Account management encompasses the creation, maintenance, and destruction of social media accounts. Establishing an account on a social media site provides an employee with the full range of tools and capabilities for that site, such as joining networks or posting information. The lack of a clearly defined policy on account management may result in a situation where agency leadership does not have a handle on what types of social media accounts are being established, maintained, or closed by their employees for professional or official agency use. Therefore, a critical element to a social media policy for many is establishing who may set up an agency or professional social media account, as well as a procedure for establishing an account.

In the policies reviewed, the strategies varied. One strategy was to require approval by only one designated party, which was most frequently the public information officer. The State of North Carolina outlined who is responsible for approving and maintaining accounts and what happens when accounts are removed. Other strategies involve approval by more than one party. For example, Arlington County, Virginia requires approval from both the communication department and the IT department.

While our sample of government policies is too small to draw any definite conclusions, local government policies tend to be more explicit on account management as compared to state or federal agencies. Twelve of the policies and guidelines reviewed addressed the element of account management, and eight of those 12 came from local government. One reason for this difference might be scale and the level at which issues are addressed within policies. In comparison, state policies tended to provide enterprise level suggestions and thus steered away from specific management issues.