The first week with a new client decides a lot. If you rush to post before you understand the business, you will post the wrong things in the wrong voice. If you take a password over WhatsApp, you put the client and yourself at risk. If nobody agrees who approves posts, the first mistake becomes an argument. This section is about doing the beginning properly.
Why the beginning matters
When a business hires you, it is trusting you with three things: its reputation, its customers' messages and its accounts. Professionals protect all three from day one. That is what separates a page manager people recommend from one they quietly replace.
The four steps
- Onboarding. A short conversation and a written brief: who the customers are, what the business wants from social media, what has worked before, who approves posts and how fast messages must be answered. You also audit the pages that already exist.
- Brand voice. A one page style guide so every post and reply sounds like the same business, whoever writes it.
- Page access. Getting a proper role on the client's pages through the platforms' business tools, so nobody shares a password and the owner can remove you cleanly when the work ends.
- Account security. Two step verification, current recovery details, spotting fake security messages and knowing what to do if a page is hacked.