Who 'owns' social media profiles used for business?
Discussion
Hi. Like many businesses we are now putting quite a lot of effort into business social media. We have 3 staff members in marketing that all have separate Facebook profiles to interact with customers. We are completely up front about it being a business profile, for example the name format is firstname_businessname. I believe this is the 'correct' way of doing things - please correct me if I'm wrong.
I have an issue where I am concerned about one of these users who may be posting inappropriate content, which has popped up on a 3rd parties feed and has passed it on. It turns out that we do not have access to this persons account and the manager cannot view the content.
This raises the question of who actually owns that account?
I have an issue where I am concerned about one of these users who may be posting inappropriate content, which has popped up on a 3rd parties feed and has passed it on. It turns out that we do not have access to this persons account and the manager cannot view the content.
This raises the question of who actually owns that account?
Normally you'd have a single Facebook page (i.e. business page) and allocate a number of administrators to post on its behalf.
A few issues with your current setup -
1. You can't stop the person posting because you can't log into their account
2. When they leave, all the relationships are lost because they are with the individual account
3. If the person is on holiday, no-one else can respond to their clients
A few issues with your current setup -
1. You can't stop the person posting because you can't log into their account
2. When they leave, all the relationships are lost because they are with the individual account
3. If the person is on holiday, no-one else can respond to their clients
Agree with miniman! One person needs overall control, really. And ideally whatever's posted should be agreed to or there should at least be guidelines. At the moment, it's the equivalent of having a glass-fronted noticeboard outside the office with your logo on the top and allowing anyone with a key (the 3 employees) to open it and stick whatever they want.
Were the accounts set up with @yourname.com email addresses. If the worst comes to the worst you may be able to do a password reset if you can get control of their mailboxes again.
On the whole though you've done it almost right - especially if you're addressing the problem now before a big one comes along. For facebook as someone has mentioned you want to become the overall owner of the page and just grant limited access to the staff to control your page.
It might also be worth looking into something like hootsuite to manage your social media presence. It allows for you to check postings before they go live.
Social Media is a very tricky thing to get right as the frequent public screw-ups show, however it works best when people have freedom and when I've come across staff posting things I don't want up it's usually just over eagerness or an oversight in judgement rather then malice.
On the whole though you've done it almost right - especially if you're addressing the problem now before a big one comes along. For facebook as someone has mentioned you want to become the overall owner of the page and just grant limited access to the staff to control your page.
It might also be worth looking into something like hootsuite to manage your social media presence. It allows for you to check postings before they go live.
Social Media is a very tricky thing to get right as the frequent public screw-ups show, however it works best when people have freedom and when I've come across staff posting things I don't want up it's usually just over eagerness or an oversight in judgement rather then malice.
Edited by rpguk on Tuesday 16th September 14:26
You're doing it wrong.
You should have a page not an account. The page should be administered by your staff who log into Facebook using their personal account, or one setup for managing this page. Then whoever's set as the page admin can add or remove other admins if they're posting bad stuff.
You should have a page not an account. The page should be administered by your staff who log into Facebook using their personal account, or one setup for managing this page. Then whoever's set as the page admin can add or remove other admins if they're posting bad stuff.
bulldong said:
The problem is that you can't run a page without a personal account. So my point still stands.
The personal account doesn't have to be acknowledged in the business page, though. I have a stupid account that is very unprofessional in a non-offensive way but manage a page that's very sensible. As I understand it, unless I tell someone, nobody can tell that my daft account is linked to my business page.Hoofy said:
bulldong said:
The problem is that you can't run a page without a personal account. So my point still stands.
The personal account doesn't have to be acknowledged in the business page, though. I have a stupid account that is very unprofessional in a non-offensive way but manage a page that's very sensible. As I understand it, unless I tell someone, nobody can tell that my daft account is linked to my business page.In the OP's case though, he has three staff who access and control his business page from their personal accounts. In my opinion this is a nightmare waiting to happen.
So, he should set up an account purely for the purposes of running this page from, set it as admin, and then remove all the other personal accounts from the business page.
Then all the staff should use this account to admin the page as and when necessary.
Otherwise, he is exposing himself to big problems if there is a falling out from the company with one of the staff.
miniman said:
I'd still advocate staff administering the page via their own account, as if they share the same login and anything, say, untoward happens, you won't be able to prove who did it, or lock one out without locking them all out.
Of course, the owner can always attach his personal account as a safety net. I just don't think that people need to have their personal account attached to someone their work facebook.bulldong said:
Hoofy said:
bulldong said:
The problem is that you can't run a page without a personal account. So my point still stands.
The personal account doesn't have to be acknowledged in the business page, though. I have a stupid account that is very unprofessional in a non-offensive way but manage a page that's very sensible. As I understand it, unless I tell someone, nobody can tell that my daft account is linked to my business page.In the OP's case though, he has three staff who access and control his business page from their personal accounts. In my opinion this is a nightmare waiting to happen.
So, he should set up an account purely for the purposes of running this page from, set it as admin, and then remove all the other personal accounts from the business page.
Then all the staff should use this account to admin the page as and when necessary.
Otherwise, he is exposing himself to big problems if there is a falling out from the company with one of the staff.
Basically,
1) create a company page. eg facebook.com/warp9limited
2) you are the admin.
3) you can make me, your postman and your cat moderators so we can post stuff as Warp9 Limited. It will not mention me, your postman or your cat. If I post as me that I had a nice coffee today, it will come up on my timeline and not in any way be associated with Warp9 Limited. If I swap to post as Warp9 Limited and post that we bought a kilo of coffee, then it will come up on fb.com/warp9limited's timeline.
4) if your cat posts that he stole your neighbour's milk, you can delete the post and remove his ability to moderate fb.com/warp9limited.
Try it and you'll see what I mean.
1) create a company page. eg facebook.com/warp9limited
2) you are the admin.
3) you can make me, your postman and your cat moderators so we can post stuff as Warp9 Limited. It will not mention me, your postman or your cat. If I post as me that I had a nice coffee today, it will come up on my timeline and not in any way be associated with Warp9 Limited. If I swap to post as Warp9 Limited and post that we bought a kilo of coffee, then it will come up on fb.com/warp9limited's timeline.
4) if your cat posts that he stole your neighbour's milk, you can delete the post and remove his ability to moderate fb.com/warp9limited.
Try it and you'll see what I mean.
Hoofy said:
Basically,
1) create a company page. eg facebook.com/warp9limited
2) you are the admin.
3) you can make me, your postman and your cat moderators so we can post stuff as Warp9 Limited. It will not mention me, your postman or your cat. If I post as me that I had a nice coffee today, it will come up on my timeline and not in any way be associated with Warp9 Limited. If I swap to post as Warp9 Limited and post that we bought a kilo of coffee, then it will come up on fb.com/warp9limited's timeline.
4) if your cat posts that he stole your neighbour's milk, you can delete the post and remove his ability to moderate fb.com/warp9limited.
Try it and you'll see what I mean.
Thanks that helps 1) create a company page. eg facebook.com/warp9limited
2) you are the admin.
3) you can make me, your postman and your cat moderators so we can post stuff as Warp9 Limited. It will not mention me, your postman or your cat. If I post as me that I had a nice coffee today, it will come up on my timeline and not in any way be associated with Warp9 Limited. If I swap to post as Warp9 Limited and post that we bought a kilo of coffee, then it will come up on fb.com/warp9limited's timeline.
4) if your cat posts that he stole your neighbour's milk, you can delete the post and remove his ability to moderate fb.com/warp9limited.
Try it and you'll see what I mean.
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