Watch out for these marketing mishaps that One Firefly is sharing with us over the next few months. In Part 3 of this series, we are highlighting the importance of owning and retaining your social media accounts and data.

Over the course of the last few months, we’ve been featuring integrators’ marketing horror stories and talking about how to protect your business from falling victim to similar crises. We will prepare you with questions you should be asking your internal team or marketing agency. As they say, knowledge is power and we want to empower you to know how to protect your rights and your intellectual property as it relates to your brand and marketing. 

In Part 3 of our series, we are highlighting the importance of owning and retaining your Social Media accounts and data.

One Integrator Says:

“My previous organization was very small. Myself and the office manager were the only admins on the Facebook account, the owner was not. After I left, I removed myself from the admin panel leaving only one admin on the page. When the office manager left suddenly, the owner was without access, and I could not assist.”
—Melissa Mitchell, Wipliance

The Question:

“If we no longer work together, will I retain access to all of my social media platforms?”

What You Want To Hear:

“Of course! These are your accounts, and we want to ensure you have complete access to them. If you have an existing social media account that you are the Owner of and you’ve granted us with Admin access, we can provide you the steps to easily remove us from accessing that page. If you share the log-in credentials with us, we will make sure you have the necessary information on your end. We would also suggest you update your password for additional security.

Alternatively, if we create the account for you, we will take the appropriate measures to guarantee you have complete access to your pages.”

What should concern you: “We prefer to have full control over all of your posts and editorial calendar. If you terminate our relationship and would like to begin social media management in-house, you would have to create new accounts for all the platforms.”

What to do if this has already happened to you: If you are having trouble gaining Ownership access to your account or the agency refuses to share credentials, and thus you need to launch a new corporate page. Doing so will take time to ramp-up followers and engagement levels to match previous levels of performance. An additional consideration is possible confusion by your audience to know which page they should be following.

When trying to reclaim a page managed by a rogue employee or agency, some platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, allow you to submit a claim to request ownership access. It’s important to note these methods can be tedious and time consuming. 

Facebook and LinkedIn require you to link an existing personal account to create a Business page. It is best practice for every business owner to create their Business page through their personal account to ensure complete ownership. For Instagram and Twitter, the process is a little different. As the owner, you will want to make sure the account is created under your email address and the unique page credentials are known and shared with those parties that need access. 

Learn More about Social Media Management from One Firefly here.

About the Author: One Firefly is the custom integration industry’s leading marketing agency, helping hundreds of technology professionals grow their businesses with innovative and strategic marketing solutions. Headquartered in Davie, Florida, with staff located throughout North America, One Firefly has helped thousands of technology integrators feel proud, prosperous and connected since 2007.  www.onefirefly.com