The effects of nonlinear hysteretic damping on the post-critical behaviour of the visco-elastic Beck’s beam are discussed in this paper. The model consists of an inextensible and shear-undeformable cantilever beam, internally and externally damped, loaded at the free end by a follower force. Equations are derived in finite kinematics by taking as the configuration variable the rotation of the cross-section, instead of the usual deflection v of the beam axis, thus making the description of the contact internal actions simpler. The linear stability analysis is carried out and results of the literature are re-obtained. Then, a multiple-scale approach is developed in order to evaluate the nature, super- or subcritical, and the amplitude of the limit-cycle, occurring close to the Hopf critical load. The effects of the nonlinear damping on the amplitude of the limit-cycle are finally discussed for different linear damping coefficients.