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Hello Arboretum! My division is in the process of cleaning up our social profiles, which has led to a discussion of what to do about our three YouTube channels. We have a division-wide channel that hasn’t had new content for at least a year; a brand-specific channel (let’s call this channel A) that we use mainly to have our educational content be seen by YT’s search engine; and, a second brand-specific channel (we’ll call this channel 😎 that hasn’t had new content for at least a year AND much of that content is now out of date and should be retired/archived. 

All of this is to say: Would it be a mistake to completely archive the divisional and channel B profiles? We use Vidyard to manage our videos but that isn’t visible to the public/search engines. As it stands, I foresee maybe 1-2 new videos max being posted each year for the divisional or channel B, which is too low of a generation for it to make sense to have these profiles, in my mind.

TLDR: Two of our three YouTube profiles are out of date and very much inactive, which no increase in content generation planned over the next few years. Do I retire/archive these profiles, or should I keep them to maintain a presence, even if it’s a very very slim/not compelling presence?

Thank you in advance for any insight, discussion or feedback!

Great question, I would consider the audience that you have on your two inactive channels - if there’s still a significant number subscribing, maybe you could publish videos/Shorts to inform them of your active account to salvage as much as possible from the two inactive profiles.

Hi @sarah.rowe - this is a great question, and you bring up valid concerns. Love @samantha.hart’s perspective on publishing videos/shorts, and considering the audiences before any decision is made.

Here’s a similar conversation from a while ago at The Arb about deprecating social profiles - this may be helpful as well. Bottomline is, it is a subjective decision and while there’s no formula here, it’s definitely a good idea to keep your subscribers/followers in the loop on the decision. Upfront + advance communications around the change - eg. a Header/note in the description, etc. with clear messaging, something to the effect of: “To bring you a more seamless experience, we’re changing things up, and consolidating <Brand>’s social accounts. This account will be deprecated on <Date>. Here are the ways you can continue to follow us to keep a tab on all things (Brand/Division)” might be a good way to set expectations ahead of time.

Hope this is helpful, and more peers chime in too. Let us know what you decide! :)

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