First of all, I hope you are all doing fine during these days and staying safe and home if you can. In Costa Rica we’ve been doing social distancing for about three weeks now and as in many other countries, the economy has been affected. So, after reading @KatieMcBroom 's post Which small businesses are you supporting right now? I was inspired to write this post were I’ll tell you which actions I’m making and hope that you can make some of them as well or you can share with me other ways we can help.
On social media, like instagram, I’ve been trying to share in my stories the products I’ve been buying from entrepeneurs or local businesses, also I like to comment their posts and thank them every time, this are just some ways to show support. And this has been something that I’ve been trying to do for 2 years, but now, more than ever they need this.
Also on instagram, about a year ago, I started selling homemade marshmallows (@littlemallows.cr) as a way to ease my mind from university and because I’ve always liked to cook. The money I’ve made through this is for my savings account and traveling, but I don’t depend on this to live. That is why I decided to make a post about helping other small businesses who really live day by day and rely on what they sell, you can find my post here (it’s in spanish but you can use the translate feature on instagram). In this post I also ask my followers to recommend other businesses and I post them on my stories.
And, of course there are ways we can help in Google Maps! About two weeks ago I went to my favorite bakery to buy some goodies and when I got home I took a picture of what I bought and then Ieft a review. My family loves so much this bakery that we ordered some more pastries yesterday and they brought it to our house, we are all trying to buy more local stuff lately. And now I’m working on a list of local businesses that I love and I want more people to discover and support as well, I’m writing it in spanish but you can check it out if you’d like.
I hope we all can continue making this actions and supporting even when the pandemic is over. And it doesn’t matter if we consider the things we are making are small, if many people contributes to this, we can make a huge impact and help altogether, which is something Google Maps and being a Local Guide is all about 