Social Media Survival

Based on several sources including Fox News, New York Times, Engadget, etc, Google has decided to shut down Google +. Oddly enough, I mentioned this possibility to a friend who works for Google about 6 months ago.  At that point, It had gotten more and more difficult to access Google + business accounts and due to this, I wasn’t updating them as regularly. Also, the Google My Business listing went through some changes; now you can post updates on your Google local listing just like social media posts, which overlaps Google + but offers more search benefits.

*If you have a Google My Business listing, you should still maintain it. Google Plus and Google My Business are separate tools.

If you had a Google Plus account you’ll want to remove the link if you put it on your website or web directory profiles. Sometimes I use the Google Plus field for the Google My Business listing link. Hopefully, any Plugin/application that had a Google Plus field will update that field. You no longer have to log in to Google Plus and post anything on it…one less thing to do!

This is interesting for a couple reasons:

1. The social media space isn’t infinite. It seemed likely that Google could create a social media platform that would succeed, but there’s more to social media than just a name. It has to resonate with enough people to “catch on.”  Popular social media sites have a high number of “daily active users.” They offer some benefit that keeps people logging in.
2. Google leaders took the recent “breach” into account when they decided to shut down Google + although based on an article on The Verge, Google didn’t experience a breach. They found a way that developers could have accessed user information, but in their research, they didn’t find that any API users actually committed a breach. Social media sites are experiencing breaches more often. How does that affect user privacy? What does this mean for the social media industry?  Are any social media sites safe? What impact will Google‘s breach have on its users? Social media sites have experienced a reduction in activity and trust since security breaches have been exposed. Some recommendations:
   • Be selective with what kind of information you give or post on social media
   • Go through your contacts and clear out/block people you don’t know
   • Close open accounts your not using
   • Change your password if you haven’t in a while
   • Don’t “check in” while you are somewhere…wait until you leave to “check in”
   • Review your privacy settings to make sure they are set how you want them set

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us.