This is part two of a series on the importance of owning your own stuff. Read part one, Should My Marketing Agency Own My Website.
Just like the lawyers tell you, always start off all new relationships planning for the day that they will end. No matter how excited you are to have a snazzy new social media management agency lined up to help amplify your content strategy, recognize that some day you will separate from that firm. It is best to be prepared by retaining full ownership of your business social media presence!
Who Should Own Your Business Social Media Accounts?
Your business—not your agency, not a contractor, not a former employee—should retain full ownership of all social media accounts and related digital assets. This includes:
- LinkedIn company pages
- Facebook and Instagram business accounts
- YouTube channels
- Google Business Profile
- Paid advertising accounts across platforms
Agencies should be granted access, not ownership as they work to help you build brand awareness. That distinction matters more than most businesses realize.
The Risk of Agency Ownership
It’s common for agencies to offer to “set everything up for you.” It sounds convenient, and it removes friction. But it also introduces long-term risk. If your agency owns your social media accounts, they don’t just manage your marketing on those social media sites—they control your target audience, your content for brand building and your historical data. Regaining access later can be time-consuming or, in some cases, impossible if ownership was never clearly established.
- You Can Lose Access to Your Accounts – If your agency created the account under their credentials, they control it. If the relationship ends, access may not transfer cleanly or at all. These situations happen more often than you’d think. For example, a business could lose access to its Facebook page after an employee leaves. An organization might not be able to update YouTube because it was tied to a former contractor’s login.
- You Lose Your Content and Audience History – Your social posts, followers, engagement data and insights are valuable business assets. If you don’t own the account, you don’t fully own that history.
- You Lose Advertising Data and Performance Insights – Ad accounts built inside an agency’s business manager often stay with the agency. If you switch agencies, you might lose years of ad performance data, including:
- Campaign performance data
- Audience targeting insights
- Historical benchmarks
- Reclaiming Ownership Is Difficult – Platforms like Google are increasingly strict about ownership verification. If you suddenly separate from your agency, recovering access to a Google Business Profile or YouTube channel can be a frustrating and uncertain process.
How to Set Up Accounts on Social Media Platforms the Right Way
Avoiding the above risks is straightforward if you set things up correctly from the start.
Use Business-Owned Credentials
Create social accounts using an email address your business controls, not your agency’s login or a personal account you don’t manage centrally.
Assign Roles, Not Ownership
Every major platform allows you to grant access without giving up control. Add your agency as an admin, editor or partner to your business social media accounts, and maintain the primary ownership within your organization. (Explore this LinkedIn example.) Don’t forget to regularly review who has access.
Centralize Digital Assets
When possible, connect accounts under a single ecosystem to ensure continuity, visibility and better control. Here are a few examples:
- Google Business Profile, YouTube and Google Analytics – all can be accessed via one Google account
- Meta Business Manager – one login to manage social media marketing for Facebook and Instagram
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager – ties to your company’s LinkedIn page
Understand Platform-Specific Needs
Different platforms have different risks, but the principle is the same:
Google Business Profile (GBP), your most critical local digital asset
Your Google Business Profile is your digital storefront, so always ensure your business is the verified owner. Don’t let your agency offer to set up and own this profile for you. Instead, work with them to get the account set up with you as the owner and then, if appropriate, give them access as a manager, not the other way around.
YouTube Channels
Do you have a personal YouTube login plus a company page? That is great, but how do you access the company page? Likely through your personal account login. However, if you paid a past agency, employee or summer intern to set up and manage your channel, you could easily lose access to that profile—and all of the valuable content that you loaded into it—when you separate from that person or agency.
Remember: If your channel was created through someone else’s login, you may not truly control it. Always make sure that ownership remains inside of a company-controlled Google account that you can access, preferably the same one you’re using for your other Google assets like Business Profile and Analytics. Then, store all video assets for you or about you within that account. No matter how simple it might be to access those files from another non-company-owned profile, there may come a day you won’t be able to access it. Don’t wait for that day to be disappointed. Take action now to protect yourself.
Advertising Accounts (Meta, LinkedIn, Google Ads)
Many agencies that help with social media advertising, search engine marketing and PPC will offer to create ad accounts inside their business profiles and then associate the ad accounts with you. This is the easiest way for them to do it and maintain control, but it limits your visibility and control (and you don’t want to lose valuable insights). Instead:
- Create ad accounts within your own business manager.
- Grant your agency partner access.
- Retain full ownership of your data and history.
The Right Way to Work With an Agency (Without Giving Up Ownership
Some agency partners or independent consultants may decline to provide visibility to ad accounts they create and manage, arguing that the value of their experience as a paid digital marketer could be infringed upon by allowing you to look under the hood. It’s somewhat understandable, but is not grounds for a trusting, loyal relationship.
A strong agency relationship doesn’t require giving up control. In fact, the best partnerships are built on transparency and shared access.
Just start off with a clean slate: Set up ownership correctly from day one. Maintain control as your business evolves. And ensure that no matter what happens, your digital presence remains firmly in your hands.
After all, your social media accounts are more than just marketing channels. They are business assets tied to your brand recognition and your growth.
Protect them accordingly.
This blog is courtesy of Jennifer Koon, MMC Founder and Principal Consultant.