I am from San Francisco originally but have retired to live in Medellin, Colombia. I am passionate about spreading the word that Medellin today isn’t anything like the Medellin people see on the TV show ‘Narcos’. There are more dangerous cities in the United States than here.
While just about everyone here has a cell phone, the knowledge of the importance of social media and Google Maps, in particular, is not as widespread as you might believe.
Many business pages from really good places go unclaimed by the business owner. Which means operating hours, phone number and website data are often missing. Sadly, Google’s mapping team has not revisited this wonderful city in more than 5 years, at least in my neighborhood of Envigado. So a lot of street view is really dated.
As a former business owner myself, I am passionate about helping other business owners succeed by introducing myself as a Local Guide and encouraging them to claim their business online. And then writing a review while adding good quality photos, trying to include the exterior to compensate for the really old photos in Street View.
My inclination is not to review average and unremarkable places. As my mom used to say “if you don’t have something nice to say, it is better to say nothing at all”.
If I wouldn’t go back, it isn’t worth my time to recommend. I will, however, update the listing by editing the data that can be improved. For example changing “Restaurant” to “Mexican Restaurant”, capitalizing names, and making sure the pin is in the correct place.
If a place is especially awful, then I will write a detailed negative review to warn potential customers away. Perhaps it will also serve as a wake-up call to the owner for areas of the business needing improvement.
At 70, I am still active but am not employable (and don’t need to work anyway), so being a Local Guide to me is like a really good volunteer job where I get to help lots people, both owners, and customers alike.