In the course of seven subsequent tweets, Poppy Rose Cleere, the company’s newly axed 21-year-old online marketing and social media planner , aired HMV’s dirty laundry to the world: the “mass execution” of loyal workers; gross mismanagement at the head office; unpaid, illegal interns.In the aftermath, online experts and digerati have maligned HMV for leaving its social media in the hands of an entry-level hire. But the company is hardly alone in failing to safeguard its social media accounts.
For years, software tools known as social media management systems have been around for managing and protecting corporate social media assets .
Passwords to company accounts–which may be followed by thousands, even millions, of users–are routinely handed out to entry-level employees. Meanwhile, social media messages are posted without any fixed workflow or approval system.
HMV’s rogue tweeter, Cleere, pointed out as much. “I hoped that today’s actions would finally show them [senior management] the true power and importance of Social Media,” she explained afterward on her own Twitter account, @poppy_powers , “and I hope they’re finally listening.”
Centralize social media channels: Audits of large enterprises like HMV routinely turn up dozens of ad hoc social media accounts, started by interns or community managers in multiple departments , each with their own managers, passwords and followings.
Control access through limited permissions: As HMV’s Twitter crisis makes clear, letting employees have all-access passes to a company’s social media accounts carries big risks.
Incorporated into enterprise-grade social media tools, single sign-on enables employees to log into social media accounts with the same username and password used for their company email account.