These days, most companies have a social media presence. Some are healthy and vibrant, while others merely exist. Regardless of how well any particular company presents itself on these channels, social media has transcended beyond the term “social media” and could now also be said to be a:

1. Marketing channel
2. Content distribution channel
3. Customer service venue
4. Online review platform
5. Communication channel

While you personally may not believe social media is worth the time and effort -- your customers certainly do. For instance, customers now use social media to reach out to their airline when a flight is delayed or something happens. And, guess what? If it is one of the major airlines, they tend to respond.

Why do so many big brands respond to social media if it’s so unimportant? Because consumers value it. In today’s mobile, smartphone-enabled world, in a time of turmoil, many find that it is much more convenient to reach out to an airline or hotel provider than to attempt to call them. And, frequently, it produces a faster response. Consumer behavior is then reinforced and they continue to use social media platforms for customer service issues. While this may be limited to BIG BRANDS, it’s quickly becoming an expectation for consumers across the board. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account for your business, your customers will be talking to you.

For this reason, the employee you choose to respond to posts on your social media properties, and exactly how you set up the account, is essential to your continued online social presence.

Imagine this scenario. You establish a social media presence and post relevant and interesting messages about your dealership. You build a nice size following. After all of this hard work and nurturing, something unexpected happens – an administrator leaves. Or, perhaps your dealership hired a vendor to create and/or manage your Facebook account… and then you cancel with them. What happens now? Well, I hope you set your page up correctly.

The first thing you need to know about Facebook pages is that you ALWAYS need an administrator. Of course, most companies just assign everyone as an administrator -- whether that’s the owner, employees or vendors. Everyone can do their thing, whatever their thing is -- and everyone is happy, right? Wrong!

The problem is that as people drop off – employees leave, vendors get cancelled, etc. – your Facebook page can be at risk. In the worst case scenario, a disgruntled employee or vendor can remove every administrator, and then themselves as well, leaving no available access. This means your page is orphaned. Which literally means that, while your Facebook presence still exists, you no longer have control and cannot post any content, reply to any comments, or messages. It’s sort of in a state of limbo. And it’s not easy to regain control.

The good news is that there is a solution. Facebook provides multiple levels of access which include different types of privileges. If you pay attention and set things up correctly, you should never encounter a situation whereby you lose control of the Facebook page you worked so hard to build.

The levels of access are as follows:

1. Administrator – Think of this level as that of a dictator. You can do anything. You are the man. Whatever you want to do, you can do. Be careful who you assign this to.
    
2. Editor – This is the setting that you probably want most of your assigned employees and vendors to have. This will allow them to do everything EXCEPT manage administrators. This means that you always have complete control over your page. YOU can delete them (if needed) but they cannot delete YOU.
    
3. Moderator – This setting is very similar to that of Editor, except that they cannot delete or create posts on behalf of you. This would be the ideal setting for any online reputation company you hire, as they can respond to comments and posts,  but cannot mess with any content you create or post.
    
4. Advertiser – If you hire a company to specifically facilitate Facebook ads, this is the setting you should choose when adding them. This allows them to create and post ads for you and view metrics, which is exactly – and only – what they need to do.
    
5. Analyst – This is the lowest security setting of all. This only allows someone to see metrics and data, as well as view who (on an individual level) posted content.

As social media becomes more and more integrated into the everyday lives of consumers, these rules will become more important. It’s better to assign security settings that fit the tasks your employees and/or vendors need access to now, than to regret it later.

Ensure that you have control over your Facebook page through a rigid security standard -- or you could end up in a place where you cannot even access your own Facebook page… and I guarantee that an orphaned Facebook page isn’t easy to reclaim.

It only takes a couple of clicks. Pay attention, just as you would when giving someone access to your CRM or DMS, and you’ll be fine.