In every marketing team’s digital locker room is a sign that says “Zero days since a client had an ownership issue with a social media profile”—or so we joke. But in reality, tracking down who owns a business’s social media profiles and ad accounts is a serious challenge faced by brands of all sizes.
Ownership issues start at inception
Social media used to be an afterthought, or best case, a secondary priority for businesses. The job of setting up and managing social media profiles often fell to junior staff or one individual juggling too many hats. Prompted by social apps, they would naturally tie the company’s social media profile to their personal profile, phone number, or email. After months or years without issue, the person would leave the company, and the staff—or agency—stepping in to manage social media would be left without full access to the business’s social accounts, making any attempt to implement a successful social strategy endlessly frustrating.
Social media jail
For all their missteps and lagging response to privacy and data, most social media apps have made it difficult to advertise and promote content on their platforms without verifying—you are you, and you are the rightful heir to this social media account. Platforms have gone so far as locking people out of their own personal accounts or requiring notarized tax documents to take ownership. And coupled with the faceless and sometimes non-existent customer support of social apps, once a social media profile is set up incorrectly, a company may find themselves stonewalled and unable to escape social media jail—sometimes deciding to call it quits by creating a new social media profile and leaving behind mountains of valuable data.
But what can you do?
You’re proactive, and your business social media profiles are already set up. What can you do now to avoid becoming the next inmate of social media jail due to ownership issues?
1. Share admin rights
The easiest way to avoid ownership issues is to spread out the power. Social apps like Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to add multiple admins to an account, and we recommend ensuring at least two people at any given time have full admin rights to a social account.
2. Use an email alias
You’ve probably received a notification saying, “A verification code was sent to the email ending in ***@gmail.com,” and although most social apps prioritize two-step authentication via a cell phone number—as a backup or authorization with customer support—access to the correct email can save the day. Our advice? Register company social media profiles under an email alias that can be connected to the inbox of several team members and updated as staff come and go.
3. Utilize a password manager
This tip may go beyond social media, but we recommend you get in the habit of utilizing password managers like 1Password or Keeper Security to save, protect, and share login credentials for social media profiles with the appropriate team members—including removing them as needed.
4. Create a Facebook Business Manager
The catalyst for this blog is Facebook and Instagram, and the headaches we face alongside clients tracking down ownership of their profiles to connect ad accounts, add pixels, verify domains, or simply disable page reviews. Why? Over the years, Meta has not-so-seamlessly integrated the two platforms while adding several layers of admin rights and portals—here’s looking at you, Business Suite—that can fill like a maze for even a seasoned marketer.
That being said, Meta has provided a solution to all the chaos—create a Business Manager where you can secure ownership of your Facebook and Instagram profiles, manage user permissions, share assets with agencies, and connect the appropriate accounts with each other. With a well-managed Business Manager, you can safely stay out of social media jail.
As you can see, the recurring theme here is redundancy. The more people with the appropriate access to your social media profiles, the less likely you’ll have ownership issues down the road—and the more likely you’ll be able to implement that award-winning social media campaign your team has been dreaming of.