I am Jobeth Martecio, a budding physicist from the Philippines, and a proud level 6 local guide. When I started being a local guide, it was only about uploading photos of those few places that I’ve been in. To be frankly honest about it, because of my busy schedule, I was only able to contribute when notifications popped out from Google Maps. In my first year, I uploaded couple of photos, reviewed restaurants, and answered few questions. Then one day, I received an email notifying me about my review of a nearby coffee shop. To my surprise, it was the owner thanking me and telling to support their home-grown coffeehouse chain.
At the time, I was only starting reviewing on Google Maps. It was only few words that I have written in my review and it was just a simple response from the owner, but It sparked joy and excitement on my part. Maybe, this is most interesting thing that happen to me on this platform.
From that day on, I have been more motivated to participate more and contribute better. More photos. New places. Farther destinations. But what I believe the aspect I gained improvement a lot is on my reviews. Two sentences became a paragraph. As I wrote more reviews, I realized that reviews should not only about assessing how great (or bad) a certain place is, but also suggesting how visitors could have a great experience about the place. We are local guides after all; we should be the ambassadors of the great places in the Maps. And most importantly, an advocate to help local places be recognized by local and global community. If I learn more about how to be better at what we do, I’d be more excited for all the interesting things the future holds.
Here are some photos that I uploaded in Google Maps.
