This meetup was organised with new local guides and would-be local guides in mind. The purpose of this meetup was a Local Guides 101 session - a practical “how to” for beginners.
It was very exciting to be able to organise in-person meetups again.
My little group of three (including myself) met up at 10:30 AM outside one of Melbourne’s major supermarkets in Chadstone on Tuesday 29 Dec 2020. This was going to be essentially a business, shopping and restaurants oriented local guides foray.
Woolworth offered us the perfect spot to meetup that was outside the main shopping centre in a sheltered spot to explain the Local Guides program, policies and expectations. There’s nothing more important than signing up new local guides on the right footing. I was able to share from personal experiences my ‘boo boos’ from not having had a good mentor and also from signing up into the program the usual way like so many people – stumbling upon it in response to a Maps prompt to share my photos.
It gave me great joy to be able to share my experiences with Flo and friend doing it the right way and guiding them each step of the way – from the basics of how to post photos to businesses and add photos to businesses, and what makes a useful informative photo and review.
After the initial introductory information, it was time to get practical and start taking photos. As we made our way around the shopping centre, I was able to share further from my experiences and illustrate my tips with what we were seeing before us. As we covered a number of types of businesses in the shopping centre I was able to share quite extensively.
We finished off our time together with a celebratory lunch at one restaurant at around 12 PM and dessert/drinks at another later (which thus provided even more opportunities for hands-on experience).
Some tips I shared during our walk around Chadstone Shopping Centre included the following:
- It is good to include people in your photos to give it a sense of scale, activity and warmth. It is a good habit to get into blurring out faces if they can be identified from it (likewise for car registrations). I suggested Blur Face as an app I used which was simple and straight forward and which automatically recognised and selected faces to be blurred out in a variety of ways.
- Composing your photos also means waiting for people to walk and move into position – whether you want to photograph their backs or wait until they move behind a shrub, large sign or pillar (if they were walking towards your direction and you didn’t want to capture their faces).
- Experiment with your camera angles to see which gives the best information and shows the business in the best possible light and gives you the kind of useful information that someone who has never been there would find informative (from eye level, below or above, from the side, moving further away, moving close up etc).
- Be conscious of extraneous information in the background in your photos – change your point of view as necessary to avoid or to include something other the main subject you have your eyes on
- Photos that show the front entrances of businesses as well as how it is located in relation to other well-known businesses around it is useful for helping people find the place
- Be mindful of people’s privacy especially if you intend to include ATMs and bank photos (there was a bank next to where we met up)
- As we entered that shopping centre we saw a row of ATMs – I pointed out that that would also be useful information for those who might be after particular types of ATMs and it would be useful for them to know where to find it too (by including landmarks)
- At the entrance was a Covid-safe staff dispensing hand sanitiser to shoppers as they entered the shopping centre as well as the self-serve hand sanitiser. Such information might also be useful in this season of staying safe I pointed out.
- It is useful to think of the different types of people who could be accessing the business or service to help you work out what kind of photos and reviews would be useful and worth adding to Maps e.g. parents with kids and strollers, parents with toddlers requiring high chairs, elderly with walkers, people on wheelchairs or walking sticks, teens, young people, adults, people shopping in groups or in pairs or by themselves. Putting yourself in their shoes helps you be a better Local Guide content photographer.
- Turning an information tag around on a product could make the photo more useful than if you left the tag hanging off on its side
- It is useful to include photos of the types of things a particular business sells and especially if it is unusual e.g. bidets (which we encountered!)
- You can also add videos to Maps – just not too lengthy – no one is really interested in watching a minute long video if 9 seconds will give you enough information (be aware of your video size as well – some mobile phone cameras shoot in very high resolution while others allow you to adjust the video resolution and thus its size)
- It is quality and not quantity that matters
- Yes, you can delete your photos if you find that you change your mind about them
- Yes, you can also edit your reviews if you think of something else to add to it later – yes you do get more points if you give a more detailed review (generally 6 lines and above)
- There was a major bus terminus at Chadstone Shopping Centre near one of the entrances. We talked about the kind of information that would be useful for commuters e.g. whether it was sheltered, where it was in relation to the extensive massive shopping centre, bus stop numbers etc. In this, a picture was worth a thousand words – so we set to taking photos
- In this time particularly, people like to know whether an eatery delivers (and which delivery service they use) – information about that can be included in your photos and/or in your reviews – we saw a number of businesses that advertised this fact quite prominently and we could tell that it was quite a new thing because their signs looked quite fresh
- In restaurants, some questions to get you started in what you photograph or write reviews on: What is the ambience and decor like? Is it overly bright and glary or dim? Are there high chairs for children? Can I get a wheelchair in there? Is it good for groups? Is it romantic, cozy etc? Would I bring my date or kids here? Is it family friendly? What’s the price like? What kinds of food do they serve? What’s the presentation of the food like? How do the food taste? What kinds of payment do they accept? Do they provide water or tea etc. as part of the meal? Is there table service? Are they part of a discount group app e.g. Liven? Are the seats comfortable? What kinds of seating are there (e.g. benches, banquettes, counter seats etc.)? Is there live music? Is the music too loud for conversation? Are there toilets here? What is it like? What was the service like? Were the staff friendly, helpful, rude? Would you go back? Is this a regular place you eat at? Or is this the first time you’ve been, if so, would you come back? Is parking easy to find? How long is the parking nearby? Is there disabled parking or parking for parents with prams?
We had a great time together and by the time we finished our time together, my new local guide recruit had reached Level 3! She was a keen student and a natural at it. She’s well on her way to being of help to small businesses and making a difference in the lives of Google Maps users. Who knows, you might even get to meet her at a Connect Live or Meetup one day (wink and grin).
Question: If you were doing a Local Guides 101, what tips would you share with a newbie?
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Link to original event post: https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Local-Guides-101-Chadstone-SC-Tues-29-Dec-2020/m-p/2795222#M1038796
Link to small business challenge: https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Local-Guides-supporting-Small-Local-Businesses/m-p/2835141#M1059757
thank you. Yes I remember all the mistakes I made as a beginner local guide. I had to learn things the hard way. I hope that by sharing what I have learnt, it can make the path easier for newbies.
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, as I am a foodie 
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