Technology can be a pain
You’re good at what you do, but if that isn’t a techie skill, you probably find the online/digital/IT side of your business to be a hassle.
That’s not a bad thing – it’s why there’s a thriving industry of people like me who work as freelancers or consultants, helping people like you to sort out the stuff that makes your head spin.
But there’s a dark side to this, and you need to be aware of it.
Who holds your keys?
Every online service has a “key”. For the most part this is the username and password used to log into a control panel or an administrator account. Whoever has this information effectively has the key to that service.
The “key” is the information that would allow someone to remove other people’s access.
So a username and password with full admin access isn’t a key if it doesn’t allow access to remove other administrators. If you have login details but they are connected to an email address that you don’t have access to, then someone could reset the password using that email, locking you out.
Think through the digital or online systems you use in your business. Do you hold your own keys?
Car keys, house keys, and bank cards
Think of it like any other kind of key. You take great care of your car keys and house keys – lose those and there’s a security risk and no end of hassle and expense to get the situation sorted. The same goes for bank cards – they’re the key to your bank account and all your hard earned cash, so you are careful to know where they are at all times.
Not just anyone gets to have a key to your car, your house, or a copy of your bank card.
It’s the same with your digital assets.
The story of the disappearing website
Here’s an example, based on far too many real life events that I have witnessed or had a hand in attempting to fix.
You hire a web designer to make you a stunning new website. You’re really happy with it, and even more so when the web designer offers to maintain it for you. She’s clearly a trustworthy expert, so you leave everything to her.
A year later, something happens. It could be anything – a tragedy, a job offer, a business failure, a dispute over fees, anything at all. But it means you’re no longer in contact with the web designer.
This is when you discover that you can’t get into your website. You get a new web expert to come and help, and they ask for your domain details – the login for the control panel where you register and manage your website address “mywebsite.com”. You discover that you never had them. The web designer registered the domain for you, under your name, but in their own domain registrar account.
This means that not only can you no longer use your website domain that is listed all over the internet to promote your business, but your business email is at risk. If the domain expires, your email will stop working.
That domain is the key, not just to your website, but to your email too. It’s a critical part of your business, and you didn’t hold the keys to it.
A moral obligation?
Sadly, this situation happens all the time. It needn’t be a domain or website – it could be a business system that a consultant or IT company set up for you. It could be a company managing your social media.
Almost all providers of services don’t ever intend their clients to end up in such a dire situation. Often it’s the client asking for things to be managed for them and the provider is just trying to be helpful.
When I ran a digital marketing company, we kept domains and website access in-house, because our clients preferred to pay a set fee and know that everything was handled. But it always niggled at the back of my mind – what if something happened to my company? We were a small business, it wouldn’t have taken much. And all our clients would have suffered.
I now think it’s a moral obligation of digital service providers to ensure that their clients or customers hold their own keys.
If a client doesn’t want the hassle, the provider can do all the setup using a new email account and provide all the details to the client afterwards, encouraging them to change the password so they have the master key.
Many services now work on the basis that the client owns the digital asset, and the service provider simply has access. Facebook Ads, Google services such as Analytics, Search Console and Ads are good examples. But it’s often easier to simply hand over the main admin password.
I shudder to think how often a client has said, “I’ll just send you my Gmail/Facebook/Office 365 account password”. Of course, sometimes full admin access is needed to sort something out or set up proper external access in the first place, but in those situations I try wherever possible to do it via remote control on their own computer, so they can see what I’m doing and they log me in.
There’s almost always a way to avoid handing over the keys!
A “Hold your own keys” audit
Here’s how to check if you hold your own keys.
1. List all your digital assets
Here are some of the main ones as a starting point:
- Domain name
- Website platform (e.g. WordPress)
- Web hosting
- Email provider admin
- Email mailboxes
- Facebook page
- Facebook Ad account
- Twitter account
- Instagram account
- LinkedIn company page
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Google My Business
- Google Ads
- CRM software
- Any other business software
2. Check existing access
Ask these questions. You should be able to answer “Yes” to all of them.
- Can I log in?
- When logged in, can I access everything?
- Can I add and remove other user accounts?
- Am I the only account that can remove other accounts?
- Is the account I am logged in with registered to my own email address that nobody else can access?
3. Request full access
If any of the answers in step 2 were “No”, it’s time to take action. Speak to whoever has full access, and ask for it to be transferred to you. Then check by asking the same set of questions again.
Need help?
I can carry out the audit above with you. If you need a technical person on your side when you speak to service providers I can help with that. Or if you’d like to talk about your systems and how they could be set up more efficiently, that’s one of my favourite things do!
Scroll down and book yourself a slot to speak to me, or use one of the other options to get in touch.
Or if you’ve got a question about this process, or a suggestion for something else with a “key” to be added to the audit list, send me an email and get a quick reply.
Stay safe out there, and hold your own keys!