I seem to be running into a particular situation a great deal lately, so I was compelled to write about it.
Digital Properties
By digital properties I mean your social media sites, ad accounts, website, hosting account, and any other digital properties. Do you know who owns them? You might think you do, but are you sure about that?
When you own a home, you have the keys or combinations to get into that home. So why don’t you have that for your digital properties too? So very many businesses do not.
Example
Say you have someone set up a Facebook page for you, but you never give them your login to Facebook (or maybe you don’t have one yet) so they just set it up off of their login and give you admin rights so you can post. Who owns that page then? Guess what, it’s not you. Why? Because it was set up off of their main account not yours.
This can happen after around 5 tries, but the exact number is not public. After a lock-out, you’ll need to wait for a period of time, sometimes up to 24 hours, to regain access or to reset your password.
Time
Yes, it takes more of your time when someone sets accounts up under your email and password, but it is worth it. You know you are the owner. Why does it take more of your time, you might ask. Most of the above-mentioned platforms use some sort of pinging (most of the time text messages or some can be via email) to verify you are really the owner of that business to try to keep some of the spam out, and for security. Along with that, if they notice that someone logged in from a different computer or IP address, they will ping you also asking if it is okay. So, many times the set-up has to be done with you at your office phone or mobile phone. This can be a bit of an interruption, but it really is the best way.
Questions
Below are a few of the most asked questions on Google in regards to not being able to get into accounts, and the list goes on.
How to recover Google Account if I forgot my password?
What to do if I lost my phone/can’t access my 2-step verification codes?
How to sign in to my account from a new/unrecognized device or location?
Why am I getting a ‘suspicious activity’ alert and how do I fix it?
What if I forgot my username/email address?
Google Business Profile Manager works about the same. If it isn’t attached to YOUR Google account login, it is very possible that you only have admin rights to it. You don’t really own it. And your Google Analytics and search console, and everything Google should all be in the same account.
“As of early 2025, there are approximately 5.24 billion active social media user identities worldwide.”
Websites
What about your website? Do you know how to log in to the back end of it? You should know who is hosting your website and have the capability to log in to the hosting, also. It is your property. You are currently paying for it. Even if you don’t know what to do when you get there, you should have the capability. The same goes for your domain. (That’s the www.joesplace.com.) How else are you going to renew it? (Yes, your domain has to be renewed every year or two, depending on how it was set up AND along with that, ICANN [ICANN-accredited registrar] will want you to update your contact information every year.)
Websites have to be updated all the time. So maybe the person who created your website is doing that, or maybe you’re even paying for an upgraded plan and the hosting company is doing it. But think about this: if you don’t know how to access your website and hosting, and something goes wrong with it (which still happens even with all precautions taken), what are you to do? Poof, your website is no longer available.
Ownership
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and every other type of ad platform needs to be under an account that you can log in to and own – not the marketer’s account! Of course the big corporations do just let the big marketers do it all for them. But those big marketing firms don’t disappear – generally speaking, and when spending $10,000+ a month on digital ads, I would probably not be worried about that part of it either.
“$234.14 Billion was spent on social network advertising in 2024.”
For Facebook, the business or individual that owns the ad account (typically within their own Meta Business Suite/Business Manager) is the ultimate owner of the ads and all associated data, including pixel data, custom audiences, and performance history.
These ad platforms have settings so that you can share them with marketers, but still keep the actual ownership. That way if something does happen with the marketer, web designer, or social media manager, you can still easily access your accounts to add someone new and keep everything in motion. The key term here is “still easily access your own accounts.”
Just Do It
If you have digital properties that you don’t know how to get into, find out! Anyone can get hit by that proverbial bus. Remembering different passwords is almost impossible. If they were set up under your email (your account), you can usually request a new password, and the platform will either email or text you a link to create one. There are also several password savers that create excellent passwords and save them for you. A couple of those are LastPass and Roboform. If it is your website, call your developer and find out the information. Write it down somewhere so you have it if ever needed.
And if you have any questions, let me know. We would be glad to help you figure it all out.
