Burnout



Have you ever experienced the feeling of having posted too much? In the world of public relations and social media, this is referred to as "social fatigue." Social fatigue is when the amount of interactions on social media by an individual causes them to shut down. In class, we talked about two types of fatigue which include fatigue with key publics and fatigue within the organization's own social media channels. I experienced this along with my partners for our YouTube channel. Although I have brought up this channel in the past, I felt this topic embodied the place we are in right now. We originally told our viewers we would be posting every Monday afternoon. For two months we stayed true to that, but after we started to slack off. It was unintentional, but only had gotten worse.

First off, trying to build a YouTube channel is not easy. That, coupled with the fact that we are hundreds of miles away presented challenges from the start. As I mentioned in my previous blog about content calendars, we filmed and created content as quickly as we could. When we reached the stage for posting that content, we followed our weekly posting schedule and even posted multiple times some weeks. We received a great response from our following which motivated us to continue releasing content. Even when we had all gone our separate ways for school we continued to release new videos. At a certain point, it was as if the excitement just disappeared. What was a weekly schedule turned into every other week and later once a month. It became a hassle. For some reason, we just didn't feel as motivated to post as frequently.

Discussing social fatigue stuck out to me because this answered the question. The common assumption is that teenagers and young adults of this generation are consumed in social media; not that we can get tired of it. Although we talked of social fatigue in the professional field of social media, I still think the concept applies to us even as amateur YouTubers. Our fatigue fell into the second category of it occurring within the organization's channels. It was difficult trying to balance posting content on all our platforms which led to our burnout. My perception of social fatigue is not that one becomes sick of social media itself, but satisfied with what is already out and not feeling the drive to crowd channels. I don't think social fatigue is completely negative. Maybe it can serve as a checkpoint or a chance to rethink certain aspects of a PR strategy. I'm not exactly sure what "cures" social fatigue, but knowing that was what I have been experiencing helps bring some clarity to the situation and maybe help me find a way out.

Until Next Time,
James

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