Monitoring our photo views

[LightRich]

As a Local Guide photo views are important to me as while we don’t get points for the views that our photos generate, the number of photo views give us a good indication on how the photos we are taking and uploading on to Maps impact on our communities. As has often been said, “our photo views give us a good indication on how many people we have helped make a decision such as about what place to visit or what meal to have”. So then how do we monitor our photo views?

On mobile

The Contribute tab on the Google Maps app provides Local Guides with a small chart that shows how our all-time photo views have increased over time and together with the current all-time photo views value, now it shows the increase in views over the last week. As you can see in the example screenshot below, the current all-time photo views is 40,589,253 and the increase in views over the last 7 days is +390.2 K new. Here in Mexico those details are different depending your using Android or IOS version of Google Maps.

On desktop PC

On a desktop PC, together with the number of photos, the Photos tab under our contributions shows us the all-time photo views count. As you can see in the screenshot below, today the total number of photos I’ve added is 2,831 and my current all-time photo views is 40,655,014

Note: There´s a little bit difference vs my screenshots from mobile because those are from one day before the screenshot on desktop

The Top 100 Local Guides System

I also use the Top 100 Local Guides Systemcreated by fellow Connect Moderator @AdamGT to monitor my photo views and this system provides:

(1) a month-by-month all-time photo views count comparison, as well as

(2) a month-by-month average views per photo comparison.

As shown in the screenshot snippets below, these are available in both tabular and chart format. I really like the fact that these charts are customisable so that I can select the detail that I want to focus in on. I especially love the month-by-month average views per photo comparison as it gives me an indication or a measure on the quality of my photos and I monitor this each month.

Having those charts available to analyze, led me to think about some of my photos have very few views and maybe those photos are not useful indeed. So, i decided to make a clean up and delete my very old photos with the less views. That action helps to increase my average views and avoid not useful photos waste space in the web.

The other very practical aspect about these tables, is that they are fully integrated with Connect. Each entry links to a specific leaderboard post on Connect so at any time I can quickly and easily see how my photo views compares to other Local Guides and especially to Local Guides at my level.

Summary

So there are different ways of monitoring the effectiveness of our photo contributions on Google Maps. I know that some Local Guides would take the data from say the Google Maps app and post them onto a spreadsheet as @LaloPadilla has told me he usually does, or @TerryPG that in the past had a manual register for his statistics (you can read his post: Working Smarter not Harder ), but I say “why bother?, theTop 100 Local Guides System, does this all for me”. I mean, I had thought about create my own charts for track my contributions but i didn´t have the time to do that and when i found this system it really saved a lot of time for me. Beside that, now I have access to a different kind of aspects and views I´ve never thought about before.

I make a call to everybody to make a try and discover all the tools that are available in the Top 100 Local Guides System and join the fun of analyze your own contributions and numbers.

[Maximilianozalazar]

@LightRich genial post

[Mo_TravelleerX]

@LightRich you touched the most important points that every new local guide will need, Great work

[Stephanie_OWL]

Wow!!! Was für eine geniale Analyse deiner Daten im Vergleich mit den verschiedenen Optionen !!!

@LightRich

Danke für diesen sehr aufschlussreichen Beitrag!

Da ich selbst an den Top100 teilnehmen kann ich bestätigen wie differenziert dort die Möglichkeit einer Analyse der eigenen Fotos ist!

Ich bin wirklich begeistert wie du es geschafft hast, diese Dinge SO zusammen zu stellen, dass mein Hirn sich nicht umgehend in stand by verabschiedet hat

Danke, denn als Neuling auf dem Gebiet der Datenanalyse fällt es mir manches Mal noch schwer, aber in saubere Häppchen aufgeteilt ist es perfekt!

[JustJake]

Thanks for the breakdown, @LightRich . I also have been inclined to go back and review photos that are obviously not being seen and just “waste space in the web” since getting a focused look at these averages. It’s brought my average views up by a good amount, but it’s good practice in general.

It’s easy to level up by flooding the map with pictures, as many people do, but for what benefit? Are we posting for our own personal Level 10 achievement, or are we posting to provide beneficial contributions? I’d rather forfeit points to know that I’m actually being helpful. I don’t know that I could ever reduce my photo count enough to get an average view count like @MelTG , but dropping off photos every 2-3 months with under 100 views keeps everything clean.

[MelTG]

@JustJake thanks for the tag. This was a good read.

And I agree with your comment…are we posting to get points or are we posting to have a valuable contribution to the platform.

My goal is to contribute quality photos and reviews to the platform. I can’t stand it when people food businesses with pointless photos. Examples: we don’t need to see 300 photos of items at a Dollar General. We don’t need to see a plethora of half eaten food photos. We don’t need to see pictures of you and your friends at a local bar. Users want to see the business, the space, the atmosphere. I would love to see Google Maps come out with a restriction on the number of photos users can post to a single business .

[TerryPG]

Great Informative post @LightRich You know that I totally agree with the importance of quality shots, I have a lot of photos posted But as @JustJake said , some of them just don’t cut it, I am stickler for performing photos, Last week I went thru all my photos , yes all and removed 130 non performing photos , I do this on a recurring basis as many of you know I am becoming a Nerd.

Keep up the great posts Buzz.

[TerryPG]

You just named all my pet peeves @MelTG Drives me nuts.

[LightRich]

Thanks @TerryPG !

Yeah, cleaning up is a great action and i have done this one or two times, but now i think the idea of @JustJake about do this every two or three months is better. So, now i´m scheduling this for the whole year! Haha, kind a geek myself i think

[TerryPG]

Yes Cleaning as most of you know is so important @LightRich

I am becoming a Nerd or Geek ( and I like it) As a kid I was a promising soccer (football) player in England, I was actually scouted. but my my parents moved to Canada. And now I am a geek, who loves stats…

I cull or get rid of my under performing photos on an ongoing process. It’s not easy with over 9,000 photos, but I think I have it covered.

I have a vey strong and rigid formulae that i follow and many guides will not do this , for fear of losing points.

I no longer worry about points, they will come. Sorry If I am rambling ( I tend to that)

here’s my formulae, This is for Photos.

After 2 weeks you better have 100 views, or you might be gone…

After 1 month I want to see a Minimum of 200 views or bye bye.

After 6 months i want to see minimum of 500 views or gone

After 1 Year, you better have 1k views or sayonara your gone

I found I have don’t have to go thru ALL my photos because I already precleaned them

Welcome to the Geek world @LightRich

[LightRich]

Jajaja, @TerryPG me estas dando muy buenas ideas!!

Yo sabia que tenia que crear algunas reglas como las que nos compartes para poder llevar a cabo mi limpieza de fotos, pero ya has resuelto mi problema!

Lo que había hecho en mis dos revisiones previas era eliminar fotografías con dos años de antigüedad que tuvieran menos de 200 vistas, pero había sido una medida inicial solamente. Me gustan los parámetros que estableciste, y creo que los voy a aplicar. Solamente estableceré algunas excepciones,:

• Por ejemplo, yo vivo en una zona que aunque es parte del área metropolitana de la Ciudad de México, esta prácticamente en un extremo alejado. Eso significa que no hay el mismo número de habitantes que circulen aquí como en las áreas más centrales de la ciudad. Entonces para esta área mis reglas serán más flexibles.
• Para las áreas mas céntricas o lugares turísticos muy conocidos de mi ciudad, o de otras ciudades que visito cuando salgo de viaje, si puedo aplicar las reglas que señalas.

Todo esto lo estoy definiendo al mismo tiempo que estoy redactando este comentario pero creo que es un ejercicio necesario que considera los flujos de habitantes en zonas tan diferentes.

Me gusta toda esta conversación que se esta desarrollando en esta publicación. ¡Sigamos compartiendo ideas!

[LightRich]

Jajaja, gracias @Stephanie_OWL .

Si lo piensas bien cada una de las tablas que podemos encontrar en el sistema Top 100 LG nos permite analizar diferentes aspectos de nuestras contribuciones que nos dan perspectivas que nos ayudan a mejorar.

“Lo que no se puede medir, no se puede mejorar” dicen por ahí, y los tableros nos ayudan muchísimo en ese aspecto. Por ejemplo un tipo de contribución en el que quiero poner atención es agregar videos de los negocios y lugares que visito con frecuencia ( y en los que ya he agredado fotografías suficientes). Los Product Managers de Maps están dando atención a este tipo de contribución y nos recomiendan videos cortos (no más de 10 segundos) y en formato vertical. Actualmente los están destacando en las fichas de los negocios y ya podemos agregarlos en las reseñas de lugares con más facilidad junto con las fotografías tradicionales.

Entonces me parece que ese tipo de contribución va a cobrar mucha importancia en las vistas de las fichas de negocio y gracias a la gráfica que indica los puntos acumulados que tengo por tipo de contribución me dí cuenta que puedo aportar información relevante a través de ese tipo de contribución a la que no la había dado importancia.

Por cierto, creo que @AdamGT debe estar feliz de todo lo que esta provocando con sus tableros!

[TerryPG]

The whole idea of these wonderful conversations , thoughts, ideas, posts, is to get get constructive conversations going and I agree @LightRich there are few photo’s that maybe I have added that haven’t caught yet or maybe they have special meaning to me re: Place I have visited and brings special memories, But yes lets get rid of the rest

[LightRich]

Totalmente cierto @JustJake !

Justo ese razonamiento respecto a nuestra motivación al realizar contribuciones es un punto relevante al que todo Local Guide debe llegar o llega en un momento determinado.

Cuando entiendes que los puntos que obtienes no son el objetivo de contribuir, sino lo que puedes aportar como información relevante a otros usuarios. es cuando te puedes desligar de los niveles de la plataforma y alcanzar el único nivel verdaderamente importante: ayudar a los demás a través de tus contribuciones de manera permanente.

[AdamGT]

An excellent post @LightRich which clearly shows that you have mastered the power of the advanced tools and functionally of the Top 100 Local Guides System and I have to say that I love posts like this because the focus is on the impact that our guiding contributions make on our communities rather than on the points we get from them, and how we can monitor the effectiveness of our contributions, in this case the photos that we contribute.

It’s great to see that your use of the Top 100 Local Guides System goes beyond just for ranking your participation on the leaderboards and that you have clearly realized the power behind features such as the month-by-month average views per photo comparison as a measure and metric to monitor, keep tabs on the quality of your photos and see if and where you can improve. Like you said, “what cannot be measured cannot be improved” so the starting point is to measure and record your data (the System does this for you), and by this monitoring, through analysis, charts and tables, see how to improve on the effectiveness of your contributions.

In your comment here, I see that you have also nicely touched on the distribution of contribution points chart which summarizes and shows you where your contribution focus has been and the opportunities that exist. This integrates well with the new Country Contributions Summary Leaderboard, first introduced in January and which together can clearly show opportunity contribution areas that we can focus on in our respective countries.

Finally, I couldn’t possibly not respond to your comment

“By the way, I think @AdamGT must be happy with everything he is causing with his boards!”

What pleases me most is that this project, now going on 3 years in the making, has brought like minded nerds Local Guides together, those that yes appreciate the competitive and fun side of the leaderboards but more importantly, can see that the leaderboards are much, much more than just about rankings of Local Guides. Mission accomplished

[Stephanie_OWL]

Durch deinen Artikel @LightRich und deine Aufzählung @TerryPG wie du dein Aufräumen gestaltet, habe ich mich gestern auch mal ans entrümpeln gemacht…

Es war… eine ausgesprochen bemerkenswerte Erfahrung…

Näheres werde ich in einem separaten Bericht dazu schreiben wenn ich meine Gedanken diesbezüglich sortiert habe

Und schon ist es soweit (2 Stunden später… ) Wie ich mein Profil aufgeräumt habe

[TerryPG]

Glad you like the idea @Stephanie_OWL you have already done the hard work, from now on you probably only have to look at photos from the last 6 months to check.

[Stephanie_OWL]

Ganz genau… Was die Sache sehr viel einfacher machen wird. @TerryPG

Wobei ich tatsächlich mit mir hadere wenn ich zum Beispiel über meinen Ägypten Urlaub nachdenke und die tollen Fische die ich dort beim Schnorcheln sah…

Niemand hat Fotos der dortigen Fische hochgeladen, aber ich hätte mich sehr über selbige gefreut um bereits im Vorfeld zu sehen ob ich als relativer Schnorchel Laie, dort überhaupt glücklich werde am Hausriff.

Da Google keine Collagen mag, kann ich also tatsächlich nur einzelne Fotos hochladen. Ich HABE mich sogar beschränkt aber eben doch DEUTLICH mehr als die mit Morten besprochenen Fotos hochgeladen.

Aber… Ich kann ja nun sehen wie sich alles entwickelt in den kommenden Wochen.

[LightRich]

Pues aun no he vista que hayas enviado tu información para entrar a los tableros Maxi…

@Maximilianozalazar Ya sabes que si tienes alguna duda solo me avisas.

[LightRich]

Ya leí tu publicación Steph!! @Stephanie_OWL hiciste un gran trabajo y lo documentaste perfectamente bien!

Yo intenté comenzar hace dos días pero me quedé solo en las primeras fotos, jajaja. Tengo que aplicarme bien. Dejaré en tu publicación mis resultados en cuanto termine.