For the Local Guides in the Media session during Community Live 2020, I collected the stories of 12 local guides from all around the globe, who had been featured in the media because of their activities as local guides.
The point I wanted to make by doing so, was that the local guides program - familiar as it might be amongst us - is still relatively unknown to the public at large (just think of when you need to explain to family and friends what exactly it is you do on Maps all the time), but definitely considered to be newsworthy by the press. Some of the local guides featured here had been on national TV, or page-wide in newspapers and magazines. In some cases there had been a bit of help from the Google PR team to draw the attention of the press, but in other cases the local guides reached out to the press themselves, or the press ‘stumbled upon’ them.
Check out the video recording of the session here and discover the wonderful stories of (in order of appearance):
- @TorM (Germany)
- @AIMAN_SAEED (Paksitan)
- @JonBekkevoll (Norway)
- @CrystalKoh (Singapore)
- @Marichams (Dominican Republic)
- @christophesubilia (Switzerland)
- @Joel_S (Sweden)
- @Sagir (Nigeria)
- @CaroGuiniazu (Argentina)
@user_not_found
(Ireland)- @SumaiyaZafrin (Bangladesh)
- and myself (Belgium)
Feeling inspired? Why then not reach out to the press in your region or country? I can guarantee that the journalists - who eagerly need news 24/7 - will be interested, especially if you throw some interesting facts and figures to them, such as the millions of views our pictures are getting, the fact that we add loads of accessibility information to Maps, the active support we offer to local businesses in these challenging times, etc.
For copyright reasons, the clips shown during the session can’t be included in the recording, so if you want to check those out, you can do so on the following links:
Torben
TV Station: ProSieben
Show name: Galileo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skNh-PZA2pw
Crystal
TV Station: The Straits Times
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/6000-hawker-stalls-on-google-maps
Caro
Show name: Puntal AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42en2oGQWQM&feature=youtu.be
Jan
TV Station: Een
Show name: Iedereen Beroemd
TV Station: Een
Show name: Journaal
And last but not least: a big thank you to the fellow Connect Moderators @SP31 and @Sagir for supporting me during the session.