Clients often come to us with preexisting Google+ accounts that contain Google business pages and YouTube channels with content that have already been claimed. The business page and the channel are often in two separate accounts (YouTube channel in one login and a business listing in another). This setup used to be normal, an acceptable occurrence, but since the YouTube/Google+ integration in November of 2013, the standards have changed.
The new ideal setup is to have the YouTube channel of your business connected to the Plus page of your business. If an account was set up prior to the integration, it’s a matter of disconnecting the channel from the Plus page it is currently associated with(usually a personal page by default). This can be done through the YouTube account settings. Then, the channel needs to be reconnected with the Plus page of the business. However, if a channel and business page exist within two separate accounts, the process can be a bit more tedious.
Important note! It will only be possible to connect a YouTube account with the business Plus page if it is not currently connected with a Local, Social, or Brand page. A force disconnect can only be implemented for a channel associated with a personal Plus page. However, YouTube sometimes decides to provide a disconnect option for a channel, regardless of it’s nature (Local/ Social, Brand, Personal).
Step 1: Login to the account that the business is claimed in and go into “Pages” via the “Home” drop-down on the upper left-hand side of the page.
Step 2: Choose “Manage This Page” for the Plus Page from which you want to give managership to the YouTube channel.
Step 3: Go to settings from the top left-hand drop-down. Then, choose “Managers” under the “More” tab from the list of tabs across the top, and add the email address for the YouTube account as a manager for the business page you’d like the channel connected to.
Step 4: Log into the email for the account associated with the YouTube channel. Look for an email that says “Person Name invited you to become a manager of the Business Name’s Google+ page.” Click “Become a Manager” within that email.
Step 5: Now, go to YouTube’s home page from inside that YouTube channel account and you can disconnect the YouTube channel from the current profile to reconnect it to the correct one that you now manage! So first, from YouTube, click the drop-down menu at the top right and choose “YouTube Settings”
Step 6: From there, choose “Disconnect Google+ profile, and use your YouTube username” (If this option isn’t available, skip down to Step 10 for the force disconnect instructions)
Step 7: The next screen will prompt you that you are switching to a username and disconnecting the Google+ profile. Click “Next,” to either create a temporary username for the channel or just disconnect and use the username your channel already has, then click “Done.”
Step 8: Now, when you go back to the “Youtube settings” page, you can choose to “Connect channel with Google+”
Step 9: Then select the business’ Plus page you are now a manager of and click “Next.” That’s the end!
Continuation for force profile and channel disconnect:
In order to force YouTube to disconnect from a personal profile, you have to delete the Plus page associated with it (granted that you don’t mind losing all the content associated with that Google+ profile) in order to release the YouTube channel.
Step 10: The first step is to make sure your YouTube channel has a “custom URL,” or channel name, so that when we delete the personal profile the channel will float freely. In the event that your channel already has a username, you would not have to do this step. Go to YouTube Settings, then Advanced, then click “Create custom URL” to do this.
Step 11: Go into the Settings from the drop-down in plus.google.com
Step 12: Scroll all the way down on the Settings page, and you’ll see the option to “Delete your entire Google+ profile here” where you’ll click the link embedded in the word “here.”
Step 13: Note that this page lets you know that upon deletion of your profile, no Plus pages that you own will be deleted, pages you manage will still be managed by you, and your YouTube content will just be made private until you “re-enable” your channel. So, scroll down, check the required box, and click “remove selected services” to delete your profile.
Step 14: Now go to YouTube and click “Video Manager” from the settings drop-down in the top righthand corner. Skip any pop-ups that might appear, signalling you to set up a Plus page for your account. It’s important that you do not let Google automatically set up a profile associated with the account before we get the channel re-enabled. Otherwise, it will automatically reconnect the channel to the personal profile (in which case you’ll have to start back at Step 10).
Step 15: In the Video Manager you’ll see a red banner that says, “Your YouTube channel has content but has been disabled. Enable your channel.” Click “Enable your channel.”
Step 16: Now you’ll be taken to a page that will “Set up your channel on YouTube.” It’ll automatically try to set it up under the account name (under a personal page), but you should see an option under the account name that says “To use a business or other name click here.” At this point you choose your business’ Plus page from the list of pages in your account. Now, you’ve successfully connected the YouTube channel to your business page.
Step 17: When we delete the profile and force the channel to float freely, all of the videos on the channel are made private. So, you’ll want to go back to the video manager, click the select all box, and make all the videos public again. Then, you’re all set!
This process can be a little tricky. So, in the event you need help troubleshooting any particular issues, feel free to ask below!
Also, in the event that you either don’t want to lose the content in a personal page during the deletion or need to transfer a channel from one page type to another(Brand to Local or vice versa) then you can use this Google support form to get assistance!
