Why you should have more than one Administrator to your Fan Page

In short: An Administrator is a Facebook Personal Account that can update/control the content of a Facebook Fan Page. Imagine that your Facebook Fan Page is a puppet, and imagine the Administrator as the puppeteer pulling its strings. When the Administrators of a Page are lost, the Fan Page becomes useless and inoperable. Don’t let this happen. Don’t let your Fan Page become a limp puppet. Don’t lose your Administrators. Have at least two Administrators, preferably an owner in the company, even if the second (or third, etc.) Administrator won’t make updates. Here’s why:

Many companies overlook the significance of their Facebook Fan Page, especially from a long-term standpoint. In the last month, I’ve had five companies call us and say, “Hello, Rambling Jackson? We’d like to start using Facebook to promote our business. Yes, yes we have a Fan Page. Our intern created it a while ago, but she’s gone and now we don’t know how to login to our Page… The Administrator? What’s that?… We have 400 Fans, but we can’t get a hold of the person who created the page.” And yes, that’s a direct quote from each of the five businesses. They each say the exact same thing. Totally weird, I know. Anyways.

Awesome. You’ve lost your Administrator. Your Fan Page is now defunct. The only activity happening on your page is when androgynous phantoms from Nigeria with no profile picture post links to pyramid schemes regarding $80K/mo. tom foolery about working from home without actually doing any work at all. It’s doing wonders for your brand. And good luck trying to get a hold of Facebook to help you figure it out.

For some reason this happens often with non-profits and brick-and-mortar types of businesses. In a defeated, nasally voice, they say at some point: “Yes, okay — we’ll use the Facebook for our business. We know of a 13-year-old girl named Suzy who spends half of her life texting on her phone and listening to hip hop. She must understand social media marketing for business. Suzy, put our business on Facebook…. Suzy, where did you go?”

Make sure that you have more than one administrator

Interns vanish on Phish tour. Employees turn over (and leave angrily). Secretaries can… combust.

Alright, well, hopefully your secretary doesn’t die. But if they do… it might be hard to have them relinquish administrative access of the Fan Page back to your company.

Prepare for turnover. Think long-term. Have more than one person in the company as an Administrator.

How Administrators can add other administrators to a Fan Page

Remember, Fan Pages Administrators are Facebook Personal Accounts. If you want to add someone as an Administrator, they must have a Personal Account. KEY INGREDIENT: In order to add someone as an administrator, you must know the email address that they use as their username to sign in to Facebook. Once you have that, follow these steps:

1) Log in to Facebook with your Personal Account
2) Go to your Fan Page
To go to your Fan Page, type the name of it in the search box at the top of Facebook. Or, click on “Account” in the upper right screen and click “Use Facebook as Page.”
3) Click on “Edit Page”

4) Select “Manage Admins” from the tab bar on the left

5) Type Facebook username email address of the person you wish to add. Click save changes.

6) Type YOUR Facebook Password when it asks for the password
This is the point where many people get stuck. “What’s the password for the Fan Page?” There is no password for the Fan Page — they’re asking for the password to the Personal Account of whomever is at this point.

7) Drink a cup of coffee and call your mom to say hi.
You’re done. Now you know how to add administrators. Happy days.

What to do if you can’t access your Fan Page.

Try to track down the people who might have had access to the page as Administrators. This would include the person who created the page, the people who have made updates to your page, etc.

If you’re having a hard time thinking of who might be an Administrator, check the Wall of your Fan Page for the last update made by the Page. Look at the date of that last update. Who was working at the company during the time of that post? Ask those people.

Get that person on the phone, send them a link to this blog post, or email them:
1) Please log on to Facebook
2) Please visit our Fan Page
3) Do you have the ability to “Edit Page” when you’re on the page?

If they have the ability to “Edit Page” then they are an administrator. They can then add other administrators. Have them follow the instructions above, and then go in and remove them as Administrators.

Well, I’m a solo-entrepreneur… I don’t need to do this.

Yes you do. What if your Personal Account got hacked, banned from Facebook, shut down, etc. — how would you continue marketing from your Fan Page if you couldn’t access it? Every business should have more than one administrator.

What do you think about this? Leave a comment below, or post a comment on the Ramblin Jackson Fan Page.