How to manage multiple social media accounts
Digital marketing in the post-pandemic era has become more complex and extensive. One of the most significant factors to consider is access management regarding multiple social media accounts you manage on your company's behalf.
With so many platforms and a growing user community, trying to wrangle them all can feel like a full-time job.
In this blog post, we'll share some tips on how you can streamline your access management process and make managing multiple social media accounts easy.
Manage unmanageable socials
It’s not enough to have point solutions and procedures in place anymore. Most social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok don’t support industry identity and access (IAM) standards like single sign-on.
As a result, marketing teams are forced to look for manual solutions for managing passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA). The effort becomes unmanageable as the need to add employees and contractors increases. Manual processes slow productivity and increase the risk of security breaches.
Although the suggestions below will help to manage your accounts better, you should also look to automate wherever possible with workflow automation tools.
Use a password manager
Passwords themselves are not a threat—instead, it’s the lack of users managing them correctly and the social platforms' lack of support for standards like single sign-on.
A password manager tool helps you generate, store, and manage complex passwords for all your social media accounts. Password managers like 1Password, Dashlane, and Cerby can help you create unique passwords for each social media account, reducing the risk of account takeovers.
Password managers like 1Passord and Dashlane struggle when passwords and access need to be shared across teams and organizations (like agencies). Look for solutions that automate sharing across teams and organizations while managing 2FA codes.
Implement two-factor authentication
2FA is a security feature that requires users to provide two or more authentication factors to access their social media accounts. Enabling 2FA adds an extra layer of security and makes it harder for cybercriminals to access your social media accounts.
However, for 2FA to be effective, people must implement it. Often 2FA is an option that users choose not to activate because it makes sharing access to social accounts difficult. Look for tools that automate 2FA without having to share the code manually.
Assign roles and permissions
Assigning roles and permissions is an effective way to manage access to your social media accounts. For example, a social media manager might need full access to all the accounts. In contrast, a social media intern might only need access to the posting editor but cannot manage users.
As the combinations of platforms and users grow, assigning access permissions is manual and time-consuming. But when connected to a centralized platform for access management across multiple applications, you can automate access and permissions at the onboarding level and apply them to all your social apps once. Solutions like Cerby fall into this category.
Regularly review access permissions
Once you set up permissions, regularly review the access permissions granted to each user to ensure they only have access to the social media accounts and platforms they need. This will help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Set up alerts for suspicious activity
Many social media platforms have built-in security features that can alert you to suspicious activity, such as unusual login attempts or changes to account settings. Set up alerts to quickly take action if any suspicious activity occurs.
Educate users on security best practices
Educate all users accessing your social media accounts on security best practices. This can include avoiding suspicious links, regularly changing passwords, and never sharing login credentials with anyone. This last suggestion is sometimes challenging to implement if you use an agency to help manage your social accounts. The best path around this is to investigate access automation platforms like Cerby.
Summary
Onboarding employees and agencies to multiple social media accounts can be daunting, but there are steps you can take to ensure that your accounts remain secure. Your top priority should be centralizing management and automating as many tasks as possible.
A password manager tool can help you generate, store, and manage complex passwords to prevent data or identity breaches. Still, they cannot help you share access to accounts and manage 2FA codes. Regularly review access permissions, set up alerts for suspicious activity, and educate users on security best practices. With these steps, you can ensure that your social media accounts stay secure and protected without grinding your work to a halt.
Cerby can centralize and automate the onboarding process for new employees and agencies and apply the setup across all your apps, including your socials. See it in action.
