How to Prevent Your Practice Facebook Page from Being Kidnapped

Update June 2012:  Good news! Facebook adds new levels of control for administrator.  Read more here.

Do you have a Facebook Page for your practice?  If so, are you aware how to access it?  As more practices begin marketing with Facebook, a new generation of issues arises.  Don’t let potential issues prevent you from using Facebook, however follow a few precautions now to prevent headaches later…

First and foremost, know how to access your Facebook Page.  Note, you should have a Facebook Page and not a Personal Profile to represent your practice.  Understand it’s against Facebook’s guidelines to use a personal profile to represent a business (dental practices).  Facebook profiles are for individuals. Your practice should use Business Page to market with.

If you have a Business Page, you should be an “Administrator” of your Page.  Pages can have multiple administrators.  Know that administrators have the ability to delete other administrators and can delete the Page entirely as well.

I recently ran across a situation where a doctor’s Facebook Page was essentially kidnapped.  The doctor had no idea how to access the Page and the well established practice Page was taken under the ownership and direction of a disgruntled ex-employee…

Speaking of ownership.  The only way to completely “own” (in other words access or control to the extent Facebook allows) your Facebook Page is to have sole access to your Page.  Sole access is typically not feasible for a doctor, as they often have a team member or vendor who is handling this aspect of marketing for them.

At some point, Facebook may implement more control over administration controls. For now, all you can do is:

1. Know how to access your Facebook Page.
2. Know who else has access to your Page (co-administrators).
3. Have trust in those who co-administrate your Page—and know how to delete those administrators if you no longer want them to have access.

In this case, knowledge is power.  Don’t assume you have control over your Page—know exactly who has control/access.  As practices invest more in Facebook and their Pages become more valuable, knowing how to keep these assets safe has become even more critical.