If the time has come to make a change with your social media management and you are ready to switch agencies, you must carefully plan the transition to ensure your social presence stays active, secure, and obviously accessible to your team and the new agency. The last thing you need is for your agency relationship to end and not have access and the right credentials to log in to your social accounts or risk management to go dark or worse, get compromised.
We have put together the top five best practices to successfully transition to a new social media management partner.
Ensure Access to All Social Platforms for Publishing
Make sure you are the Page Admin. Go to Settings then Page Roles and check your own role. If you aren't currently assigned to your page at all, make a request to your current agency that you get added ASAP. You should always be the Admin of your own page. Next ensure your current agency is an Editor (not an Admin) until the switch is official. Once you inform the previous agency of the change, you can remove their role completely and add the new agency members.
This is similar to Facebook where you must be invited as an admin to the page to manage content. If you go to your company page and Admin view appears at the top you know you are an Admin. When you are ready to make the switch you will go to Admin tools on the right top corner and select Page Admins. Simply remove admins from the current agency and invite people from the new agency. Remember you must be connected to the member to include them.
Instagram is different because it is a password versus admin access. You will need to give your new agency the email address and password associated with your account. If you don't have this you can either ask your current agency or reset the password. When you are ready to make the handoff to the new agency you will change the password again and share it with your new agency.
We recommend using Tweetdeck to review and changes roles. Log in to Tweetdeck and ensure you are an admin. Once ready to make the change remove the current agency and add users from the new agency. As an additional measure you should also change the password on the account in case someone had access this way.
Social Media Software like Hootsuite, Sprout or Loomly
If you initially set up an online social media management tool and invited the current agency as a user you will need to remove them once the switch is official.
Ensure Ad Manager Access
If you have run ads in the past managed by your or your agency we wrote a whole separate article that will help you ensure access to the campaign data so the new agency doesn't have to start from scratch.
Obtain a Copy of the Most Recent Social Content Calendar
Before you make the switch make sure you have a copy of the most recent content calendar from the current agency. If there has been work done by you and the agency to gather content ideas it is important that you receive a copy of the work that has been completed.
Say Goodbye at the Right Time
Ideally a new agency would want to start on the first of the month. However there will be some research and planning time needed to develop the content strategy and start to draft the content calendar. This can be done in the weeks leading up to the official handoff.
One week prior to the first of the month schedule a call with your current agency to notify them of the change. This timing is important so they do not begin working too heavily on content design for the next month. Be as honest as possible with why you have decided to make a change. Try to set up a positive transition by showing appreciation for the partnership with clear rationale as to why the business or objectives have changed and the new agency is now a better fit. A smooth transition is important. You may need assistance during the switch and maintaining a mutual respect and a solid working relationship will be key.
You can ask them to send you any additional post graphics or videos to support the content calendar if they are ready so you can post yourself for the week transition period.
Immediately after the call you will need to remove the agency contacts as admins from your accounts (see above). This ensures that nothing gets compromised or lost through the handoff to the new agency.
Host a Kickoff Meeting with the New Agency
Have a meeting to officially kickoff the new partnership and wrap up loose ends from the previous agency. This would be a good time to be as clear as possible about objectives and expectations. Use the time to discuss what went well and what needs improvement with the current social strategy.