What to do when your social media manager leaves: a handover checklist

Before anything else, check that your business, not the departing person, holds the top role on every account. Do this while they're still cooperative; it's far easier than recovering an account later.

Most departures are friendly, and most people are happy to help with a handover if you ask early and make it easy. A short handover meeting, with the account register open, usually covers everything in an hour or two. The trouble comes when the request arrives after the last day.

1. List every account: each platform, each brand, plus ad accounts, business portfolios, scheduling tools and design tools.
2. For each one, check who holds the top role: full control in Meta, primary owner on Google Business Profile, super admin on LinkedIn, owner on YouTube, admin in TikTok Business Center.
3. Where only the departing person holds it, ask them to add you (or another trusted person) at that level now.
4. On Google Business Profile, ask them to transfer primary ownership to you. Only the primary owner can do it, and you must already be an owner or manager.
5. Write the result in an account register so you never have to piece it together again.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help: Transfer primary ownership of a Business Profile, checked 15 October 2026; Google Business Profile Help: Manage your Business Profile owners and managers, checked 15 October 2026

Access is only half the handover. The rest is the knowledge and files that let someone else carry on without starting from scratch.

Ask for the knowledge that isn't written down, too: which posts customers respond to, which followers are regular customers, which complaints are ongoing, and what they'd do next if they were staying. Ten minutes of notes saves the next person weeks of guessing.

• Logins for anything that couldn't be shared through business tools, and where two-factor codes go
• The content calendar, scheduled posts and drafts in progress
• Brand files: logos, fonts, templates, colour codes and the brand voice guide
• Raw photos and videos, with any usage permissions from customers or creators
• Saved replies and notes on recurring customer questions or difficult followers
• Past reports and the raw numbers behind them
• Live ad campaigns, budgets, billing details and anything due to renew
• Agreements with influencers, partners or suppliers that are still running

Once you hold the top role, remove the person or downgrade them on their last day. Do it on the day, not weeks later: an old login is an easy target if that person's account is ever compromised.

Check the tools around the platforms as well: scheduling tools, design tools, link-in-bio pages, shared drives and any apps connected to your accounts. A former freelancer who still has access to your scheduler can still publish, even after you've removed them from every platform.

Sources: Meta Business Help Centre: Remove partners from your business portfolio in Meta Business Suite, checked 15 October 2026; Google Business Profile Help: Manage your Business Profile owners and managers, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Add admins on your LinkedIn Page, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Add or remove access to your YouTube channel, checked 15 October 2026

Google adds a waiting period that catches people out. For 7 days after someone becomes an owner or manager, they can't delete or undelete the profile, remove other owners or managers, or transfer primary ownership. And a primary owner can't remove themselves until they've transferred primary ownership to someone else.

So if your manager is the primary owner, have them add you at least a week before they leave, then transfer primary ownership once your 7 days are up.

The same principle applies everywhere: get your own top-level access confirmed and working before you remove theirs. Removing the only person with full control, then discovering your own access is partial, is how a tidy handover turns into a recovery job.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help: Manage your Business Profile owners and managers, checked 15 October 2026; Google Business Profile Help: Transfer primary ownership of a Business Profile, checked 15 October 2026

It happens: a freelancer stops replying, or an ex-employee set everything up in their own name. Each platform has a route back, though none is instant.

• Google Business Profile: request ownership at business.google.com/add. The current owner is emailed and has 3 days to reply; if they don't, you may be able to claim the profile, though Google says this isn't always available
• LinkedIn Page: list your current position at the company on your profile, verify your work email, follow the Page, then use More and Request admin access. Current super admins must approve it on an actively managed Page
• Facebook Page in someone else's portfolio: from your own business portfolio, request shared access to the Page; the request goes to whoever holds full control
• If you suspect the account has been taken over rather than abandoned, follow the platform's hacked-account steps instead

Sources: Google Business Profile Help: Request ownership of a Business Profile, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Request admin access to a LinkedIn Page, checked 15 October 2026; Meta Business Help Centre: Request access to a Page in Meta Business Suite, checked 15 October 2026

A few quiet weeks won't ruin an account, but missed messages from customers cost real business. Prioritise replies over new posts while you find a replacement.

If you're hiring a replacement, give them the account register, the brand files and the handover notes on their first day, and add them through business tools from the start, at the lowest role that does the job. The new arrangement is the best moment to set things up the way they should have been the first time.

Tell customers nothing about the change unless it affects them. If the person who left was a familiar face on your account, a short, warm post introducing whoever replies next is enough.

• Check messages, comments and reviews daily, even if you post nothing
• Let any scheduled posts run, after checking they're still accurate
• Post simply: one photo and a short caption a week on your main platform is enough to stay visible
• Pause or review any ad campaigns the departing person was running
• Update profile contact details if they listed their own email or phone number

Our onboarding checklist template includes an offboarding section, and the social media policy template has an account-access clause you can adapt.

• Keep an account register with every account, its owner and who has access
• Make sure at least two people in your business hold the top role on each platform
• Set up new accounts with a business email, not a personal one
• Put access, ownership and handover in every freelancer or agency agreement
• Write a short social media policy covering who can post and how access is granted and removed
• Collect handover notes every few months while things are going well, not just when someone leaves

When the person who knew your brand leaves, the knowledge usually goes with them. Zolyp, which we make, keeps it in Brand Brain (tone, colours, logo, services, audience and banned topics), and plans, writes, designs and publishes to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads after you approve it, which can cover the gap or more. Plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, Lite is $9 a month per brand for scheduling posts you make yourself, team members are unlimited on every plan, and there's a 3-day free trial.