An Open Letter to Businesses Starting up Social Media

At this point, we’ve seen it all. Our clients’ frustrations have become our frustrations – frustrations that truly could be avoided, with the proper precautions. What precautions? Glad you asked!

Our Social Media Department Manager, Cassie Olivos, has rounded up some of the most common hiccups she (and her team) experience when new clients choose Ferocious Media’s social media product – plus some pro tips on how these headaches can be avoided.

Having no Admin access to a Facebook business Page.

Facebook Pages cannot be created unless they are attached to a personal Page, there is no direct log in. I repeat, you cannot create a Page without a personal Facebook account – you do not pass go, you do not collect $200.

If you are the business owner, I highly recommend you create your company’s Facebook business Page yourself (or choose a trusted digital marketing company to help, more on that to come). In doing so, you are the initial Admin and thus have the opportunity to assign Page roles to other employees. Someone with Admin level access can manage all aspects of the Page – including assigning Page roles, which is key.

If only one person has Admin access and leaves the company – spoiler alert, the access to your Facebook Page plus the entire community that you’ve worked hard to build, goes with them.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen this happen to clients before: A business partner or trusted employee creates and manages the company Page, leaving themselves as the only person with Admin access. Then, as I’m sure you can guess where this story is going, said Admin has a falling out and leaves the company – and there goes the business Page and following they’ve worked so hard to build from the ground up. Even if there are additional Editors assigned to the Page, they are not able to assign any new Page roles, and they certainly aren’t going to let random people sign into their personal Facebook account to access the business Page. So, now what?

In most cases, you may be out of luck. In the example above, we were luckily able to work with our Facebook Representative to devise a workaround, but this isn’t always possible.

Pro Tip: Assign multiple Admins to your Facebook Page, that you trust.

Having multiple social media channels, with no login information.

Spinning off the above, here is another typical conundrum: A client finds themselves with multiple Facebook Pages, Twitter handles, and Google+ pages – without the slightest idea on how to access them. Unfortunately, as you can assume from my previous point – if you don’t have any idea who has access to your social pages, there’s not much that can be done. Seriously, just read SOME of the recent frustrations Facebook users have dealt with here. At least where Google is concerned, as a business owner you can contact Google My Business yourself to try and gain access – just be prepared to go through a (rather lengthy) prohttps://drivenlocal.com/google-101-representing-business/cess in doing so.

There’s nothing worse than having a variety of pages out there, with a following on each, and having no access to those audiences. Not to mention these duplicates can also have a negative effect on your SEO efforts.

Pro Tip: Keep a detailed list of all log-ins ever created and go in periodically to confirm passwords are correct. Share this document (I keep everything in an easily shareable Google Sheets doc) with the same trusted Admins and make sure any new social channel that is created A) gets your approval and B) is added to your document.

Having a company blog with images pulled straight from Google.

While internet users may grab images off Google to post to their personal social media pages and personal blogs – for business this is a BIG no-no. Why? Images come with copyrights and image owners don’t take lightly to use of their work without their permission. Trust me, the owners of these images have a particular set of skills, skills that have been acquired over a very long career, skills that make these owners a nightmare for your business. Using an image that is copyright-protected without permission can result in a hefty fine and legal action from the owner. Hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your husband – cuz they’re fining errbody out here.

Pro Tip: Use FREE image sites, pay for a stock photo service, take your own imagery – or work with a digital marketing company who does all of the above.

Not working with credible, trustworthy people or companies.

We’ve already discussed how important it is to have trusted employees given access to your social pages, but what about when enlisting help from a third party? With the amount of digital agencies and freelancers out there claiming to be experts – it’s important to know that whoever you are working with is credible. Does the company you work with follow the best practices on social media? Are they using images from Google for your company blog? Most importantly, if they created your social media handles, are they going to give you access without a struggle? You may be surprised to hear that this is a common scenario. While I myself like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I’ve worked with so many clients that had to fight hard for their login credentials from past freelancers and agencies. In fact, I’ve fought with many agencies to grant me access to my client’s social media pages on their behalf. Not. Cool.

Pro Tip: Do your research, read reviews, understand what you are signing up for, and ask all of these questions up front. At Ferocious Media, we take great pride in our relationships with clients and always put them first. While we’re sad to see clients go, we provide all login credentials and ensure lines of communication are left open should they need anything down the line. We believe a relationship doesn’t end just because a contract does.

Before you find yourself in one of the above scenarios, contact us to learn more about how we can help you and your business’ social media presence! Give one of the Ferocious Media experts a chat with live support on our website.