It happens all the time.
A social media manager leaves your organization abruptly. Or, your freelancer is currently traveling overseas and unavailable. Worse – someone who once worked for you has taken control of your most active social media accounts and is actively working to sabotage your brand. In all of these situations, someone holds the ownership of your brand’s social media accounts, and you can’t get access.
How did this happen? And how can you fix it?
Hopefully, you’re reading this before such a scenario has taken place. This means that you have time to create and implement a strong governance process to prevent an unpleasant situation. Governance is determining who has control of your social media platforms, who has access and to what level – and documenting all of this important information.
The challenge with social media governance is not creating a process – that’s actually straightforward. The challenge is realizing you need one and setting the time aside to do it.
What are the elements of strong social media governance?
Own your social media properties. Who is the ultimate owner of your social media properties? This person should be an administrator who manages all of the accounts, who and what has access to them, and the guidelines for use. This person likely manages your social media strategy and will be responsible for high-level oversight. He or she should be a trusted and responsible member of your team. There should also be a back-up administrator identified in case the owner needs to take time away or is unavailable in case of an incident.
Good housekeeping is also critical: Ensure that you are updating your log-in credentials based on the recommendations of your information security team or the platforms’ best practices. Make sure that you have saved all log-in credentials in a safe place that can be accessed by the proper individuals.
Understand who, and what, has access to your accounts. This is especially important if you’re working with external resources – freelancers, agency partners – to manage your social media program. Understand how the team accesses your account and have a policy in place to address any changes in staffing or project scope. This is also a good opportunity to document the rules of engagement for each role and ensure that all individuals have adequate knowledge of your policies, and access to the training they need to do their work securely.
Next, ensure that each user is given access at the appropriate level for their role in your program. For example, an advertising partner will not need full administrative access to your accounts but would likely need advertiser and perhaps publisher access.
Finally, keep a close eye on which applications might be accessing your accounts, and remove any that are no longer in use. This could be a publishing tool that you no longer use or another integration. While those applications themselves are likely not an issue, you remove the possibility that inactive ones could someday be hacked by a malicious actor and used to access your accounts.
Document everything. Taking the time to document your governance process ensures that you’ll have everything in place to keep your social media program in good working order. It also saves you time when onboarding new employees or new partners, and it removes any uncertainty they might have in practice. Share the document early and often.
Audits are crucial. Regular audits of your social media program, your governance, and your accounts are both good practice and key to the health of your program. Review your governance policy yearly and make any adjustments for changes that took place in the meantime. Review your social media platforms and team usage monthly to identify any potential issues or gaps.
And if the worst happens?
Recovering access to your social media properties can be onerous and will probably take longer than you can afford. If it’s a former employee or partner, you might have success reaching them to ask for their credentials or to turn ownership back over to you. In most cases, reaching out to the social media platforms directly can get the process started, although you might need to provide additional paperwork to prove your ownership. Research the steps in advance through the help section of each platform, and document them as part of a crisis response plan.
As with many things, prevention – through a strong governance process – is much easier than trying to address an issue after a crisis has occurred.
Do you have a governance process in place for your social media program? Is the one you have sufficient to manage your growing needs? Socially Professional offers social media marketing consulting to large organizations, helping turn fragmented marketing efforts into effective strategies. Set up time to talk about it! E-mail luann.edwards@sociallyprofessional.com to learn more.