Search your business name, list every profile that appears, answer any question still showing, close the profiles nobody will keep up, and point the rest at your website with current details.

What a search for your name shows

Search for your business by name and look past the first few results. Below the website and the map listing there is often a Twitter account whose last tweet is from 2012.

Near it sits a Google+ page with two questions in its comments that nobody answered, and a Pinterest board started for one season's photographs and never touched again.

Each was set up in a burst of enthusiasm, usually by someone who has since left or lost interest. None was ever closed.

To someone deciding whether to call you, an abandoned profile reads as an abandoned business. Some will wonder whether you are still trading.

The usual set of old profiles

The first needs the most care. Many businesses ended up with two Google+ pages that year, and one of them may be the page that holds your map listing and its reviews.

Why abandoned profiles cost you

A profile does not need to be active to be found. Search engines keep showing old accounts for a business name, because few other pages use that name at all.

An unanswered question is worse than no profile. It shows a customer asked something in public and nobody replied, and every later reader sees that.

Old details do their own damage: a phone number you gave up, an address you moved from, hours from three years ago.

And a dormant account is still an account. If the password was shared, reused or written down years ago, anyone holding it can still post in your name.

Find every profile

Search the business name on its own, then with your town, and read three or four pages of results rather than one. Note every profile that appears.

Then search inside each network directly: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram and the review sites in your trade. Some profiles never rank in search but still turn up for people browsing the network itself.

Search old inboxes for the welcome emails networks send when an account is opened, and ask anyone who once posted for you what they set up.

Write it all down: the network, the address, the email it was opened with, who knows the password, when it last posted, and any questions left unanswered.

Answer what is still showing

Before closing or updating anything, reply to every question and complaint that is still visible, however old. A short, polite reply is enough.

Apologise for missing it, answer the question if it still applies, and give the current way to reach you. People reading today see the reply, not how late it came.

Replies matter most on pages you are keeping, especially reviews on your map listing, which stay with the business whatever happens to the other profiles.

Decide which to keep

Keep a profile only if someone will post on it from time to time and check its messages every week. One well kept profile does more for a small business than five that are left alone.

For the rest, choose between closing and parking. Closing removes it; Twitter, for example, deletes a deactivated account after thirty days.

Parking keeps the name but stops it misleading anyone: a profile description saying you no longer post there, with your website and phone number, and notifications switched on so a message reaches someone.

Never delete a Google+ page until you are sure it is not the one tied to your map listing. That page holds your reviews and verified details.

A worked example

A slot car raceway in an industrial unit has two eight-lane tracks, a parts counter and a party room. It runs league nights, open racing at weekends and children's birthday parties.

When it opened in 2012, a part-time employee set up a Twitter account, a Google+ page and a Pinterest board of members' painted car bodies. He posted for a few months, then moved away.

Three years later a search for the raceway's name showed the Twitter account on the first page, its last tweet announcing a Christmas league. The bio gave a phone number the raceway no longer used.

The Google+ page carried two unanswered comments asking about party sizes, and a one-star review complaining that nobody had called back.

The owner recovered the Twitter login through the shop's email address, posted a final tweet pointing to the website, and closed the account. Both questions and the review got short replies with the current number.

The Google+ page was the one tied to the map listing, so it stayed, with current hours and new photographs. The Pinterest board stayed too, with the website in its description, because members still shared its pictures.

Keep the logins with the business

Most profiles are abandoned because the only person who could get in has left. Open every account with an address the business owns, such as one for the office, not a personal one.

Keep a short list of every profile, its login email and who has access, somewhere the owner can find it. Change the passwords when anyone with access leaves.

If a former employee still holds an account, ask them plainly to hand over the login or close it.

The counter-case

Not every old profile is urgent. A board or channel with nothing on it but photographs, no questions and no contact details, does little harm while you deal with the rest.

A profile that never appears for your name and holds no conversations can wait until the next tidy-up.

And a business with no time for social media at all still needs its website and map listing current, which matters more than any profile.

But every profile that shows up for your name should either be kept up or closed, with its questions answered first.

This week

  1. Search your business name and list every profile.
  2. Record who holds each login and its email.
  3. Recover access to the accounts you cannot open.
  4. Answer every visible question, however old.
  5. Close or park the profiles nobody will keep up.
  6. Update the rest with current details and your website.
  7. Put a weekly message check in the calendar.

Step four matters most today, because it changes what every later reader sees. An unanswered question says nobody is listening; a reply, even a late one, says somebody is.

What to post on the profiles you keep is covered in what Facebook counts as too promotional.

Frequently asked questions

Why do old social profiles matter?

They appear when people search your business name, and a last post from 2012 with questions nobody answered suggests nobody is running the business, or that it has closed.

How do I find every old profile?

Search the business name alone and with your town, search inside each network, look in old inboxes for welcome emails, and ask anyone who once posted for you.

Should I answer questions from years ago?

Yes, briefly and politely, with current contact details. People reading the page today see that someone replied, not how late the reply came.

Is it safe to delete an old Google+ page?

Not until you are sure it is not the page tied to your map listing. That page holds your reviews and verified details, so keep it current instead.

Should I close or keep a quiet profile?

Keep it only if someone will post occasionally and check messages weekly. Otherwise close it, or park it with a description pointing to your website and phone.

What if a former employee holds the login?

Ask them to hand it over or close the account, and use the network's recovery process if they cannot. Open future accounts with an address the business owns.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Twitter account last used in 2012?

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