In our online world, it seems that a business’s digital assets have become as valuable as the physical assets.
Physical assets: Premises, equipment, and vehicles.
Digital assets: Websites, blogs, social media, apps, photos, and databases.
Like locking the doors of your premises each night, digital assets need to be treated with the same respect. In this article, we’re going to have a look at why you should protect your digital assets and offer some useful tips on how to do it.
Scenario
Pete owns a small takeaway shop. He knows very little about the online world. He’s lucky to have Mary. She’s his number one employee who works part-time while studying IT/Marketing at Uni. Mary has set up a Facebook business page, a website, and a Google My Business Account for Pete’s business. Mary is also a fantastic photographer, and he often receives feedback from his customers on how much they like the posts about the weekly specials. Since the takeaway menu has been online, Pete has noticed an increase in sales.
What’s wrong with this scenario?
While it’s great that Mary’s doing a fantastic job promoting Pete’s business online, what happens if Mary leaves the business? Worse still, what if Mary goes on bad terms?
A business owner who gives an employee full control of their digital assets is about as reckless as leaving all the doors, windows and the safe unlocked each night.
Let’s imagine Mary leaves Pete on bad terms. Soon Pete realises that his menus are out of date and customers are coming into order specials from weeks ago. This is causing him a lot of stress and frustration when customers go to order something that now isn’t on the menu.
He asks his new team member, Tina, to sort out the social pages, website, and Google account. But Tina hits a brick wall when Pete informs her that he doesn’t have ANY logins to his digital assets.
Don’t give your digital keys to employees.
When I say this, I’m not meaning that your employees can’t be delegated with the job of taking care of your digital assets. Honestly, a business owner can’t do everything. That’s not sustainable. (In fact, you should always look to lessen the load. I’d even suggest hiring a digital marketing agency to take care of all things digital in your business. Just saying!)
As a business owner, you must make sure you’re the OWNER of all the digital assets.
Fun Fact: You can own the ‘business’, but if you allow someone to set up a business social media page (e.g.) Facebook/Instagram under their account, THEY own it.
To set up a Facebook or Instagram business page, a personal account is required. Whoever sets up the business page using their account is its owner.
Let’s go back to Mary. When Pete tries to speak to Mary, asking her to transfer the page, she hangs up on him.
Pete’s now between a rock and a hard spot.
What are the options if someone else owns your business page?
In a nutshell, if you’re not an administrator of your business page, it’s not yours.
I’d love to be able to say, contact Facebook, and they’ll sort it out for you. After hours of research, I couldn’t find a way to contact Facebook.
The only option you have to get the business page in your possession is to BEG your previous employee. (As a last resort, legally, you may be able to get the page back, as technically, it’s the intellectual property of your business. This may require you to sort legal advice for assistance.)
Let’s move on to how to avoid this situation.
How to ensure you’re the administrator?
Looking back, Pete would no doubt do things a bit differently if he could. Here’s what Pete should’ve done.
- Pete, who knows nothing about Facebook and therefore doesn’t have a Facebook account, should’ve asked Mary to set him up a personal account.
- Mary could’ve helped him set up a business page under his profile.
- Pete would’ve invited Mary to be an administrator of the page.
When Mary left, all Pete would have to do is remove her as an administrator. THE END.
What about the website?
Ahh yes! The website. There are several moving parts to a website, the domain name, website host, privacy policy, terms and conditions right through to the platform the site is built on.
Mary built the website, and she registered the domain name. Pete doesn’t know where to start in sorting this headache out. Tina bravely rang Mary. When Mary finally answered, she said to stop ringing.
Wow, things aren’t getting better. Let’s break this up into steps for Pete on what needs to happen next.
How to find out how the domain name is registered?
To register a domain name, it must be completed by a domain registrar (eg) GoDaddy, Domain.com and so on.
A domain registrar is overseen by the global not for profit organisation Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). When registering a domain name, you need to provide your personal details, including name, phone number, ABN (if applicable), and address. This information is stored in a public directory called WHOIS.
In Australia, there’s a not for profit organisation called .au Domain Administration Limited (auDA) . Domains registered with .com.au can only be done through a registrant who auDA has endorsed. Note – Only registered businesses and organisations can apply to have a .com.au domain. For example, an Australian Business Number (ABN) is required.
Pete’s business domain is a .com.au, and his domain details can be found here https://whois.auda.org.au/
Thankfully, when they look up the domain name, they discover it’s registered under Pete’s trading name, and he’s the contact. The listing also tells him who the registrar is. Finally! He has some direction.
But Pete was astonished when he saw his details, address, ABN and phone number on public display. This might explain why he gets so many calls from randoms wanting to look after his website.
While it’s possible to hide personal information using certain extensions, it’s not permitted for Australian domain names, .com.au.
Pete has two choices,
- Accept that these are the rules.
- Ask the registrar if they offer domain privacy (which usually costs) and change to an extension that’ll allow for personal information to be hidden.
Now that Pete knows who the registrar is and that the domain is registered in his name, he can contact this business to seek further assistance.
Now let’s move onto the Google My Business Account.
How to find out who owns the Google My Business Account
- Go to business.google.com/add Type in the business name.
- When Tina types in Pete’s business name, she discovers someone owns the business profile.
- Tina then hits Request Access and fills out the form. Pete believes that the email address is Mary’s. Google will contact Mary, and proceedings will commence from here.
What a rollercoaster ride for Pete! There’s so many learnings from this encounter. Let’s re-cap:
- Always set up social media business pages under your (the business owner) personal social media accounts. Administration rights can then be assigned to other employees.
- Don’t pass the buck to the tech-savvy kid when setting up a website! While domain registration may sound daunting, it’s your business and, if registered to you, your responsibility. Sit with the tech-savvy kid and ask questions along the way. Don’t be a Pete! Be part of the process.
- Set your passwords. Pete gave Mary complete control and look what happened. Make sure you set your own passwords and store them securely.
Now that you’ve reached the end of this article, is your stomach churning and feeling sick with worry? Well lucky for you, by finding this article, you’ve also found help! Chrissy from Creative Little Soul has tech experts in her team who’ll be able to assist you with protecting your digital assets. Unless you’ve all day to go deep down into Google search rabbit holes, Chrissy and her crew at Creative Little Soul will be able to help you out. Also if you find yourself in a tricky situation where someone is refusing to transfer ownership of your assets, get in touch. Chrissy is a weapon when it comes to having items and assets returned to their rightful owners, really it’s a gift. Get in touch here and she’ll have them handed over in no time, just say the word.