Being a Google Local Guide is a responsibility. Nobody gives you this responsibility. You take it upon yourself to help people in your own little way and you go about doing it as a local guide.
What if there is no public recognition
To be clear, you are not a local guide to get public recognition. You are a local guide to help people map out their journeys and moments smoothly.
If you are after public recognition and want some kind of name for yourself, then being a local guide may not be the right platform.
If you can execute the duties and responsibilities of being a local guide anonymously and efficiently, that would be best.
But the thing is, by its very nature your name does get published. If you rate, review or publish a photo, your name goes out with it and people know. This goes with the territory.
Being Responsible
Take my case. As a local guide, I have taken upon myself the responsibility of mapping out the colony I live in. This colony is divided into 14 sectors.
I have just finished checking out the Google map listings of my sector. It took me seven days of walking around in my sector to edit many map listings, click photos and add new places.
I met business owners also whose listings were there on the map and asked them whether their information was correct. They gave me the info, I edited the listing and sent it for review. Google approved many of my edits, but also tagged other edits as ‘not applied’.
I shrug my shoulders and carry on. I do what I can hoping for the best. If mapping my colony to the best of my ability is a responsibility that I have assumed, then I intend to do it to my satisfaction.
Five Major Responsiblities
For now, as I understand, there are five major responsibilities of being a local guide that have to be performed with full honesty.
#1. Rate a place: I need to rate a place properly so that people who search that place get a fair idea of the value of that place.
#2. Review a place: I need to review a place I know with comments that are honest and give an insight about the place. Single word, or single sentence reviews don’t provide value. More detail helps.
#3. Edit a place: I need to edit a place wherever required on the Google map. I need to put the map marker of a place in the right location when I can see it is in the wrong place. I need to get the business name right on the map listing, add phone number, business hours and correct business address.
#4. Add a place: I need to add a place on the Google map that I checked and found it is not there.
#5. Publish photos of a place: I need to click relevant photos of a place that show people how a place looks like from the inside and outside. This way people on the road and even those sitting at home can see whether it is wheelchair-accesible or not and how easy or challenging it would be to reach that place physically.
You can also read: Why I Joined the Local Guides Program
The Journey
As I continue this journey as a local guide, I find that I see and experience a place in a different way.
I am not just another guy who is only passing through a place now. I am that guy who is opening up a place in such a manner so that everyone can look inside from a distance and form a fair first impression of that place.
– Raza