First, I would like to share how AMAZING I think the Local Guides program is, like honestly, who agrees on that?
I’m originally from Lebanon, and I recently moved to Canada, Edmonton to be more specific. Ever since I got here, I started trying out all these places, since most of them are basically new to me!
But before visiting any place, I would always look at the reviews on Google Maps ahead of time, just to make sure whether the place would be a right fit for me or not, because, no one wants to have a bad experience, right?!
The moment I decided to start writing reviews, was when I actually got a pizza for free for my birthday from one of my favorite restaurants here, called “Boston Pizza”. I was so happy, that I just wanted to share it with everyone!!! I thought that maybe someone would read it, and would basically follow what I did to also get one of their really tasty pizzas as a gift on their birthday, I mean, that’s a really cool surprise, from a restaurant who knows nothing about you, don’t you think so?!! ?
Then, one day, while I was at work, my manager comes and tells me “Hey Ingrid! You got a free pizza for your birthday?!” And I was kind of surprised/shocked, I was like “OMG YES! HOW DID YOU KNOW?! WERE YOU THERE?”, I mean even if he was there, how would he know, I didn’t start dancing in front of everybody obviously :')
So, he told me “I was actually making sure it was you, because I was scrolling on google maps the other day, and I saw someone called Ingrid with this review, and I thought to myself, how many Ingrids would be living that close? the picture looks like you as well so…” ,
so when I realized that it actually got spread out, I was like “OK! I’M GONNA BE CONSISTENT WITH THIS, IT IS ACTUALLY HELPING PEOPLE OUT! ESPECIALLY THAT REVIEWS ARE KIND OF A REALLY FUN MOMENT FOR ME”, is that weird? I really love reviewing things haha!
And ever since doing that, I got more and more views, I also started posting pictures with the reviews, which I find is really helpful for others to visualize what the places look like.
Now I’m at Level 6, an Expert Reviewer and an Expert Photographer!! So cool, isn’t it!!!
So, this is pretty much it!
FUNNY FACT: I’ve been thinking about how I could be able to visit Google one day, because I really admire this company so much!!! I’m so so interested in knowing everything about it and meeting all the amazing people there and just taking thousands of videos to share them with my friends and family if I’m allowed to of course.
So, I’ve been going through so many mixed feelings about whether I would ever be able to go there and have this amazing opportunity, then SUDDENLY!!! I GET A REALLY SURPRISING AND AMAZING UNEXPECTED EMAIL FROM GOOGLE!
I got invited to apply to the Google Local Guides Connection event for Nov 2019, and this is like A DREAM!!! I really hope it comes true!
Finally, thank you so much for reading my post, I really hope you enjoyed it!
I wish you all the best, and thank you for everything!
