What does the Local Guides program mean to you?
Like a brash kid in school walking into the Principal’s office to complain on a fellow student, I started my Review journey on Google Maps as a way to vent out my frustration on a restaurant that ousted me just because I was around beyond their lunch business hours. I felt great when I wrote on my review how a great meal and the customer experience were spoiled just by a management’s stubbornness on the closing hours. As this kid grew over time, has learned that a review is just not about walking into a Church and sharing your thoughts about something you experienced without looking at the other end, but sharing something that creates an impact to a business and its consumers.
Google Local Guides program has picked this clay of me and shaped me into a meaningful sculpture, over time. Now at 120 reviews and 563 pictures & videos old, I’ve become a much more responsible reviewer who points out when something is not right and lauds a business when they do something right and in the best way. More than 95% of my reviews are longer in content than usual review length and I try to get as much detailed as possible. I do this as it gives me greater satisfaction and a sense of writing a novel, that at least a few hundred people can read through. One of my pictures for a local bowling place (Bowlero, Belleville NJ), has garnered more than a MILLION views (currently 1,324,997 views) and has been my much treasured achievement on Google Maps.
Know what’s one of the many wonderful things about being a Local Guide is, apart from getting emails on being on the top 1 or 5%? I once got my wife a make-up kit that came along through the Local Guides perks and since then, she has been nudging me to write a review on Google right after we get back from a restaurant or any place 
Knowingly or unknowingly, every Google local guide among us has been a silent crusader, who has been impacting somebody’s lives (Businesses) with our reviews in some way or the other. It’s a huge responsibility we’ve taken up, to make a meaningful impact to the society that we are a part of. A good review can make a business grow, while an intentional bad review can break a business in just a fortnight.
Being a Google Local Guide has been an enriching experience of self-discovery so far for me. Every Google Local Guide is a Super Hero. We don’t wear special capes. But we DO wear Badges, saving one Business at a time.