I had a potential client ask me a question last week that I think more attorneys should be aware of. He was inquiring about how we handle profile setups and access to accounts. Specifically he asked:
Do we control access to all accounts? I've already claimed a number of business’ profiles on a number of sites: Google, Bing, Yahoo, yellow pages sites, etc. and I want see if we can continue to control admin access to the accounts for any profile or page created for us?
I can't tell you how many situations I've run into where major, important law firm profiles, such as Google Places, Yelp, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Google Web Master Tools, etc. were claimed for a law firm under the email account of a marketing agency rather than the firm. When the firm asks for access to the account they are told that the account information cannot be shared because it would provide access to all the agency's client accounts. Perhaps some of the profiles can be transferred to another account, others can not. In addition, valuable time and resources are wasted chasing around to find logins and get information from a marketing company you no longer do business with, which is not usually an easy task.
Most of the time this happens because the firm is not aware of what profiles are claimed or what accounts the profiles are being attached to. Since this can vary from agency to agency, it's important you ask the question upfront. You need to be on the same page as your marketing agency with this one.
In my opinion, profiles should be claimed under an email account that:
The law firm should also be diligent about asking for the login information for accounts and profiles that have been setup PRIOR to cancelling service with a provider. This can save you a lot of headaches later on.
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