Here's How to Hack a Social Media Break if You Work in Social...Kinda

Let's face it, social media can be exhausting.

There's a constant need and want to keep up with content, post content, follow specific people, trends, and pages. If you're a content creator, there's a constant want for engagement, likes, sharing, remaining relevant, etc.

And when you work in it? Forget about it. For as long as I could remember, I felt like I could never take a break from social media. Then I had to take a step back and consider which parts of social media were actually draining me. A lot of it had to do with keeping up with other peoples' lives when I didn't even have the mental capacity (at the time) to keep up with my own. I needed a break, but also needed to keep up with brands and social to do my 9-5 job.

Here's what I did to pull back, but remain in the know:

1. I determined how long I wanted to stay off of social media, which platforms were draining me, and which platforms I could continue to keep up with (if at all). I took my "break" for about two months.
2. I decided to deactivate my personal Instagram temporarily, and instead, use my @milliemakes.co Instagram to keep up with brands instead of individuals. Hold up, lemme say that again. I used my @milliemakes.co Instagram to keep up with brands instead of individuals. I literally unfollowed everyone and started from scratch. I began to look for brands and agencies I wanted to follow, and stuck to that. Feel free to look through who I follow on that account for details.
3. I kept Twitter, but instead of using it to scroll, I only explored the trending topics page for news and updates.
4. I opted to read articles from websites like The Skimm , Adweek , AdAge , and The Verge daily in order to keep up with current events and ad news.
5. I continued to use LinkedIn professionally, and I didn't have a TikTok at the time, so I didn't have to "worry" about that.

Here's what I learned:

1. I found that in some ways, following brands vs people made me a better strategist. I was unintentionally auditing how I could revisit creative strategy at work because I was seeing so many examples of how other brands were approaching social. But it wasn't draining me because the content I was consuming wasn't about other people's lives.
2. Putting my phone down and limiting my time on social media outside of work obviously helped with my habit of always being on my phone. I'd do things like make playlists, be more in tune with myself at the gym, or randomly organize cabinets? Lol.
3. The time away from my personal social media really allowed me to reevaluate who I was following and why. Kid you not -- I came back to social media refreshed and with a different outlook on things. I unfollowed about 1K+ people on personal page, and decided that I didn't HAVE to follow people just because I knew them personally. I became more intentional. Thus, making my timeline more intentional.

All this to say, make your social media experience what you want it to be. If you're tired, take a break. Even if you work in social media, there are ways to scale back. It's possible, you just have to commit and clear your mind.

And since we're talking social, here are my handles:

TikTok: @millietoro

Instagram: @millietoro & @getupnglowofficial (food blog)

Hope this helps someone in need of a break! ??

-Millie