What do I love sharing the most on Google Maps? My everyday experiences that could help others decide where they would like to go and to help businesses improve their goods/services. This could be some of my favourite places to go in my community, the place I happened to go for lunch or supper one day, or somewhere that I’ve gone on holidays. Whether I’m eating, shopping, or doing leisure activities, I’m thinking of how I would share my experience with the Google Maps world.
In today’s world, a lot of people like to share picture perfect posts and poses from their lives on social media to reflect having an extravagant or trendy or perfect life. Rather than posting my experiences on social media, I prefer to post to Google Maps to help inform other people of what they might expect at a particular place. I post my photos and likes/dislikes to hopefully help others out, rather than posting a picture perfect life on social media. People who know me will know what I’m doing (and I don’t want to bore them with my rants and raves cluttering their social media feeds), but people on Google Maps might appreciate some input and might not know the best places to go to when choosing a restaurant, hotel, or museum.
What about my everyday experiences do I like to share?
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Anything and everything I think of: Often the really bad or the really good experiences stand out to me the most, but I also try to review places that are mediocre. If I go somewhere, I try to remember to review it.
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Pros and cons: When I have a 5-star rating for a place, I try to think about an area that they can improve in some way. And when I give a very low rating, I also try to think about something positive about the location. I think it’s important to present a balanced perspective and not discredit a place completely because of one bad experience.
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My personality/genuine impression: While sometimes I report very objective information with no personality, I really enjoy it when the location has left me with an impression that excites me. For example, I remember going to a restaurant and wanting to give a good rating just because of my positive impression of the host at the door.
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Photos: I am motivated by the fact that photos give extra points on Google reviews. It amuses me to take photos of average meals (i.e., what I ate at an everyday chain fast food restaurant) with terrible lighting and camera angles (compared to the perfection people post on Instagram) and tell my friends that I’m taking the photo for my Google review.
In a way, Google maps is my diary of the experiences I’ve had that I can look back on and remember where I want to go again, and what I want to recommend to others. Hopefully anyone who sees my reviews, gets something out of it, whether it is informative or just gets a chuckle