When connecting your Google Business profile to Social Media Management, you can choose to connect any number of locations under your business profile, allowing you to monitor your Google Business locations as separate channels and assign them to different teams if needed.
Note: The features mentioned in this article are only available to Social Media Management users with a user role of Team Leader or Admin.
What types of Google accounts can I connect?
At this time, it is possible to connect a Google Business profile to Social Media Management to monitor your Google Reviews in Engage. Multiple locations under your Google Business profile can be connected as separate channels.
What access do I need on Google?
To connect a Google channel to Social Media Management, you will need to have access to the Google account associated with the Google Business profile or have owner-level permission for the account.
During the connection process, you will be asked for the Google account’s email/phone number and password.
Connecting your Google channel to Social Media Management
Provided you have access to the Google account, or are the account owner, you can connect it to Social Media Management by following the steps below.
Note: If you need to reconnect a Google channel, follow the steps in our Reconnecting Channels article.
In Social Media Management's left-hand navigation sidebar, click the Manage settings (gear) icon and select Channel admin.
Click Connect channel in the top right.
Select Google Business Profile, then click Continue.
You can either connect your own Google account, or invite another user without Brandwatch access to connect their channel. To proceed with connecting your own Facebook account, click Connect to Google.
When the Google login popup appears, enter your Google email address/phone number and password, and click Next.
If you are already logged into your Google account, you can simply click on the applicable account.
Grand access to Brandwatch and click Continue.
Note: In order for your Google account to successfully connect, you will need to grant Brandwatch access to “See, edit, create and delete your Google business listings.” Make sure this box is checked on the permissions screen.
Within the Available to connect/reconnect tab, check the box beside any channels you would like to connect. And click Connect Channels.
Specify the level of access you would like to grant to the channel. You can choose between Admins only, Specific teams, or All teams.
Tip: Please visit our Managing Teams article for instructions on setting up a team in your organization.
Click Finish.
When complete, you will see a confirmation indicator that your changes will be saved and SMM will refresh.
After, your channel will be available in your channels list with a Connected status.
Inviting another user to connect their channel
During the channel connection prompt, select Invite another user to connect if you would like to invite another user without Brandwatch access to authenticate their owned account with Brandwatch.
This option will generate a link you can share with the user to authenticate their account with Brandwatch.
Stay on the connection screen when you share the link with the user. The link will expire within one hour. After the user has successfully authenticated their account and sees the “Connection” message, click Done on your view of the connection screen to finalize the process.
FAQs and troubleshooting
I forgot to check the “See, edit, create and delete your Google business listings” checkbox when allowing permissions to my account.
If you do not check this checkbox when connecting your Google account, your channel connection will fail. To reset your allowed permissions, follow these steps:
Go to the channel connection screen and click Connect under Google Business profile.
Select the Google account you would like to connect channels from.
You will see a popup from Google indicating that Social Media Management requires additional access for your account. On this popup, click the Google Account link.
On the following screen, select Brandwatch, and then click Remove Access.
Return to Social Media Management and repeat the channel connection process for your Google Business profile. On the Permissions screen, be sure to check the See, edit, create and delete your Google business listings checkbox, and then complete your channel connection.
I received another error during the connection process.
If you have received an error at any stage of the connection process, please check out our System Requirements to make sure your system is compatible. Please also consider reaching out to our Support team for help diagnosing the issue.
I’ve connected my Channel but I can’t see it in Social Media Management.
If you have switched your view in Social Media Management to Team View, the channel may not appear if it’s not included in your chosen team. Please either switch to Admin View or select the correct Team View. If you’re in Admin View or in the correct team already please contact the Support team.
To learn how to monitor your Google Reviews in Social Media Management, visit our article Viewing Google Reviews in Engage.