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I'll say right off the bat that this post is going to be half-baked because I'm rushing to write it because it's 9:30 pm and my husband hates when I'm blogging at 9:30 pm. But Ryan Paugh, Community Manager at Brazen Careerist, started a great discussion today in the Community Manager group there and I promised I'd write a post about it today. His question was
Ok, I definitely want to ask everyone how they maintain a healthy work-life balance, blend or whatever you want to call it, as a Community Manager. It's something Maggie and I started talking about yesterday. Can you guys share any stories, tips, etc?
I answered that I think social media/community management jobs (that's another post for another time: are social media manager and community manager really interchangeable terms?) are incredibly time-consuming and make work/life balance very hard.
Why? Because social media jobs require you to do more than one full time job. One is the job you're being paid for: social media management. Already a daunting task because you're more than likely swimming upstream--having to not only do your job but evangelize both externally and internally all the while. So your days are full just doing what you're being paid to do.
Then there's the other part of social media jobs: staying on top of new tools, trends, news, etc and managing your personal brand. Both are, in my opinion, crucial to your success both in your current job and for future career opportunities. It's no secret that the social media world is all about who you know. And who you are both online and off.
Look at all the social media A-listers. They're blogging--frequently. They're tweeting constantly. They're traveling all the time, doing speaking engagements. They're getting book deals. They're reading masses of stuff--blog posts, books, articles. They're on pretty much all the time. How do you live that life and have time to devote to family or friends or spouses or kids?
I'm nothing close to a social media A-lister, but I do have a social media career and I'm here to tell you that finding a way to work 8 hours a day, blog, read, socialize either online or off and just stay on top of the things I need not only to do my job now to the best of my ability but also hopefully ensure that I stay gainfully employed for the next 25+ years in what's becoming an increasingly lucrative and competitive field....it's exhausting. Fun, but incredibly time-consuming and hard to balance with my responsibilities as a mom and a wife.
Speaking of which, time to wrap up this post. So what do you think--is it just me or do others in my same boat feel the same way?
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Comments
01.29.10
Maggie I'm so glad you wrote this post. I was beginning to feel like I was the only one wondering how to maintain a life and devote the amount of time needed to stay on top of EVERYTHING in the social media world. I've been fortunate in my career to partner with two very established published authors who carry quite a bit of weight in the real world but I'm trying to gain more traction in all of the key social media spaces. I love social media and I love to read about it but the amount of content coming out is daunting. I definitely do not have the answer to managing it all but am very interested in the question. I'm fascinated with Lifestyle Design and finding the happy medium in life, so any suggestions or thoughts on this matter from others would be awesome.
01.29.10
This is such a great post - I totally feel you. Witch social media you can't just post and tweet and do whatever 9 to 5. You need to time things and be present ALL the time. Meaning work never ends. I do social media projects on a freelance basis, and that's on top of maintaining my own personal brand. While I adore my job, I do feel like I've become a little bit of a workaholic.
01.29.10
My husband is also amazed--and I think a little dismayed--at how often I'm doing social media for work on the weekends and vacations. And, frankly, I don't even do that much. I do my "trend surfing" during work hours and during off hours just check for things that need action.
It's balance enough for me at the moment, but then my goal isn't to be a leader in this field.
02.11.10
I love Marian's response - for me it's all about presence. If I'm available enough to take it all in, share, respond and comment then I show up for it. But I make sure that I keep enough time back for a walk in nature, or a random dance in the middle of the day, or to write my journal etc. The more I'm available and grounded in my own heart and being, the less 'strung out' I am trying to keep on top of all the sites, blogs, info, tweets etc.
05.21.10
Lately I've been thinking a lot about what my priorities are in terms of what makes me feel happy and fulfilled and engaged-- and then comparing that to how I spend much of my time.
Frankly, I think that family and enjoying life outside of work are more important than keeping on top of the next social networking trend. When you're retired, do you want to look back and think, "Man, did I stay on top of developing trends in the world of social media" Or, "I'm glad I spent lots of time nurturing my family relationships and pursuing my interests outside of work"?
We live in a culture where family and friend relationships increasingly take a backseat to the demands of work. But you can't do it all. Family relationships used to be what sustained people while they spent 30 years working at jobs they didn't particularly care about. Now our jobs are supposed to sustain us, partly because they keep us from our families anyway, and so they end up standing in for personal relationships. Something had to be squeezed out to make room for increased work, and I'm worried about what that was.
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