And then the business (Vortex Doughnuts) collapsed overnight.
No notice. No paychecks. No plan.
What followed is the part every employer should be paying attention to.
The employees—locked out of their jobs but still in control of the company's social media presence—told their story. Publicly. In detail. With receipts. Including a text message from the owner admitting there wasn't enough money to make payroll.
And the owners? They reportedly deleted the official business pages they controlled. But not this one.
That's the risk.
When a business hands over its branded social media accounts to employees without safeguards, it's not delegating marketing. It’s transferring control of a critical asset. One that can shape public perception in real time, at scale, and often irreversibly.
Most employers don't think about this until it’s too late.
Social media accounts are not just "logins." They are brand equity. Customer relationships. Reputation. And in a crisis, they become the primary narrative engine.
If you don't control that engine, someone else will.
Sometimes that "someone else" is a well-meaning employee doing their job. Sometimes it's a former employee with a grievance. And sometimes—like here—it's a group of employees with a very compelling story and nothing left to lose.
The legal issues are obvious: ownership of accounts, access rights, trade secrets, potential defamation. But the practical problem is even bigger. Once the story is out, it's out. You don't litigate your way back from a viral post. In fact, that would make it much, much worse.
So what should employers be doing?
Control the accounts. Always. Centralized ownership, not personal emails. Multiple admins. Documented access. Immediate revocation protocols.
And just as important—redundancy. No single employee should ever be the sole gatekeeper to your brand's voice.