Top things to think about before you share your Facebook log ins
Your Facebook account is set up in your name (not a business name or a fake name – that would be a breach of the Facebook rules)
Then you set up a Facebook page so you could focus the content on your business.
The page belongs to you and you log into your Facebook account to manage your page.
Now you need a Social Media VA to help you populate all your business platforms with great content.
While the most secure way to handle this can be by using third party posting apps (see our earlier article on this here) you can run into problems using a third party app for Facebook.
Facebook prefers native posting
You will here marketing experts say that Facebook prefers ‘native’ posting. That means posts that are posted via Facebook rather than a third party app. I am not a digital marketer so I don’t really get the algorythm thing, but I do know it can be tricky to make your Facebook content look great if you are posting via another application and many people prefer to post directly to Facebook.
Facebook pages are for more than posting
Facebook pages offer you a lot more options than posting. You can use them to:
- chat to people who visit and leave messages on our page
- create targeted advertising
- set up chat bots
- and a whole host more
Use Facebook Business Manager
If you create a Facebook Business Manager you can:
- Give access to your page without having to share your personal Facebook log in
- Add pages to your Business Manager
- Give secure access to your page for posting
- Your team can schedule posts
- Turn off outgoing VAs or staff without having to change your own log ins
For more information on the Business Manager function click here
Be careful who sets up your Facebook pages and pixels
If you are not design or tech minded it can be tempting to ask someone to set it all up for you.
Make sure you control who is the primary owner of pages, groups and pixels (used to track traffic).
It is easy if you are the owner to change who manages these but it is impossible, for example to change the ownership of a Facebook pixel once it is set up.
GDPR and Facebook
If you are using Facebook for your business, you need to be sure you have got your GDPR compliance right.
Remember, the Data Controller must be in control. If you can’t switch off other users you are paying to help you – you just lost control of your data.
Your data privacy policy should make it clear how you use Facebook and what you do with the data you collect (and that Facebook does its own thing with Data that we cannot control). And iit should be linked to on your ‘About’ tab for your Facebook page.
Facebook pages run on the basis that you are a co-data controller – at least according to Facebook – see here
Make sure everyone has their own unique access to your page via your Business Manager and set up multi factor authentication (MFA) for all users – so if someones password is hacked your page will not be so much at risk.
You will need to give your VA/Social Media team written data processing instructions and contract properly for data security before you give them access to your Facebook page.
Are we being paranoid?
In the last few weeks in our KoffeeKlatch customer support group we have had:
- 4 clients who did not known their own Facebook Pixel and lost all access to their advertising data when they changed their team
- 2 clients who were sharing their personal Facebook log ins with their team
- 1 who was locked out of Facebook and being the only person who could update their Facebook pages was locked out of their own marketing for days with no-one else able to do it.
- I am hearing stories of people whose pages were hacked and credit cards used to purchase Facebook advertising for fake products.
Have a Facebook strategy
We all know we need a marketing strategy and aposting plan but you need a bit more than that.
You need a resilience plan. What happens if:
- You can’t get into Facebook?
- If you want to change your team
- How do you control your data (GDPR)
- You ‘sell’ your business if your pages are linked to former VAs or Marketeers?
- You migrate out of Facebook if needed?
We all know that Facebook is the brand we love to use, but worry about. Yet so few of us have a plan.
Have a contract
When you have a secure plan for working with your Virtual Assistant make sure you have a proper agreement that sets it all out.
You will need to contract for confidentiality, secure access, and voice, tone, and timing.
Remember you can delegate the work but you can never delegate the responsibility.
We help with GDPR for micropreneurs and contracts and policies that help you get it done. All in plain english.
