“What’s your Password?”

Here’s how to keep track of passwords on all of your digital marketing and social media accounts.

Keeping track of all of your small business digital passwords can be time consuming and confusing.

It’s great to know that we have so many ways to access our accounts online. Password authentication technology such as a digital key, fingerprint technology and faces, CAPTCHAS , biometrics, and 2-Factor Authentication) are ideal tools to use.

Yet, one of the biggest stumbling blocks I have when onboarding new clients is obtaining correct login information, access to social media accounts, and website information.  Small businesses usually have one employee with the ‘key’ to opening all of their social media accounts. What if this employee leaves the company? User names and passwords leave with them.

Individual business owners with the login credentials sometimes do not remember which email address initially was used to sign up for Facebook or Twitter. This makes recovering passwords an obstacle to digital marketing success. First, we need to access to all user accounts before I can do my job effectively.

It would be ideal to walk into a new client’s business where I’m immediately blasting social media posts and increasing  website visitors right away.   I’m not saying this does not happen. However, this is the exception and not the rule.

My observation:  Most small business owners do not have login information beyond their own social media accounts. Additionally, they have difficulty tracking the information down in a timely fashion. They are, in essence, ‘locked out’.

There are easy ways to fix this problem.

Here’s how to avoid getting ‘locked out’ of your social media and online accounts:

1.  Write user names and passwords down in a central location and keep them under lock and key.  Keep a password diary and lock it in a small safe, or use an app or software with password lists.
2. Require 2-3 employees have access to all accounts with 2-factor authentication. Include the business owner or partners in this grouping.  If one of the 3 employees changes a login user name or password, the ‘key’ or ‘access’ club gets notified.
3. When an employee with this type of access is leaving the company, do a final password check.  Have them sign you in to your accounts with correct login credentials prior to their last day.  This will allow you to ‘check’ the login information and will give you the impetus to change ALL passwords immediately.
4. By changing passwords on a quarterly basis, all accounts are reset and new passwords are fresh on everyone’s minds.When changing to new passwords, take the advice from a recent 2021 list and avoid all of these passwords!

By focusing on your password and account access within your small business from the start, your social media consultant will thank you!

Thank you,

Cheryl Friedenberg
Marketing Consultant
High Key Impact LLC
cheryl@highkeyimpact.com
@highkeyimpact