Stop using your personal Facebook account to manage your company’s Facebook page — here’s why.

Photo by Deeksha Pahariya on Unsplash

I got a lot of projects lately from clients wanting to take back ownership of their Facebook page. You will be surprised to know that these clients were the ones who created their company's Facebook page and are now stripped of business admin rights — isn't it ironic?

First, Meta (formerly Facebook) changed how admins can manage their Facebook Pages by introducing a new platform called Meta Business Suite. Gone are the days when you only need to go to Page Roles and assign your colleague as an admin to take care of your page (Page Role is still under Page Settings, don't worry😊). Meta Business Suite offers extensive features — from running ads, scheduled posts, insights, events, and products (yes, you can sell stuff and handle the billing as well!). Meta Business Suite also features a wide range of analytics and reporting options that will help you see how your Facebook Page (or company) is doing.

The catch with Meta Business Suite is the handover of Page Ownership into "Business Accounts." Sure, you would think at first that it's no biggie, but here is what most businesses fail to think about — business accounts and Facebook pages are two different territories. Yes, you read it right. You must sign up for a new business account and live with it.

Business Accounts are like "entities" in Meta that handle Facebook Pages as a "business asset." This means that you can manage multiple Facebook Pages in one Business account. Now, that doesn't stop with that. You can add various people from business accounts and give access depending on their role. It's like setting up a brand new business, but business accounts have more control than the traditional Facebook Page settings. 

Assuming that you understand what I am trying to say (forgive me, I tried to filter all the jargon the best way I could 😊), many businesses still fail to see the big picture of this change. Why? Because most people think that handling business accounts is as easy peasy as adding your personal Facebook account and clicking the OK button. 

Of course not! What will happen when the person you added tweaks some settings and adds their account as a business admin and then, one day, leave the company? The answer is simple — you will be locked out of your Facebook Page! 

It is important to know that the business account owner takes over complete control of your Facebook Page. If one of your "sneaky" colleagues added themselves as a business admin of that business account and left the company, you are screwed. You are now at the mercy of figuring out what the hell went wrong with your business and why you can't integrate your Instagram or WhatsApp to your page (and the whole list that business admins can do here).

You can still post on behalf of the Facebook Page and answer messages; don't worry (phew!). However, how could you be so comfortable knowing that you do not have complete control of your Facebook page? Once you finally make up your mind and take steps to regain ownership of your business, you will soon realize that you have no control over this uncertainty. The only course of your action (as hopeless as it sounds — Facebook support) won't recognize your legitimacy as the business owner (ouch!)

I have helped many clients reach out to Facebook Support and try their luck from those silly couch potatoes, only to hit a wall due to the strenuous screening of their "Internal team." Meta's "Privacy Policy" will give you no clue where to start working, and you will soon realize you've wasted your time and effort writing to them in the first place. Again, you will be at the mercy that your old colleague will miraculously reach out to you and say, "hey, I got an email asking to transfer ownership to your account; want to get that going?"

In hindsight, this Facebook Page ownership mess could have been prevented using company-owned email addresses and not somebody else's personal Facebook account. Yes, you can do that — save all the trouble and sign up with Facebook using your company email! While this sounds like a silly idea, this will help you recover Facebook Page ownership even after your social media manager leaves your company since you have complete control of the email and account used to manage your business asset. 

Make it a policy to use company-owned Facebook accounts; it will take you extra clicks but believe me, you will thank me later for doing this!