Managing Online Listings and Accounts

Michael Buczek - July 15, 2010

Managing online accounts, social media logins and other profiles is not something new.   In fact, our Executive Vice President of Client Strategy, Danielle Leitch wrote a piece in a previous newsletter aiming to alert companies as to how important it is to manage their online accounts.

While the article mostly discussed social media passwords, it is important to have a plan to manage all of your business accounts.   Some of the common mistakes we see are that companies task their employees with setting up and managing multiple online profiles for their business.   If no plan is in place, the employee may simply use their company email address.   In most situations this is ok, but if the employee leaves, it can be a headache for the next person responsible for these accounts.   The email may be easy to figure out, but the password could prove to be more difficult to find.  

To make it easier for online profile management, it is important for a company to set up email addresses that are not necessarily tied to any one employee.   It is also important that there be a way to keep track of these various email addresses and passwords, so that it is easy for other people to get access.   A spreadsheet or a CRM software package can be used to track various usernames, emails and passwords.

You may even wish to create email usernames based on the types of account that it is associated with.   Examples:

• social@yourcompany.com — Use for Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
• pr@yourcompany.com — Use for press release syndication services and other public relations type services.
• local@yourcompany.com — Use this for any type of local search sites that you manage such as Google Places or yelp.

It is also important to instruct employees not to use personal addresses when creating various accounts.   This can be even more troublesome if that employee leaves, or someone else needs to take over their duties. In some cases it is also very difficult to get the email changed if you wish to consolidate listings.   When a personal email is used, it also opens up that employee to sharing personal information.