Does your entire team use the same login username and password to access your Facebook Page? Or maybe it’s your Google accounts or your LinkedIn Company Page. Whatever it is, you need to rethink that access method.
What you are using is a “gray” account, and it’s putting your business at risk.
What is a Gray Account?
Back in 2015, Facebook announced that it was going to start taking action against so-called “gray” accounts— that is, Pages that were not connected to any one person’s Facebook account or profile.
For instance, Toys R Us may have started their Facebook Page with an account tied to the email address “[email protected]” instead of using their Marketing Manager Wendie’s personal account to manage the Page (completely made up scenario, by the way). Wendie would login using the GeoffreyGiraffe account and its credentials, but so would every person on the marketing team who needed access to the Page. In this scenario, the GeoffreyGiraffe account is considered a “gray” account—as in, it is unclear who owns this account.
Over the years, we’ve begun using the term “gray account” for any kind of online profile that a team of people access using one set of shared login credentials. We’ve seen clients use these kinds of accounts across many different platforms—from Meta to Google to LinkedIn, et cetera. And, let me tell you— we don’t condone it.
Why are Gray Accounts a bad idea?
Gray accounts sound like a good idea. They are simple. One login. It feels secure, but it is anything but. Imagine this common scenario:
You hire a new employee to handle all your small business’ marketing efforts. You give him the login credentials to the one and only account you use to access your Facebook Page. Somewhere along the line, he changes the password to the account. Eventually, he moves on to another job opportunity, leaving no record of the new password to your account. You attempt to contact him to retrieve it but are unable to do so. You lose access to your account and your ability to communicate with current and future customers through your Facebook Page.
The scenario above is the most likely, but there are scenarios where this gets even worse. There are opportunists that look for inactive accounts on social media platforms and then find a way to “hack” their way into the account. From there, they can post whatever they want, access any saved payment information, or read past direct messages which may contain sensitive customer personal information.
Imagine the havoc they could wreak—the damage they could do to your company’s reputation and the trust you’ve built with customers over many years.
In a different version of this scenario—one where you have multiple logins to access your account— you could have logged in from that other account, removed the offending account as soon as they gained access, and saved your business a whole lot of headache.
What is the best way to provide access to assets?
Though it may seem complicated, the most secure platforms are the ones that:
- require individual user credentials
- allow you as the account owner to assign permissions
- require multi-factor login authentication
Thankfully, today, many of the platforms provide this ability—and require it. When platforms like Meta find gray accounts, these days they will usually take steps towards shutting them down—though they will often provide a warning first so you don’t lose access to your account entirely.
We highly encourage you to adopt the most secure means of accessing— and providing access to—your business’ online assets as soon as possible. Not only does it keep your accounts secure, it protects your brand reputation and your customer’s private information.
Need help setting up and optimizing your online profiles?
Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and many of the other platforms provide free tools to allow businesses to manage their assets strategically and securely. Many of them also provide extensive help sections to help you set up your profile in an optimal way.
That being said, we’ll be the first to admit that sometimes their help sections and instructions can be contradictory and confusing because they’ve been edited haphazardly over time. In terms of Meta, at least, there are also multiple different versions of their tools out there. So, if you try to set your profiles up according to their instructions and you’re still confused—it’s probably not a you thing.
Regardless, setting up these accounts in the way that will benefit your business the most is important. It requires some forethought and strategy, and maybe you’d just feel comfortable having someone who has done it before help you out. Having a marketing strategy and consulting partner has many benefits, and this is one of them. We review and discuss suggested changes to your account changes as part of every marketing strategy and consulting program we put together for our clients. Want to know what that might look like for you? Let’s chat!
