If you have a hand in managing social media accounts for your business or the company you work for, you know firsthand how much work posting and monitoring can be.

For many businesses, sharing admin rights with employees helps lighten the load of constantly monitoring and updating statuses on multiple social platforms day in and day out. While sharing the duties and preventing silos in the workplace is a good thing, having multiple admins can spell big trouble.

For example, what if someone in your company with access is let go or quits and carries a grudge? That person can easily go into your accounts and do some serious damage to your hard-won brand reputation. Although it seems implausible, it can and does happen more often than you think.

This is just one scenario of many, but the bottom line is: Safeguarding your social accounts is important – and complicated. Here are a few tips to keeping your profiles secure today and for the long haul.

Set up a Business Manager account for your Facebook account. This will allow you to manage your account as well as others who manage your account on your business’s behalf all on one dashboard.

Limit employee access to your business accounts. For Facebook and LinkedIn, you have several access levels to choose from: admin, editor, moderator, advertiser, analyst and live contributor. When you set up or manage a page on behalf of your company, set it up so that only you and one other person has admin rights. Delegate others to  

Don’t let your accounts sit idle. First off, consistency is crucial in the communication world, and it’s no different in the social media realm. However, even if you aren’t checking or posting to your accounts regularly, you should monitor them regularly. Check for malicious comments and failed login attempts. These could be signs that someone is trying to hack into your account.

Sign up for a password manager. This might be the best and easiest way to keep track of your company’s social media account profile and credential information. There are many free tools out there as well as paid services. Do you research, look for options that best fit your business model, and never be hesitant to ask a social media expert for insights.