Digital Dealer - February 2019 - 26

M A R K E T ING & ADVERT ISING: So cia l Medi a

By Kathi Kruse
Founder,
Kruse Control Inc.

How to Safeguard
Your Dealership's
Social Media
Accounts
Even though social
media has become
mainstream, there are
surprisingly many dealers
who haven't secured their
social media accounts. How
do I know this? Because on
a regular basis, I'm asked
about the 'best ways to
safeguard our social media
accounts.'
Rather than leave things
up to chance, let's discover
the best practices for securing your online accounts so
you can feel more comfortable about one of your most
valuable company assets.
We've all witnessed one
or more embarrassing or
dangerous debacles that
happen when social media
accounts are not secure.
Let's make sure it doesn't
happen to you.

SETTING UP AND
SECURING YOUR SOCIAL
MEDIA PROFILES:

I'll break this down into
easy-to-digest parts. You
can examine each one, determine if you're on the right
track and make a course
correction if necessary.
STEP 1: ALWAYS USE
WORK EMAILS FOR
SOCIAL MEDIA ADMINS.

26

FEBRUARY 2019

Provide your social media
manager (or any employee)
with a work email, one that
you as the owner have control over, such as xxxxx@
companyname.com.
For your social media
manager, it's fine to use
something like, "socialmediamanager@companyname.com," as long as
the email is hosted on your
own server and your IT
department controls it.

STEP 2: PERIODICALLY
CONFIRM YOUR ADMINS.

Make sure your social media
manager and other Admins
are using their specific work
email addresses.

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

If something happens
(they leave, you terminate
them, they become unable
to perform their job, etc.),
you'll have control over that
email and you'll change the
password immediately.
STEP 3: SETTING UP
FACEBOOK. All Facebook

Business Pages are created
and set up using a personal profile (i.e.: you log in
through a personal account
to access the Business
Page). I recommend using
something similar to what I
suggested earlier, "socialmediamanager@companyname.com" to set up the
personal profile for company

use. You may also use the
owner's personal Facebook
login if he or she is using
Facebook.
Next, you'll 'create a page'
(as Facebook calls it) while
logged into that personal
profile. Once the page is set
up, you'll make at least three
trusted people "Admins" of
the page, including your:
 Social media manager
 GM, CEO (or yourself)
 CFO or HR Manager
PROTIP: If your Facebook
page and other profiles are
already set up and/or you've
been using them for a while,
perform an audit of the
Admins on each platform to
make sure you're following
these best practices. Don't
wait until it's too late -
after someone has left and
you've inadvertently given
up control of your page to
non-stakeholders.
Again, the social media
manager should only be
able to use their work email
address to access the
page. If they ever leave,
you'll have control over it
and change the password
immediately.
If someone has accidentally or unknowingly made
them an Admin using their
personal email (their nonwork email), you can easily
remove them as an Admin
and invite them back using
their preferred work email
address.
ADDITIONAL ACTIONS
TO SAFEGUARD YOUR
SOCIAL MEDIA:

It's important to cover all
your bases when it comes
to dealership assets and
reputation. Ensure against
common catastrophes by
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Digital Dealer - February 2019

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