Nearly Two Thirds of Social Media Managers Say the Job Itself Is Burning Them Out

A 2023 Sprout Social survey found that most people whose entire job is social media say it burns them out, which is worth sitting with if you're doing the same job in the gaps between clients. This includes practices like yours.

Page updated: 13 Aug 2026

Whole-practice growth for wellness practices. Rooted in Wiltshire, UK, working worldwide.

Practices who treat social media as a small extra task might note that even people paid to do nothing else find it draining, which suggests the problem is the format, not the person squeezing it in at 9pm.

Original Research	Sprout Social's blog piece on marketer burnout, sitting alongside their figures on shrinking budgets and headcount
Source	https://sproutsocial.com/insights/battling-social-media-burnout/
Overview	The article looks at burnout among professional social media managers and draws on Sprout Social's own survey work.
Year	2023
Publisher	Brand, Sprout Social
Relevance to Wellbeing	Useful as proof that social media work is genuinely tiring, less useful as proof about people juggling it alongside an actual caseload.
Our Verdict	Too early to tell The burnout is real, but the people surveyed do social media all day, not you, doing it between sessions.
Our Summary	Confirms burnout is common even among people paid to do nothing but social media, so it is not a personal failing. Supports the case for handing routine posting to someone else, or something else. The sample is professional social media managers, not solo practice owners with a full clinic day. Sprout Social sells social media management software, so the framing has a bit of a horse in the race.
Our Geo View	Applies broadly to all countries

Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow

Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

Coaching: This matters because coaches are usually expected to be their own marketing department as well as their own product.
Therapy: This matters because therapists spend the day holding other people's feelings and have little left over for a content calendar.
Training: This matters because trainers posting daily workout content are doing a second, unpaid job on top of the paid one.
Alternative Healing: This matters because healers are often told constant posting equals authenticity, which is exhausting even for people paid to do only that.
Clinical: This matters because clinical staff already carry admin and compliance, and social media just gets stacked on top.
Retreat/Centre: This matters because centres tend to hand social media to whoever has a spare hour, and spare hours are scarce.

Where this came from

A Sprout Social blog post on burnout among the people who run social media professionally, published alongside figures from their wider marketing reports.

Sprout Social blog, 2023 survey data. The article also references Sprout Social's 2025 report, so worth knowing which year's figures you're quoting.

Credibility flags: sample size not disclosed, methodology described only as an industry survey, publisher is a vendor of social media management tools.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

46%

Practice fit, 25How new, 70How solid, 50

Marked down on practice fit since this measures full-time social media managers rather than practice owners, held up reasonably well on recency, and marked down a little on how solid the method is since sample size and full methodology aren't shown.

It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

Put a line in your team handbook saying feeling drained by social media is normal, not a sign anyone's doing it wrong.
Say plainly in onboarding that posting runs on a schedule, before a client asks why nothing went up yesterday.
Brief whoever handles your accounts that batching a week's posts beats improvising one a day.
Cap your own unpaid social media hours each week and write the number somewhere you'll actually see it.
Tell your team that outsourcing the posting is a sensible response to a tiring job, not laziness.

Who this is most useful for

Practice type	Relevance	Recommended action
Coaching	High	Batch content and hand off posting where possible.
Therapy	Medium	Keep social minimal and scheduled, don't chase daily posting.
Training	High	Automate routine content, save energy for clients in front of you.
Alternative Healing	Medium	Question the pressure to post constantly in the name of authenticity.
Clinical	Low	Treat social media as low-priority admin, not a core task.
Retreat/Centre	Medium	Assign social media clearly, don't leave it to whoever's free.

Best before

Best before: worth revisiting when Sprout Social publishes fresh burnout figures, likely alongside their next annual marketing report.

Something Brought You All The Way Down Here.

A good sign. We have an ecosystem, a visual river and a story garden that have been waiting for a practice like yours. Come and find out what we mean - the coffee's hot and the discovery call goes properly both ways.

Find your Sunlight ▶