Last 2 years, I have lived in several developping countries for my work, where social media is still at the beginning. There are many stores and restaurants not yet featured online, but those ones have online exposure have become tourist attraction. Those lucky ones favoured by social media influencers made big profit and adjusted pricing for tourist demand for the same service. On the other hand, many good stores in suburb are unfortunately beary catching the business opportunity. I felt some times back that online promotion is fake and unfair.
However, since I started posted my own comments for mostly small stores in suburb area, I started seeing influence within myself. My past time is to be adventurous and visit local stores, so one day I decided to share those hidden gems on map and leave my review. Sooner I start getting fun out of the posting, as I see my comments being part of the public map. Then, I received Google map traffic report showing how many people actually referenced my reviews. At that point, I was thrilled to know the impact that I’m creating to the community. I also felt good that many people start noticing those small stores.
The more I contribute to the map, the more time I spent on Google map by reading others’ reviews and reporting wrong info to Google map. The public map became a place for me to participate in. Indeed this is a community place where I can safely join with anonymity and no discrimination because of that. My volunteer effort, feedback from others, non judgemental folks, pictures of strees, foods …etc it all brings positive influence, and just viewing the map is a relaxation. So what I like most about sharing is that I’m creating the sense of belonging to this community.