets really challenging and that’s where I think we have to shift into more of educating and maybe public policy, maybe leaning into that space. I have managerial implications, public policy implications with our work. But or we do not just me again, amazing co-authors but.
Yeah, because I think a lot of the things that are in place as the norms in this industry are setting people up for failure and are detrimental to their wellbeing, and not even just to the wellbeing. If we’re talking from just a capitalistic standpoint, people turning over. It’s really bad for the bottom line.
It takes a lot of money to onboard people and get them back up to speed and replace people. So if we’re just taking humanity out of it and we’re just talking from a numbers perspective it’s really not best [00:32:00] practice for things to continue running in the way that they’re right. And so I think that’s again, why it’s so important to shed light on this both from a.
Let’s protect people. Let’s help people and their wellbeing, but also running a company running a business and operating with long-term success in mind.
Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about what managers can do to set up an environment that, it sets the tone.
What are some things that anybody leading a social media marketing team or somebody leading pr, comms, any of those types of teams might think about that would benefit their, not only their team, but themselves on their company, their entity.
Breanne: Yeah, I love that question. So I think it just based on leadership.
Research. One of the strongest things that you can do as a leader if you are in a managerial position, is to have empathy and to prioritize empathy. So stepping in with this lens of putting myself into the [00:33:00] shoes of my employees, even if they’re not in it themselves. And what are their experiences?
And so leading with that and then coupling that with this awareness of kind of what we’ve just talked about. So there has to be a level of education or awareness in order for any change to take place. And so before maybe there was this mindset of. They should always be on. That’s just part of their job.
It’s not that hard. They can check from, social media all hours of the night and check our dms and answer things and put out fires and just be on at all times because they’re working. It’s a remote job. How hard can it be? You know what I mean? I do feel like there’s these norms these narratives, if you will.
And so I think. Having that awareness, having that education shifting into a point, a place of more empathy and trying to understand.
And not even empathy. It’s like it’s backed by science at this point, some of these repercussions. So I think hopefully having this e evolution of industry norms and helping make those changes, so fostering.
Kind of a more respectful work environment. Maybe a part of that is, let’s check in on everyone’s mental health. How are we actually doing? Maybe having some surveys for [00:34:00] your employees of how burned out are you, what is your, where are you at? Or having some conversations openly. What heart to heart one-on-one of Be real with me.
Like, where are you at? What are some of the pain points that you’re experiencing? And some of this is just best practice when it comes. I know I mentioned my undergrad is in management and then I. Yeah, leaning into some of these organizational behavior best practices and checking in. And maybe that’s Brenging in a consultant.
Maybe that’s Brenging in a team to help on a bigger scale for smaller companies and agencies, maybe one-on-ones. And then from that, having that information making some shifts. And that is going to take top-down leadership because obviously the employees themselves can only really control.
Control themselves and their personal usage. Maybe to some extent their professional usage with time blocking. But really when it comes to shifting the way in which the industry is working, or the job expectations, that’s gonna take the leaders, the bosses. And top down. So hopefully what we would like to encourage again, if not in the name of.
Helping your employees have [00:35:00] wellbeing and not totally burnout, but just in the name of just sheer best business practice, and not having everyone turn over, maybe shifting some of the work expectations. And maybe that could be decreasing some workload. Maybe it’s increasing staffing. Maybe you’re leveraging technology and you’re doing some ab testing on technology that can help empower the employees to do things to a greater scale.
Encouraging healthy boundaries like you as the boss, as the manager saying, Hey, we want you to maybe have a mental health day, a month, and you just take that and that’s given in excess. We want you to disconnect in the evening. We want you to be nine to five. And we’ve hired another person to be on in the evening.
Or maybe we set up some automatic replies where we say to our customers even, we value our employees mental health. And we will respond within 24 hours. If there is an emergency, you have this helpline and maybe have that in their dms, like even on social media platform.
At the end of the day, [00:36:00] like I’m just thinking retail, makeup industry, there, there is this kind of expectation of I should get a response within minutes. And a lot of managers would have that expectation, but do they actually need a response like in that second? I maybe not.
I think it depends. So maybe leaning into, and that’s why I was talking about leveraging technology. Maybe you are setting up more automatic replies. To answer some of those common questions and then just thinking outside the box, like having an emergency line or something to where that employee isn’t having to be on 24 hours.
So encouraging those healthy boundaries both in job description. And then also reprieve for the employees themselves, whether that’s through days off or maybe it’s a retreat every month that you, maybe you give your employees like some sort of gift card to, and this is a little bit more out there.
This isn’t actually from our findings, I’m just thinking off the top of my head. Yeah. But something that could encourage them to like. Rest, relax, rejuvenate. And then clarifying job expectations. I think that’s something that is gonna require a lot of back and forth between the employee and the [00:37:00] manager as well.
Saying Hey, going back to that original point of like pain points, Hey, what, here’s what I have been asked to do. Here’s what I’m actually doing. ’cause a lot of times people in these positions wear so many hats. And they are doing so many things that. It’s hard to even put it down on paper.
So having some maybe practical, just put everything down the best you can on a spreadsheet. And then let’s put that next to what your job description is right now. And then let’s talk about what you’re enjoying doing and what you’re not. What is a stressor to you and what is life giving? And, maybe make some changes as far as what they are actually expected to do.
Maybe there is a whole nother role that can be pulled out of those and, they can work more efficiently and not. And leave in a year, and then you’re again, in the long run, better off as the manager. So yeah, I guess it was a little all over the place, but I think the flow, if I was to summarize that would be educated on this topic.
Have empathy. Raise awareness not just for yourself, but for your team.
Be a part of the change, healthy change, and hopefully evolving [00:38:00] some of these organizational and industry norms fostering that respectful work environment where there’s communication and there’s back and forth on what’s working, what’s not, what are you doing, how can I help you?
Kind of this internal marketing perspective of even treating your employees with that. Same respect and care that you would your customers. That’s an important element here. Yeah. Maybe shifting into clarifying job expectations and making some changes there. Encouraging those healthy boundaries not only at work, but also at home.
And cultivating and incentivizing things that back that up. Maybe leveraging technology, maybe increasing staffing in order to help those employees. In those ways, so I could go on and on. Clearly, I it’s a passion,
Michelle: really important and it’s good advice. And I think, just advocating for your team, like being, yes. Because I think there’s sometimes expectations come down from above and everyone just Sure. Feels like they have to hop to. But honestly, again, I just, it’s, I don’t understand like where the [00:39:00] disconnect is as far as like leadership, understanding that, the wellbeing of your employees.
Impacts your bottom line. There is a direct connection. So even if you don’t get that, that the right thing to do from a human perspective there, there’s actually a, an ROI involved yes as well. So yes,
Breanne: Said.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. So I think this is, you could sell these ideas like if, again, I believe in empathy and I think there’s a lack of it today, but even if you don’t necessarily believe that other people deserve that kind of treatment, there’s just, there are real reasons why these things matter.
And yes, some of them are not that difficult. It just requires, again, a little bit of awareness, maybe a little bit of a mind. Set shift or I like your point about industry norms. Like I think we all, we have belief systems about a lot of things at work and in our personal lives, and sometimes our belief systems need to change a little bit, so Absolutely.
Yeah.
Breanne: [00:40:00] Absolutely.
Michelle: That’s very important and helpful. So if the mental health and of workers and the risk of burnout aren’t taken seriously, what are some of the things that may happen?
Breanne: Yeah I think we, you said it so well. Not only could they be at risk emotionally, mentally, physically all of those repercussions that we talked about, increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, there was even like really serious things, especially for vulnerable populations. Not that the others weren’t, not to minimize those, but like eating disorders, body dysmorphia, suicidal ideation, like there’s some really serious. Individual personal ramifications that can happen with large amounts of screen time.
So if that’s not enough as a manager for you to look at that and say I care about that, then to your point, at least care about best business practices, which ROI, bottom line these people are, if it stays the way that it is, they’re on a track to burnout when they burn out. [00:41:00] You have that turnover, you have to have the cost of onboarding and Brenging new people on.
And ultimately that’s gonna de detract from the success of your business long term and even like your your revenue each year. So I definitely think that. It’s two-prong a two-prong approach could be taken. I love, anytime I make a suggestion, I like to back it my research. And so hopefully even this conversation could maybe help empower some people to respectfully and maybe very diplomatically.
Of course, I’m not saying let’s go in and storm the storm, the castle, and say, Hey, here’s all the things that are wrong, but hey here, can you be aware of this? And then here’s why. And the why not only being. ’cause of our health and wellbeing, but also because of the health of the business and organizational outcomes.
Michelle: Happy, healthy employees speak well of the company and that’s one of the best forms of PR and marketing that there is. That’s right. That’s it attracts talent to your company that the, the highest levels of talent and Yeah. And they say good things. You get good word of mouth.
And it’s really, [00:42:00] it really does. It does really make sense. But again,
yeah
Michelle: we do like to back it up with real numbers and that’s why I think your research is important and hopefully will help people take it more seriously and really take a look
Breanne: at it. Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. Yeah.
Employee advocacy is so crucial that, that’s a whole chapter I teach in my social media marketing class and. You want your employees to not only be healthy and happy and contributing to the organizational outcomes, but they can be your advocates, like they can be your influencers that actually have sometimes even a larger impact than.
A micro, macro, mega influencer that you could be paying, like the stats on that are insane. I don’t think we have time to discuss that here today, but you should look that up if that something. I think
Michelle: that’s a great topic. I’m gonna actually make note of that because I think you, you know how you use your employees yes.
We talk about using customers of course, but your employees are really important and I have talked about HR and [00:43:00] PR kind of, need to be a little bit closer sometimes, because sometimes Yes.
Breanne: And not siloed.
Michelle: Yeah, if you have your hr policies that are, IM impacting, your employees that are, the positive policies, that, that can really be something you can even talk about as you’re telling stories about your company to journalists, 1%, things like that.
And the employees themselves will sometimes, just on their own. Chime in on LinkedIn, on social media. So it just, and people that are, coming, considering working there will look at those things. And if your company is being talked about in a favorable light versus, maybe an offer from another company then might not be viewed so favorably that could sway them.
So I think again, there’s so many things we could talk about.
Breanne: So many benefits. I actually, I’ll add to that. I had one of the deliverables that I had my students do, we, with social media, we take on a client. For our class, and that’s how I teach everything. It’s through introducing a topic and then having them actually create something in line with that for the client.
And one of those was we did the social [00:44:00] media campaign, a social media marketer campaign, an influencer campaign, and then we also did an employee advocacy campaign. And so they had to create an entire slide deck of how the client could creatively. Leverage champion the stories of their of their employees.
And at the beginning of that, they had to back it with stats of what is employee advocacy? Why is it beneficial? It’s it beneficial to the actual employee and to the company because it’s building the employee’s personal brand to the extent that they’re able to be a industry expert. And then for the company, obviously there’s.
Positive things there. So that’s, yeah, that’s a fun one. I could go on and on about that too, but I encourage that. That would be a great, I’m looking forward to listening to that episode already.
Michelle: I think it’s a great idea, so thank you for that. Yeah,
Breanne: of course. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Michelle: As we have a few more minutes.
If anybody has a question, I do encourage you to ask. But let’s as we, try to wrap things up a little bit, what [00:45:00] else would you like those who work in these fields of social media, marketing, pr, communications, and so forth to know what other things are your, do you think are important to.
Leave us with today.
Breanne: Yeah, sure. I love that question. I would say there’s a few things. I definitely will rattle off a few categories, but if I was to share what I think other people who work in social media, PR and comms, what could they know? What could the big takeaways be?
I would say prioritize your wellbeing. Your health is so important. It’s one of our biggest, if not the biggest resources that we have. And it’s also, I. Yeah, you can’t do meaningful work if you’re depleted, and really leaning into that and thinking about it, not only just from a, again, it goes back to your personal wellbeing, but also your wellbeing and optimization as a professional too. That would be something. Embracing lifelong learning is another point I wanted to mention. Just obviously we as professionals want to be the best that we can continually learn in our discipline [00:46:00] but embracing lifelong learning in the context of your health journey and wellbeing.
So how are you caring for your physical, your emotional, your digital, your social media health and making sure that is. You’re doing that to the extent that can really contribute to your values and your priorities practicing that regular reflection. Life can get so busy and it’s so easy to just be moving so fast that you don’t take a second to really reflect and think about what’s important or how things are impacting you positively or negatively.
Instead of having some time carving that out and saying. Evaluating that relationship with technology and social media, making sure it’s aligned with those values and goals. Let’s see.
I think the last thing I’ll cover is just leading with empathy and building community, whether you are a leader, whether you’re, in your first time role as a social media employee or a PR professional, comms professional really wherever you are on that spectrum of. Tenure in your job.
Just being empathetic and [00:47:00] trying to understand how people are feeling and what they’re dealing with, what their pain, what their goals are. Just being sensitive to that, and having a community of professionals around you that you can talk with and that you can open up to.
I think it’s so important to have mentors in the space and be able to learn and grow from them too. So seeking out that mentorship no matter what level you’re at. And just yeah, continuing to learn and grow and try to be the healthiest version that you can for yourself. And then also for your company, but most importantly, yourself.
Michelle: Absolutely because we have to. If we are not well, we just, you know what else is there? So I just, I always feel taking care of ourselves isn’t really selfish. It’s actually one of the smartest things that we can do for everybody for ourselves most importantly, but also for our.
Family, friends. Yeah. Our employer, it benefits everyone. And and I know that, regularly checking in. It’s not today you’re fine, but maybe, in a couple of [00:48:00] months, maybe something has shifted. So you need to make sure that you’re revisiting and checking in and and it, I think it’s good to have some trusted, people to talk to that might not be within your company, it might be a, another friend. Yeah. In the industry or just, just another person outside of your work entirely that you can go to and have a safe space where you can discuss, how you’re feeling, or if you think there might be an issue or somebody that knows you that can really say, look, we see some changes that were, maybe aren’t so healthy or, you can discuss things. But hopefully your manager will also be a person you can go to with any concerns. And if you’re not in that kind of an environment. I won’t say it, but maybe it might be time to, there might be
Breanne: better opportunities.
Yeah. Elsewhere. Yeah.
Michelle: It might be to look at the landscape and see if there are other other options for you. I I wanna thank you so much, Bree, for being here. I think this was an important conversation. I think your research is very important and enlightening. And [00:49:00] I hope that everybody will follow you and look into your work and your survey and if anybody has questions that they would like to get in touch with you about, I’m sure you’d be happy to entertain those.
And and yeah, thank you so much.
Breanne: Yeah it wouldn’t be possible without my awesome co-authors. I wanted to give a shout out to Kelly Anderson, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Haas Kylie Petit, and a few others that have just been so instrumental. Dr. Mick. Several of my friends, my dear friends and colleagues that, we’ve worked on.
Area together now for years. And yeah, I’m just so passionate about it and I’m so grateful for them. So it wouldn’t have been possible without them. And I thank you for having me today and being willing to spend some time with me and chat on this fascinating area. So I really enjoyed myself.
Thank you.
Michelle: Thank you so much, Bree. And we’ll be back in a couple of weeks and I will be announcing our next guest soon. And I thank everybody for spending time with us today and take care of yourselves and we will see you [00:50:00] again soon. Bye.
