Someone searches “bakery near me” on Google Maps, taps your listing, and scrolls down to see what’s new. If the last thing there is a pasted Instagram caption from March, full of hashtags and “link in bio,” you’ve just lost a customer who was ready to walk in. Your followers on Instagram and the person on Google Maps are not the same audience, and they need different posts.
Use Google Business Profile and social media together, but write for each one. Your Google Business Profile post is for someone who just found you on Google Search or Maps and is close to buying, so it should say what’s on offer, where, and when. Your social posts are for people who already follow you. Link your social profiles to your Google Business Profile so Google can show them, and keep writing a separate Google post for every campaign anyway.
Fedica now supports Google Business Profile, so you can schedule Google Business Profile posts on the same calendar as your Instagram, Bluesky, and other posts.
Google Business Profile Posts vs Social Media Posts
A Google Business Profile post is a short update a business publishes on its Google profile (formerly Google My Business), shown to people who find the business on Google Search and Google Maps. Google calls them posts, and parts of its interface call the everyday kind “Updates,” which is why you’ll see both Google Posts and Google Updates used for the same thing.
Google’s help page on posts lists three types:
- Updates share news about your business, with a description, a photo or video, and an action button.
- Offers promote a sale or deal, with a title, start and end dates, and optional extras like a coupon code and terms.
- Events promote something happening at your business, with a title and start and end times.
Google also archives posts older than six months unless you set a date range. A profile that nobody touches goes quiet on its own.
The bigger difference is who’s reading. Someone who finds you through a local search is usually meeting you for the first time, and they’re already thinking about buying. They’re not there to be entertained.
A follower on Instagram already knows you and wants something worth stopping for. A searcher on Google Maps wants to know if you’re open and if the trip is worth it.
How to Add Your Social Media Profiles to Google Business Profile
Linking your accounts is the easy part, and it’s what most people mean when they ask how to use Google Business Profile and social media together. Google’s social media links help page supports seven platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X, and YouTube.
To add a link:
- Open your Business Profile and select Edit profile.
- Go to Contact, then select Edit next to Social profiles.
- Pick the platform from the dropdown and paste your profile’s web address.
- Save.
You get one link per platform, so one Facebook page and one YouTube channel, but not two YouTube channels. Google says some profiles “may show social media links automatically if they meet certain requirements,” so check what’s already there before you add anything.
One limit to know going in: “Google does not currently provide performance metrics or click tracking for social media links.” If you want to know whether the links send anyone anywhere, you’ll need your own tracking on the other end.
Should You Let Google Show Your Social Posts?
Google can do more with a linked account than show an icon. Since March 2024, it can also show posts from your linked social accounts on your profile, as Search Engine Journal reported at launch. Google’s social media links help page describes it narrowly: “Posts about events, deals, or special offers from your linked social media profiles or Business Profile may also show.” The feature is “available only in select regions and languages,” so plenty of profiles won’t see it at all.
Is that a good thing? Miriam Ellis of Whitespark has doubts, in an October 2024 analysis of social posts on Google profiles. She reports that on profiles where the social feed appears, the business’s own Google Updates seem to disappear: “I have yet to see a GBP on which a social feed has been enabled that still has its Updates visible.” That’s her observation, not documented Google behavior, but it’s worth checking on your own profile. Her suggestion is to link only the platforms where your content is already built to sell, and she names LinkedIn and YouTube as the natural fits.
A rule of thumb that works either way: link the accounts whose posts would help someone deciding whether to buy from you, and keep writing Google posts regardless. An Instagram full of product shots and opening-hours reminders helps that person. One full of memes and behind-the-scenes jokes probably doesn’t belong in front of a first-time searcher.
What Google Business Profile Can Do on Its Own
Google Business Profile handles more of this natively than it used to. Since November 2025, you can turn on “Schedule this post” to publish a Google post later, and share a post to several Business Profiles you manage in one step, per Google’s help page on posts and Search Engine Land’s coverage of the launch.
That covers Google itself. It doesn’t put the Google post next to your Instagram or Bluesky posts, so you still plan those somewhere else.
One Offer, Three Posts: Rewriting for Google, Instagram, and Bluesky
Take one campaign, a bakery’s weekend special, and write it three times. The offer doesn’t change. Everything around it does.
| Google Business Profile | Bluesky | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening line | What, where, when: the offer and the dates | A hook: the thing that makes people stop scrolling | A plain, human sentence, like talking to a regular |
| Length | Short enough to read at a glance, well within Google’s limit | A few lines plus hashtags | A couple of sentences |
| Call to action | The post’s action button, pointing at your order page | “Link in bio,” since caption links aren’t clickable | An inline link right in the post |
| Hashtags | None. They do nothing on Google | A handful of local and topical tags | One or two, or none |
| Local details | Street, neighborhood, opening hours | Neighborhood, if it’s part of your identity | Only if it adds something |
| Photo | The product, clearly lit, or the storefront | Something with personality: the tray fresh out of the oven, the queue at the door | Optional, and informal is fine |
Here’s the same weekend special written all three ways. The bakery and its details are an example.
The Google Business Profile Post
Weekend special: cardamom buns, 2 for $6. This Saturday and Sunday only, at our Elm Street bakery in Riverside. We’re open 7am to 2pm both days, and the buns usually sell out by noon, so come early or order ahead for pickup: example.com/order
It’s written as an Update that mentions the offer. Everything a searcher needs to decide is in the first two sentences, and the link gives the post a button to act on.
The Instagram Post
The cardamom buns are back, and this weekend they’re 2 for $6 🥐 Soft, sticky, and a little too easy to finish on the walk home. Saturday and Sunday only, while they last. Order ahead with the link in bio.
#cardamombuns #riversideeats #weekendbakes
This one sells the feeling first and the logistics second, because your followers already know where you are.
The Bluesky Post
Cardamom buns are 2 for $6 this weekend. We pull the first tray at 6am and they’re usually gone by noon, so consider this your warning. Order ahead: example.com/order
On Bluesky, sounding like a person goes further than polish. A short, slightly wry post with a working link is plenty.
The same thinking applies when you move between social platforms, too. Fedica’s guide to crossposting from Instagram to Threads walks through adapting one idea for two feeds.
If You Post on Bluesky, Threads, or Mastodon
Google’s list of linkable platforms stops at seven: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X, and YouTube. Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon aren’t on it.
That means your Bluesky, Threads, or Mastodon posts never reach your Google Business Profile, as a link or as a post. If those are where you’re most active, Google has nothing from you to show a searcher unless you write a Google post yourself.
For those businesses, a post written specifically for Google matters even more. There’s no automatic feed to fall back on, so the Google post for each campaign is the only version a first-time searcher sees.
A Weekly Rhythm for Both Channels
You don’t need a big process. A simple week for a local business can look like this:
- Early in the week: publish or schedule the Google post for the week’s offer, event, or news.
- Midweek, post the social versions, written for followers, with the same offer at the center.
- Before the weekend: a reminder on social, and a quick check that the Google post is still current.
- Once a month, look at which campaigns got people through the door and do more of those.
The easiest way to keep that rhythm is to see every channel in one place. Fedica’s content calendar shows the Google post, the Instagram post, and the Bluesky post for the same campaign in the same week.
Planning Google and Social Posts on One Calendar in Fedica
Fedica now supports Google Business Profile, so the Google post goes on the same calendar as the other platforms you manage. Write the campaign once, then use Custom Posts to give each platform its own text and media. That’s how the three versions above end up as one scheduled campaign.
Here’s how it works:
- Open the Publish menu and choose Create Post.
- Select your Google Business Profile account at the top of the composer, along with the other platforms for the campaign.
- Compose the text.
- For different text or media on each platform, click Custom Posts and adjust each version.
- Click Schedule, or Post Now.
A Google Business post in Fedica holds up to 1,500 characters and one photo, and it publishes as an Update. Offers and Events are created in Google Business Profile itself. The free plan includes one Google Business location. For everything else, see Fedica’s Google Business Profile Scheduler.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add a TikTok profile to my Google Business Profile?
Yes, TikTok is one of the seven platforms Google lets you link, along with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X, and YouTube.
Can I post the same text to Google and Instagram?
You can, but it usually works against you. The Instagram version leans on hashtags and “link in bio,” which mean nothing to someone on Google Maps, and the Google version reads flat to followers. Keep the offer the same and rewrite the words around it. The opening line and the call to action are what change the most.
Do Google Business Profile posts expire?
Google archives posts older than six months unless you set a date range, so plan to replace a regular Update before it quietly disappears.
Is Google getting rid of Google Posts?
Not as far as anyone knows. Google hasn’t announced anything like that, and it added scheduling to posts in November 2025.