4 Tips to Help Influencers Avoid Burnout

It's difficult to turn down money and opportunities as they come knocking, especially if being a content creator is your full-time job. But just like corporate jobs have a set 9-5 work week, so should you. Even as new exciting opportunities come through, there are good reasons to be selective in your partnerships.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month this May, we offer four tips to consider and help you avoid those feelings of prolonged burnout.

90% of creators said they'd experienced burnout, while about 71% reported they had thought about quitting social media as a whole. - Vibely

Bonus content: Watch the Negronis with Nord episode here on creator burnout.

1. Consider Your Sponsored vs. Organic Post Ratio

As an influencer, it's important to be mindful of your sponsored to organic content ratio. At the end of the day, your audience follows you for you, and your influence is only as powerful as your audience. So make sure you keep them happy and tuned in by posting organic content surrounding things that you are truly passionate about.

We’re all familiar with ad fatigue, even if we aren’t actively aware of it. It’s that point in an ad’s lifetime where you’ve seen it so many times it becomes less effective with each view.  In the same vein, it's important to be aware of the overabundance of sponsored content on your feed, and the impact on trust, engagement, and effectiveness.

Let's crunch numbers for a minute. Game of Thrones was on television for six seasons. At 73 total episodes, that's over 62 hours of content. The show averaged 17.4m viewers per episode at its peak. That's some binge-able content.

Now imagine that those 17.4m viewers had to sit through advertisements for 31 of those 62 hours, or 50% of the time. Would you continue to tune in?

If you wouldn't watch GOT if it was 50% ads, then how can an influencer expect their audience to stay engaged if their feed is 50% sponsored?

FOHR TIP: As a rule, we believe 25% is a healthy percentage of the feed to be sponsored.

2. Cut Off Brand Proposals at a Reasonable Time & Set Boundaries

We asked influencers for our Fohr the Holidays Report when they make their cut-off for brands during the busiest time of the year: the holiday season.

• 8% of respondents say they cut off proposals from brands in Early-Mid October to leave enough time to shoot content.
• 34% say they cut off proposals from brands in Late October as they release their gift guides in early November.
• 48% of influencers say they cut off proposals from brands in Early November to coincide with Black Friday & Cyber Monday.

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At the end of the day, you want longer-term campaigns and ample time to create the best content. If you're crunched for time and creativity is cramped, eventually the burnout will seep in.

3. Remember that Scarcity Creates Interest

It's important, especially during the holidays, to create some scarcity. Creating scarcity allows that asset to become more valuable.

Ferraris are more expensive than Hondas because they cost a lot more to make, but also because there's a lot less of them. - James Nord, A Drink with James, Ep. 163

It's important to help brands understand that more is not always better. It's very easy to get trapped into the mindset that because you have the time, you need to be creating more content. Setting clear boundaries for your scheduling will increase the value of your posts.

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4. Set Yourself Free

Set yourself free from perfection, the 'hustle grind,' and zero vacations. Leave room to enjoy your work. We recognize that your role as an entrepreneur is a 24/7 job, but all jobs have PTO offered.

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