In today’s business world we have various policies 
for areas such as sales, follow ups, making contact and how our time is spent during the day when we’re in the office. Policies are important and help keep the entire company or department on the same page. Now with the growth of technology in business there’s an additional family of policies that are needed. Odds are that your business now needs an online account policy.
Why do I need a password policy?
In many cases all online usernames and passwords are left in the hands of one individual. This includes the company Facebook page, Twitter account, website and blog. At first it makes sense to leave this all to one person, especially if they’re the most “tech-savvy” in the office. If your company’s entire online presence can be managed by one person then that’s great and can save others a lot of time. However, all usernames and passwords must be recorded and kept on file. These accounts also shouldn’t be setup under your employee’s personal email address, create a company address to manage these accounts.
The fact of the matter is that although you trust your employee and he or she is a great worker, they might not work for you forever. There’s a very good chance that they will one day move on to a different job and if they leave on bad terms you could be left with a big challenge in trying to access your online accounts. As a web developer and social media marketer I have run into many situations where a project ended up taking weeks longer than it should have simply because the passwords and administration access that I needed were in control of a past employee of my client and we couldn’t contact them.
Understand the important and value of your online presence.
It’s become common knowledge by now that if you don’t use your website, blog or other social media outlets then you won’t gain much from them. Regardless of your industry, if your company is online you can benefit from it and you need to be sure that you stay in control of your online presence. Email, Facebook, Twitter and websites are an important form of communication these days. What we put out is what our customers see, the customers that have or will pay for our services and products. We protect what is important to us and our business.
Whether you’ve been using an online presence for your company for years, have just started or are considering it I encourage you to sit down with your team and develop or review your internet policies. Be sure to develop a password policy to protect your internet presence from being lost or damaged.
Has your company ever faced a situation that proved the necessity of an online account management policy?