Control Your Access and Avoid Social Media Crises
“Shop fires employee; employee takes over shop’s social media account.”
Does that scenario sound like that something that could never happen to you? If you’re a shop owner, unfortunately it’s not impossible because these types of situations can happen in every industry, including ours. As auto repair shops establish social profiles and increase their social marketing efforts, we are all going to see issues like this.
Who has access to your shop’s social accounts? If you don’t know, it’s time to take control of your social strategy. At first it may seem baffling to imagine not knowing exactly who has access to your shop’s accounts; but it’s not as rare as you may think.
Many shops owners do not have time or feel comfortable managing the social media sites themselves, so they’ve delegated responsibility for social media to an employee. It’s not a bad idea to have someone help you out with social media, but it can turn ugly if that employee leaves the company and you haven’t taken proper steps to protect your shop’s accounts.
First, it’s always important for the shop owner to be an administrator and have the login credentials for all of your shop’s social media accounts. It’s your business after all.
Because social media plays such a key role in your shop’s online reputation, you don’t want to take risks with access. Here are a few additional tips to consider in securing your social media presence:
- Always deactivate access immediately when an employee who had access to your social media accounts leaves your company.
- Keep all password and login credentials in a secure location and do not share with anyone who doesn’t need them.
- Monitor your social media accounts regularly to be sure you have access and that nothing is amiss.
- Have some basic policies in place for what is appropriate to post on social media on behalf of your company and be sure to explain them to anyone who posts for you.
Taking some common sense precautions can prevent something like this from happening to your business (click to expand image to full size):
Of course, that is a worst-case scenario, but it does illustrate why protecting your social media assets is so important. Here are a few resources with additional information:
