How to Accept a Community Manager on Facebook

Bringing a community manager onto your Facebook Page is a huge step, but the how-to part of the process is often surprisingly confusing. You're ready to hand over the reins for community engagement, but first, you need to navigate Meta's settings. This guide will walk you through the exact steps to add or accept a community manager, explain what permissions they actually need, and cover best practices to keep your Page secure along the way.

Before You Click "Add New": Understanding Roles and Permissions

Before you invite anyone to help manage your Page, it's important to understand that Facebook doesn't have a single, designated "Community Manager" role. Instead, you grant a collection of specific permissions that align with the tasks you want them to perform. Giving someone too much access is a common mistake and can create unnecessary security risks. Granting too little can hobble their ability to do their job effectively. It's a balance.

Meta now uses a task-based permission system for what it calls the "New Pages Experience." You're essentially choosing which areas of your page management a person can control. Here's a breakdown of what these permissions mean and which combination is best for a community manager.

The Key Permissions to Know

• Content: This allows someone to create, manage, or delete posts, Stories, and other content directly on the Page. They can also go live and manage content comments. This is essential for almost any community manager.
• Messages: This permission gives them the ability to respond to direct messages sent to your Page's inbox. Also a must-have for a manager focused on engagement.
• Community Activity: This one is a bit more granular. It allows a user to review and respond to comments, remove unwanted comments, and remove or ban people from the Page. In short, it's direct moderation control. This is the core of a traditional community manager role.
• Ads: Does what it says on the tin. This bestows the ability to create, manage, and delete ads for the Page. This may or may not be part of your community manager's scope.
• Insights: Lets a user view Page performance metrics, follower data, and content insights via the Meta Business Suite or the Page's "Insights" tab. This helps them understand what's working. Highly recommended for any marketing professional.

Beware of "Full Control" - The Admin Equivalent

When you add a new person, you'll see a final option to "grant full control." This is the modern version of the old "Admin" role. Be extremely careful with this option. Someone with full control can manage all permissions, including adding and removing other people (including you!), changing Page settings, and even deleting the Page entirely. This level of access should be reserved for business co-owners or truly senior, vetted partners, not typically for freelance or employee community managers.

Which Set of Permissions Should You Grant?

For a typical community manager whose job is to post content, reply to comments, and manage the inbox, you should assign the following permissions:

• Content
• Messages
• Community Activity
• Insights

If their role also includes managing paid promotion, feel free to add the 'Ads' permission. Starting with this specific set gives them everything they need to manage your community effectively without giving away total control of your digital asset.

How to Add a Community Manager to Your Facebook Page: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now that you know which roles to assign, let's walk through the exact clicks to get them invited. This process is based on Facebook's current "New Pages Experience," which should apply to virtually all Pages today.

Step 1: Switch to Your Page Profile

First, you need to be "acting" as your Page to access its specific settings.

1. Navigate to your personal Facebook feed.
2. In the top-right corner of the screen, click on your profile picture.
3. A menu will drop down. Select "See all profiles" and choose the Facebook Page you want to add the community manager to. Facebook will reload, and you'll see your Page's logo has replaced your personal profile picture in the top right.

Step 2: Navigate to Professional Dashboard & Page Access

Once you are acting as your Page, it's time to find the admin settings.

1. Click your Page's profile picture in the top right again to open the menu.
2. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
3. On the settings page, look at the left-hand navigation menu and click on New Pages Experience. This will open the management panel for your Page.

Alternatively, from your Page's main feed, you might see a "Professional Dashboard" or "Manage" button. Clicking this and then selecting "Page Access" from the left-hand menu will take you to the same place.

Step 3: Send the Invitation

You're now in the right spot to add your team member.

1. You'll see a section called "People with Facebook access." Click the Add New button next to it.
2. A pop-up will appear explaining what giving Facebook access means. Click Next.
3. Now, search for the person you want to add by their name or the email address associated with their Facebook account. This is the trickiest part. To avoid inviting the wrong "John Smith," it's a great practice to be friends with the person on Facebook first, as their profile will pop to the top of the search results immediately.
4. Once you've found and selected the correct person, their profile will appear.

Step 4: Grant Task-Based Access

This is where you'll assign the permissions we discussed earlier.

1. Facebook will present you with a list of toggles: Content, Messages, Community Activity, Ads, and Insights.
2. Carefully select the tasks you want your community manager to handle. For most situations, you'll want to toggle all of them on except for the final one, which is to allow this person to have full control.
3. Review your choices to ensure you're giving just the right amount of access. Then click Give Access.

Step 5: Confirm with Your Password

As a final security check, Facebook will prompt you to enter the password for your personal Facebook account. This is to confirm that you are the one authorizing this change. Enter your password and click Confirm.

And that's it! The invitation has been sent. On your Page Access screen, you'll now see their name listed under "Pending Invitations."

You've Sent the Invite - Now What? The Manager's Side of the Process

Your work is done, but the access isn't yet active. The ball is now in your new community manager's court. They need to formally accept the invitation before they can start managing the Page.

Here's what they need to do:

1. Check Notifications: They will receive a notification on their personal Facebook profile. It will say something like, "[Your Name] invited you to manage [Your Page Name] Page."
2. Review the Invite: After clicking the notification, they'll be taken to a screen where they can review the details. It will clearly list the specific tasks (Content, Messages, etc.) you've given them access to. This is a great final check to ensure everything is correct.
3. Accept: If everything looks right, they will click the Accept button. Once they accept, their pending status is removed, and their access is live. They can now switch profiles to manage your Page fully, according to the permissions you granted.

It's worth letting them know an invite is on its way so they know what to look for. These invitations expire after 30 days, so if they miss it, you'll simply need to resend it.

Beyond the Invite: Best Practices for Secure and Effective Collaboration

Adding someone is technically straightforward, but true professionalism goes beyond the clicks. Here are a few best practices to ensure a secure and healthy working relationship.

• Lead with the Principle of Least Privilege: This cybersecurity concept is simple: give people access to only what they absolutely need to do their job, and nothing more. You can always add more permissions later if their role expands, but it's much harder to claw back excess access.
• Use a Contract or Written Agreement: Especially if you are hiring a freelancer or agency, have a contract in place. This should outline their duties, expected response times, content guidelines, payment terms, and confidentiality. It protects both you and them.
• Require Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): This is one of the most powerful things you can do for your Page's security. Insist that any person with access to your Page - including you and your new manager - has 2FA enabled on their personal Facebook account. This makes it dramatically harder for a compromised personal account to lead to a lost business page.
• Perform Quarterly Audits: It's a good habit to review who has access to your Page every three to four months. Go to your "Page Access" settings and make sure everyone listed still works with you. If someone's contract has ended, remove their access immediately. Old, forgotten access points are a huge security weakness.
• Graduate to Meta Business Suite: If your business has multiple assets (e.g., an Instagram account, an Ad Account, a Pixel), a better, more secure method is to manage everything through Meta Business Suite. It's built for professional collaboration and lets you assign permissions to assets without needing to be friends with the person on Facebook, separating personal and business ties.

Final Thoughts

Handing page access over to a community manager is a simple technical process, but it hinges on a foundation of trust and clear understanding of permissions. By thoughtfully granting only the necessary task access, confirming with your manager, and adopting security best practices like 2FA and regular audits, you can delegate confidently and empower your new team member to help your community thrive.

Once your community manager is on board, their world will revolve around juggling comments, messages, and planning content. We actually built Postbase to streamline that exact workflow. Our unified inbox consolidates all your messages and comments from Facebook and Instagram into one manageable feed, so your manager can engage followers without anything slipping through the cracks. Paired with our visual content calendar and ultra-reliable scheduling, we give them the tools to do their best work: building your brand one conversation at a time.