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Alyssa Young Alyssa Young

Google’s Social Network Is Shutting Down: Here’s What You Need to Do

It’s unlikely that you’ve shed any tears over the news that Google+ is going away, yet you might have wondered what this shutdown means for your business’ social media presence. There are a few steps you should take to ensure you lose neither your visibility nor your customer engagement on this search engine.

We’ll walk you through the changes, but if you need help, the social media experts and website development services at our NJ marketing agency are here to support you.

Download Your Data

Google+ will start saying its goodbyes April 2, but it will take a few months before the process is complete. When your Google+ page and profile go away, your content and data will be deleted. You can download and save it before the shutdown. You can download everything or just specific data, such as your photos, posts, communities or events. Do this before April 1. Google provides step-by-step instructions here.

Remove Links to Google+

Most business websites have links to their social media profiles. The social icons are most often in the header or footer, but they may appear elsewhere instead or additionally. If you have an email newsletter template, it, too, may include social media profile links within the design.

Anytime between now and April 1, you should remove the Google+ link so no one clicks it after your page is long gone and reaches a dead end.

If you don’t already have linked social media icons on your site or email template, consider adding them (except for Google+, of course!). Existing and prospective customers alike want to check out your social media presence, and these links make it easy to get there–no searching required! They may review your Facebook posts to vet you before deciding whether to try your services for the first time, or they may follow you on Instagram so they never miss any news or special promotions. If you need help adding or removing your social media icons, KickCharge Creative is a custom website designer in NJ; we can handle it for you!

Stay Active on Google

The shutdown of Google+ doesn’t mean you must kiss goodbye future opportunities to engage with Google audiences. You can use Google Posts to continue posting fresh content and interacting with your target market.

If the KickCharge Creative team currently manages your social media, we will be publishing Google Posts on Google My Business about twice a month. These posts will be visible directly on the Google search results page–in your company’s knowledge panel on the right side or in Google Maps.

Google Posts stay there for seven days by default but can be scheduled to remain in place up to two weeks. They should be used to share timely information such as seasonally relevant service information, events or special offers. They can include images or video. Publishing Google Posts is a manual process; they can’t be scheduled ahead of time using a tool like HootSuite, which was possible for Google+.

Google collects metrics about how often your posts are seen and other interactions with your information, such as phone calls, requests for directions and visits to your website.

Get Inspired to Improve Your Search Visibility

Is all of this talk about being active on Google, posting on social media and sending email newsletters giving you agita because you’re, well, absent? Don’t fret: Whether you need to bolster your organic search strategy, start using social media more effectively or communicate better with your loyal customers, the KickCharge team has you covered. We offer a full spectrum of digital marketing services and would love to spark your online business. Reach out today.

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