Set every account up under the business, give the student an Editor role rather than the keys, write a two-page guide, and plan the September handover on the first day.

Hired in May, gone in September

This month plenty of businesses take on a summer student, and some hand that student the Facebook page, along with Instagram and Twitter. It is an obvious fit: students know the apps and enjoy the work.

The summer goes well. Posts are frequent, the photos are better than ever and followers notice the difference.

Then September arrives. The student goes back to school, and the business discovers that the Instagram account is registered to their personal email, a contest is half-run and nobody else knows the Twitter password.

The voice changes overnight as well, because the person who had it has left.

What leaves with the student

The first is the one that bites hardest. Password resets go to the student's inbox and login codes to their phone, so the business needs their help to get into its own accounts.

Accounts the business owns

Before the student's first day, make sure every account belongs to the business. Instagram and Twitter should be registered to an email address the business keeps, such as one on its own domain.

Any phone number used for login codes should be a business phone. If the student opens a new account during the summer, it is created with those details, not theirs.

The passwords belong in the business's records, and they change on the student's last day.

Roles, not passwords

Facebook pages need no shared password at all. Each person manages the page through their own Facebook account, with a role: Admin, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser or Analyst.

Keep two Admins from the business, so the page never depends on one person. Give the student the Editor role, which can post, reply to messages and read Insights, but cannot change anyone's role.

Do not create a shared Facebook profile for the business to run the page. Facebook's rules require profiles to belong to real people, and a profile that is shut down takes its page access with it.

A short guide, written once

Two pages is enough. Write down who the business serves, how it sounds, with three or four past posts that got it right, and how often to post on each network.

List what never gets posted: prices nobody approved, customers' faces without permission, anything about competitors, and replies written in a temper.

Say how complaints are handled: one calm public reply, then a move to a private message or a phone call, and a note to the manager the same day.

Include the contest rules. Facebook does not allow promotions that require sharing on a timeline or tagging friends, or liking the page to enter.

A worked example

An outdoor education centre on a lake runs overnight school programs in spring and fall and day camps in summer. Each May it hires a student assistant who also runs the Facebook page and Instagram.

Last year's student opened the Instagram account with her own email, and the page's only other Admin was a director who had since left. A photo contest she started in August was never judged.

In September parents asked in the comments who had won, and nobody at the centre could log in to answer. Getting the account moved to the centre's email took several weeks of messages.

This year the accounts use a centre address, two staff are Admins and the student is an Editor. A two-page guide, a shared photo folder and a handover date were ready on her first day.

Photos and permission

Photos are the student's best contribution and the easiest thing to lose. Ask for them to go into a shared folder the business owns every week, not just at the end.

Anyone recognisable needs to have agreed to appear, and for children that means their parents. A photo permission line on the registration or booking form settles it before the summer starts.

Boosted posts and the company card

If the student boosts posts or runs ads, the payment method on the account should be the business's, with a monthly limit agreed in advance.

Receipts should go to someone in the business, so the spending can be checked against the plan each month rather than discovered on a statement.

Plan the handover on day one

Put the last day in the calendar when the student starts, with the handover two weeks before it. Make the handover notes part of the job, not a favour asked on the way out.

Those notes should list everything running: scheduled posts, contests, ads, unanswered messages, ideas that worked and ones that did not.

On the last day, remove the student's role, change the passwords and check that every account still has its business email address and phone.

After September

Plan the quiet months too. A page that posts daily all summer and then stops reads as a business that has stopped as well.

Set a pace the business can keep through the winter, even once a week, or arrange for someone outside the business to keep it going until next May.

The counter-case

A student who returns every summer, already knows the business and hands everything back properly is less of a risk, and some of this will feel formal for them.

And some businesses are better served by a year-round arrangement than a seasonal one, because the work does not stop when the student does.

Either way, the accounts belong to the business, the student gets a role rather than the keys, and the handover is planned from the start.

On the first day

  1. Register every account to a business email address.
  2. Keep two Admins from the business.
  3. Give the student the Editor role.
  4. Hand over a two-page guide on voice and rules.
  5. Set up a shared folder for photos.
  6. Put the handover date in the calendar.
  7. Change the passwords on the last day.

Step one is the one that is hard to fix later. An account tied to a student's own email is, for practical purposes, theirs, and recovering it depends on their goodwill and their inbox.

What happens when nobody takes over is covered in social profiles abandoned since 2012.

Frequently asked questions

What goes wrong when a summer student leaves?

Logins tied to their email and phone, admin rights held only by them, half-finished campaigns, photos on their phone, and a voice that changes overnight.

Who should own the social media accounts?

The business. Register Instagram and Twitter to a business email address and phone, keep the passwords in its records, and change them on the last day.

Which Facebook role should a student have?

Editor. It can post, reply to messages and read Insights, but cannot change anyone's role. Keep two Admins from the business so the page never depends on one person.

What belongs in a social media guide?

Who the business serves and how it sounds, example posts, what never gets posted, how complaints are handled, and Facebook's rules for contests.

How should the photos be handled?

Weekly into a shared folder the business owns, with permission from anyone recognisable, and from parents for children, settled before the summer starts.

When should the handover be planned?

On the first day. Put the last day and the handover in the calendar, make the notes part of the job, and remove roles on the last day.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Hiring a student for the summer?

Before the first day, list every account you use and send it to us. We will check who actually owns each one.

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