Keeping USM-affiliated social media accounts updated

Read below for important information about changing over administrators within your account or closing down your account when it can no longer be maintained.

Updating your account’s primary administrator

Any time the primary administrator of a university-affiliated social media account changes:

  • The account ownership across all USM-affiliated social accounts managed by your administrator must be handed off immediately to another within your department, club, or organization.
  • The departing administrator’s access must be deleted to ensure continuity and security.


Once this step has been completed, you should register your new account administrator with the Office of Marketing & Strategic Communications

Critical annual reminder: student social media account administrator changes


When a student administrator is graduating or leaving the role — account access must be updated immediately to ensure continuity and security.

Please mark your calendars for late April each year, if this is an annual occurrence, so you do not forget to activate the transition each year.


Before the end of each academic year, faculty and staff must:

  • Confirm who is listed as the primary account administrator and register them with the Office of Marketing & Strategic Communications.
  • Collect current account credentials.
  • Transfer administrative access for all student-run social media accounts to themselves or another UMS employee.

Failure to update access before a student leaves the university creates a significant risk of being permanently locked out of the account. In most cases, lost social media pages cannot be recovered. The Office of Marketing & Strategic Communications cannot assist with recovering lost/locked accounts.

Closing down inactive social media accounts


If you are no longer able to maintain a social media account, please close it using the instructions provided by the platform. It is important to do this while you still have administrator access. Otherwise, once the account can no longer be accessed by the primary administrator, it may remain online as a “ghost” account — causing confusion and continuing to represent the university without the ability to update or manage its content.

Once your account is no longer active, email Sierra Dann, Social Media Manager & Content Producer in the Office of Marketing & Strategic Communications, directly to notify her should you do so for our record of active accounts.