In December 2018, Google announced their decision to shut down Google+ in April 2019. If you’ve been using Google Plus for a while now, you may want to consider downloading the content, images, etc. that you’d posted on the platform and use it elsewhere. Here’s how to download the content, how to use the content you posted on Google Plus, and where to go from here.

Why is Google Plus shutting down?

Early adopters really loved Google Plus as a potential alternative to Facebook or perhaps LinkedIn. Many companies jumped on board and found that by having a Google Plus profile and active account, they found one more listing for their company in the search engine. The network launched in June 2011 in an attempt to challenge other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and it was designed to link Google’s products; another feature that users loved. Over time, however, enthusiasm waned though for many, all the time and energy they’d put into Google Plus made it hard to let go. Nowadays, people maintain it out of habit, but it has lost its appeal. New users were few and far between, and low usage overall detracted from the value of the network. Google originally announced that it would scrap the network in August 2019, but with the security vulnerability that affected 52.5 million users, that due date was moved up to April 2019. The bug, which allowed third-party app designers access to some personal information on Google Plus users’ profiles without their consent, was reportedly hidden by the company in order to avoid scrutiny from financial regulators, The Wall Street Journal reported.

How to save your data and download your content

You may have already received an email from Google asking you to start downloading your content before the platform is shut down. Here’s how to get your info and possible use it elsewhere:

Log into your Google Account

If you have more than one Google Plus account, you’ll need to do this for each account where you want to save your Google Plus info.

Download all your Google+ data for your personal Google Plus Profile

You can download an archive of all your Google+ data at once, including your Google+ circles, Communities, etc. Your Google+ archive includes your photos and videos from Google+.

Go to the Download your data Your available Google+ data will be preselected so you don’t need to choose anything. Click Next Choose a file type. Choose how you want your data delivered. It can be delivered via an email link, added to your Google Drive, added to DropBox, or added to your Microsoft One drive; there are instructions for each in the support section of Google. Click Create archive. You’re done!

Download specific Google+ data

Instead of downloading all your data, you can download specific Google+ data, like your photos, posts, communities, or events. If you want to download your photos and videos from Google+, make sure to select Photos under “Google+ Stream.”

Go to the Download your data. You might have to sign in. Next to the type of content you want to download, like Google+ Stream, click the Down arrow . Click Select specific data. Select the specific data you want to download. Click OK Click Next Choose a file type. Choose how you want your data delivered (see above for options you have) Click Create archive. You’re done!

If you want to download Google+ Pages content, sign in as the Google+ Page.

How to Use the Content You Posted on Google Plus

So here you are with a bunch of posts, images, etc. Now what? Well, you do have options to repurpose that content, depending on what you posted. Of course, if you just shared other people’s content, there’s not much to do with that, but if you shared your original content, now is a good time to look at how you can repurpose content and give it a new life. Here’s a list of content formats you can use to repurpose your old posts:

Videos Infographics Checklists Case studies Email blasts Memes Podcasts Webinars Presentations

And those images you posted? Again, if they’re original, you can repurpose into collages, a slideshow, an infographic or perhaps create an album on Facebook.

You could even get creative and write a “Best of My Google Plus” blog post and insert snippets from each. Now’s the time to get creative to reuse this content the best you can!

Many people are mourning the end of Google Plus, from Google Plus buttons going away for signing into accounts (it’ll be replaced by a Google sign-in button), to the community feel of G+ to the SEO benefits (which most predict will not be negatively impacted with Google Plus shutting down). However, the digital landscape has always been ever-evolving and as long as you didn’t hang your hat on this single social platform, your business should be just fine!