Social advertising in general can be frustrating, given the limitations of the ad platforms and other shortcomings. Whether it’s the absence of offline tools for bulk editing or lack of readily available help, social advertising can be tough on the nerves.
Facebook can be particularly confusing and the last thing you should have to worry about is losing access to your ad campaigns (and credit card information) in the event of a violation of policy or an employee moving on. The current state of access for Facebook ads and corporate pages is quite confusing and if you’re an agency trying to access multiple accounts, you know exactly what I mean.
I’ve seen companies manage access of their Facebook assets in several different ways, here are the two most common…
Access Via Real Personal Profiles or Timelines
Many companies will have their social media manager or marketing person create their corporate Facebook page and Facebook ads account via their personal timeline on Facebook.
This method is in accordance with Facebook’s TOS so it’s safe in terms of breaking Facebook rules. However, it can be risky if that employee moves on or becomes disgruntled for any reason. Not exactly ideal especially if you are an agency working on client accounts. Risky business!
Access Via Fake or Company Personal Profiles or Timelines
The other most common method of access I’ve seen is through a fake personal timeline or through a personal timeline set up for the company or brand. Both of these methods are in violation of Facebook’s TOS and you now run the risk of losing access to your Facebook assets if these personal profiles are shut down by Facebook.
Personal Timelines, which we sometimes refer to as profiles, are for individual, non-commercial use. They represent individual people and must be held under an individual name. You can follow Timelines to see public updates of people you’re interested in but aren’t friends with.
Personal timelines must be a real individual person and cannot be a brand or business. So if you get caught doing this Facebook will shut down the timeline and you will not be able to access your assets connected to the timeline.
So, what’s the best way to access Facebook assets?
Facebook released the Facebook Business account a couple of years back to remedy this exact issue, however this feature is still relatively unknown.
The business account is used only for administering Facebook entities (Pages, Apps, Events) and ad accounts. The account serves as a back end access point for administration only and has no front facing profile or timeline and cannot participate in the social happenings on Facebook.
Business accounts are useful if you manage Facebook advertising for clients, advertise internationally and need accounts in different currencies, or want to ensure corporate ownership and possession of your Facebook assets.
How to set up a Facebook business account
Facebook business accounts can be created in a couple different ways and you will need an email address that is not currently associated with a Facebook account in any way. You can either reach out to a Facebook representative directly using this link or you can create a business account yourself by following the instructions to create a page.
To create an account, make sure you are logged out of Facebook completely and have the email address you’d like to use to set up the account handy. Then visit www.Facebook.com and click the link at the bottom of the page to ‘Create a Page for a celebrity, band, or business.’
From here you’ll be prompted to go through the process of setting up a page. Once prompted to log in, select the ‘Create a new business account’ link below the log in request.
Note: If you already have a corporate page, don’t worry. Just go through the setup of a dummy page to gain access to the business account. You can grant the business account administrative access to your existing pages and delete the dummy account once you’re in.
Then simply follow the prompts to create your Facebook business account. Once the account is set up, grant administrative access to the email address you used to set up the business account for all of your Facebook assets and everything will be accessible from the business account.
I highly recommend going this route to ensure that you are able to access and retain ownership of your Facebook assets. This way, agencies can access multiple client accounts and advertisers can allow access to their accounts all while mitigating risk and playing by the rules.
