Safeguard against social account disconnections

While some social account disconnections are expected, you can prevent many others. To keep your accounts and data secure, social networks cause your accounts to disconnect when they detect certain behaviors. You can safeguard your accounts against these disconnections by following these guidelines:

See Why social accounts disconnect to learn what causes disconnections. The more you know, the easier it is to maintain longer-lasting connections with your accounts.

Don’t share social account login credentials (usernames and passwords) between team members. Each person should be signing in to their own social accounts. Social networks can disconnect accounts when they detect users signing in to the same account from different devices, web browsers, or geographic locations. If you need to share access to a social account, do it with Hootsuite permissions. See Assign permissions (Business and Enterprise) or Assign permissions (Team plan) for more details.

If more than one team member needs access to an account, make sure each of their social accounts has Admin access to it.

Make sure that you and your team members know who will manage account connections to Hootsuite. Whoever adds or reconnects with their social account needs to remain listed as an Admin of the Page or account. If an Admin's Page role or permissions are changed, the account will disconnect.

Avoid revoking Hootsuite's access from your social account's settings. When a social account is added to Hootsuite, the Hootsuite app gets authorized in your social account’s list of integrations. If Hootsuite is removed from that list (known as revoking access), the account will disconnect. Revoking not only disconnects your personal social account, but any Pages or groups you may have connected with your credentials.

Set up a recurring reminder to review who has access to your accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn. Remove those who no longer need access. Remember that the user who adds and reconnects these accounts to Hootsuite needs to maintain their Admin access.

Use the same name on LinkedIn and Facebook that you use in everyday life. It’s important that people can identify who they’re connecting with on social. Alias usernames can be flagged as suspicious by the social networks.

Familiarize yourself with the community guidelines for each social network. Knowing the content policies will keep you from publishing something that gets flagged as inappropriate or spam.

• Facebook: Community Standards
• Instagram: Community Guidelines
• Twitter: Twitter Rules and policies
• LinkedIn: Dos and Don’ts on LinkedIn and Professional Community Policies
• TikTok: Community Guidelines
• YouTube: YouTube’s Community Guidelines
• Pinterest: Community Guidelines

Make sure you’re being proactive in keeping your social accounts secure. Many disconnections occur when a social network suspects that your account is compromised. Be aware that if your security policies do require you to proactively update login information, your accounts will disconnect from Hootsuite when their passwords are updated.

Here are the security recommendations from each social network:

• Facebook: Keep your Facebook account secure
• Instagram: Security Tips
• Twitter: About account security
• LinkedIn: Account Security and Privacy - Best Practices
• TikTok: Account Safety
• YouTube: Make your account more secure
• Pinterest: We protected your account - security tips