Dealing with Defunct Employee Social Media Accounts

As someone famous once said, fame is fleeting, but the internet is forever. This is just as true for businesses: employees come and go, as such is the nature of business, but their social media profiles? Another story entirely. So how can you deal with a defunct employee profile that is still affiliated with your business?

When dealing with defunct employee accounts, follow the below steps:

Step 1 – Reach out to the User:

Reach out to your former employee to have them alter or delete the account. Most employees are receptive to this approach and are willing to oblige or provide the login credentials to your marketing team.

Step 2 – Forgotten Password:

Do a request-password retrieval on the account. The employee likely used his/her work email address to register the account, and your IT department can work on retrieving it from there. However, if that address is inactive, just make sure your company has a "catch-all" address for your domain.

Step 3 – Contact the Platform:

If all else fails, you can contact the social media platform directly to see if you can have an account removed. Each platform has different steps, some outlined below.

Common Platform Contact Sites:

Twitter

Visit the Twitter Help Center to see if the platform can deactivate the account for you. You will need to provide evidence that the account is currently using your company trademark without permission. You will also need to provide information about the trademark holder (i.e. your company).

Facebook

Visit the Facebook Help Center and follow the steps to report a Facebook profile. In the feedback section of the report, be sure to state the situation and provide any information tied to your company’s trademarks or copyrights.

Instagram

Visit the Instagram Help Center and follow the steps to report a Instagram username that is violating your company trademark. In the feedback section of the report, be sure to state the situation and provide any information tied to your company’s trademark.

Check out our article on Who Owns a Social Media Account  for more on this topic!