It’s that time of year again: Pride Month! And while every social media manager wants to shout how amazing that is from the top of their lungs, it is also the worst month to be a social media manager.

Over the course of this month, your social media manager will read some of the most vile and disgusting comments, and they will be waiting for them every time they log into your accounts. To say that I get a stomach ache every day during this month as I’m about to log in is not an exaggeration. And based on the number of messages I’ve seen leading up to this month, I’m not alone.

While there isn’t a lot that you can do to stop the hatefulness that happens during this month, there are some things you can do to help your social media manager. Let’s talk about it.

Remind your social media manager why you post in support of Pride

Most social media managers understand why it’s important to post about Pride. But after reading the hundredth gross comment, things tend to get hazy. So it wouldn’t be a bad thing to send them reminders of why this is important.

Send them statistics and how posting about a LGTBQ+ event could help improve those statistics. Send them images of community members they are helping by making these posts. And give them any real-time anecdotes of how a post has helped.

We spend so much time in the filth on the internet that counterbalancing it with the positive really can make a difference. It reminds us that there is a much bigger world and that we’re making a difference in it. And that will do wonders for our mental health.

Have mental health check-ins

Someone in one of my Facebook groups posted, “How do I make sure this no longer happens?” You can’t. All you can do is clean up the mess these comments leave behind, and that is just maddening. It’s enough to break you.

So you may want to check in with your social media manager regularly to see how they are doing. You can lend an ear for their thoughts and feelings around what is going on. You can lend them support. And you can just be there for them. But most importantly, you can look for early signs of a problem.

Most people don’t see those early signs of a mental health issue in themselves until they are in a free fall. This regular check-in will allow for a once over to make sure the social media manager is coping well. If they’re not, more substantial support can be brought in. Maybe that’s in the form of giving them a break from reading the comments. Or maybe it’s just a reminder to take better care of themselves. And like your LGBTQ+ efforts, this should be done year-round rather than during one month of the year.

Train a backup person or two early

If things get particularly gnarly this year as they likely will, it will become a question of when your social media manager will burn out rather than if. And if they do, do you have someone who is trained well enough to take over? If you’re not sure of the answer, ask your social media manager. They’ll most likely say absolutely not. That’s because even if they have the technical knowledge, a backup person won’t have the day-to-day knowledge that is necessary to do the job.

So what do you do to rectify that?

This is an area where you have to take the lead of the social media manager. For me, it would vary from client to client. But if I were bringing in a new backup person, I would start with a longer training to go over the specifics. I would then update that Powerpoint monthly to make sure its the most current representation of my client’s social media program and schedule monthly short trainings to refresh and update the back up person. I’d have them perfectly set up so that they could pick things up at a moment’s notice.

I know this is hard when your social media team consists of one person. But not having a backup person who is fully trained sets the organization up for failure. In addition to times like Pride Month when the comments can be extra heavy, there are vacations and illnesses and more when the social media manager will need to step away. Having someone who can step in and who your social media manager trusts can be a huge investment in keeping your social media manager around for a long time.

How are you supporting your social media manager during Pride Month? How are you supporting them year-round?