Social Media Accounts - Intellectual Property

Social Media Accounts – Intellectual Property

After meeting with my client to help them decide on keeping a service they have with an advertising company, I thought it would be a good idea to post this blog. I am a social media manager and I manage social media accounts for small to medium sized businesses in the Vancouver BC area.  What concerned me most was the lack of transparency when it came to account ownership. This advertising company set up my client’s Google Adwords account for them but didn’t use the company’s email address and the Google account is not listed under my client’s name.  When the company asked for access to the Google account it was denied and when asked it was confirmed that the advertising company was claiming that the Google Adwords account was their intellectual property. This is concerning to me since my client has paid them over $25,000.00 annually to manage this account.  We then asked what happens if the business agreement ends and the answer was the Google Ad words account would be deleted.  This situation puts my client in a disadvantageous position since they have invested a lot of money in to a service that manages an account for them but isn’t actually theirs. Before you find your self in this position keep the following in mind and make sure before you enter into an agreement with a contractor or company it is clear who owns what.

• Who owns your content?
  • If you break the relationship with your Social Media Manager do you have a contract or agreement in place to secure your accounts, and the intellectual property that has been disseminated through the account? This may include images, posts, links to blogs and any written content or images photographed and used for posts.
  • Is your manager transparent with log in information? Do you have access to your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account? Even if you never have the need to log into your accounts you should still be able to.
  • What are the terms of your agreement? Are you able to confirm that you are receiving the service that you are paying for?  Do you receive reports with account activity? Is there a social media strategy in place or a dissemination schedule that should be followed and if so is it being followed?
• What contact information is attached to your account?
  • Whose contact information is listed as the contact for your social media accounts? Is it your name, company name and email address that is attached to the account or is it some random email account?
  • Are the social media account email addresses associated to @yourdomain.com? If you don’t have access to the email addresses associated to the SM accounts then you can’t manage basic preferences like changing email addresses or prove account name and or ownership.
  • Are you listed as a trusted contact for your SM accounts and do you have administrative permissions to manage your account, even if you don’t use them? You should be able to access all of your accounts without a doubt.
• What happens if your SM manager disappears or drops off?
  • Are you able to access your insights or visit statistics, most of the statistical information available for your accounts is located within the account. Are you able to access this information using log in information?
  • Do you know your social media manager, are they accessible and easy to reach through phone, text, email or social media platforms
  • Are they forthcoming when giving you access to your information.

These are all very important points to remember when starting a relationship with an account manager. Be clear about your expectations and follow through when you request sensitive information about your accounts. Check the log in information often to make sure that you can still access the accounts in case username, email address or password has been changed.