Years ago, I was very dumb. I can’t read the map, I don’t know where the true direction is. I think, lost is my middle name. At that time, me and my sister loved to explore unique photo spots and hidden gems around city that not very known by people. We usually go by motorcycle. Because of I am a slow person, so mostly my sister ride the motorbike so we can go faster, and I have to use the Google maps to know where we have to going. Again, because of my dumb, I often ruin the trip. I can’t even read the map, and we’re lost.
My sister teach me how to use google maps in a simple way for resolve my problem and we’re not getting lost in the next days. Apparently I just have to tap the direction button and following whatever Google says. OMG! It’s so easy. At my first trial, we can arrive to the destination that we want without getting lost at all. Since that day, I really interested in to this application.
After that, my sister also tell me about being local guide on google maps. Before that, all I know about local guide is a professional tourist guide that guiding around local places. But what my sister explain is different. It’s a local guide on google maps. Mean, we do rating, reviewing, and sharing about a place that we’ve been visited, and we can get some point after the review submitted. Since that day, I always activating location service on my phone, so google can saving the place that I’ve visited, and I can review it anytime.
One day I got an email from google maps that I get a free hotel voucher for 1 night as a reward of being local guides. I was surprised and very happy because I expect nothing, then I get perk. I just an ordinary human being that love explore and sharing my experiences and my opinions about places that I’ve visited. So thank you so much google maps & google local guide.
Another day, I was visiting my cousin at her small shop. She sells bananas. The location is in the edge of a main road but she said that many people / buyers that confuse about where the shop exactly is. Because she always said the shop is across the gas station, but not have a listing on google maps yet. I decided to help her to add the location of this shop to google maps so people can find this shop easily. I also taught her to claim the business and use google my business for optimization.
That story is change my mind as a local guide. Being a local guide is not just getting a lot of points at google maps contribution and get the highest badge, but also helping others. My review that I write at google maps have big impact to someone business. The more good my review, the more complete my complementary, the more influenced people to visit or not visit a place.
I realize that google local guides have a huge contribution for many entrepreneurs or industrialist around them, especially the one who still growing the business, like small shop or traditional seller that previously they just sell to local people, then since they have a location on google maps, many tourist s from another cities or even another countries come to buy their goods.
I proud of my self for being a local guide and I appreciate all local guides around the world because you guys also have a contribution to help small business.
Hey @Oktaffyani ,
It seems to me that this is your application post for Connect Live 2020, so I will move it to the Local Stories section which is the right place for this type of posts. I will also remove the Indonesian tag, as this type of tag should reflect the language in which the publication is written. In this case this is English.
Here you can find everything you need to know about writing a post for your Connect Live 2020 application. Don’t forget to review your final post and make sure you are not missing any of the points mentioned. If you are - feel free to edit your publication from the three dots and add them.
Since you are new to our community please don’t hesitate to check Your guide to Connect and 14 helpful tips for using Connect. These topics will help you to navigate in the forum and participate in the program in the best way possible. Our program rules and help desk are a must, in case you have any doubts related to the program.