It is very much in my nature to ask, to explore and to express my admiration and gratitude to people in places I go, whether it’s a grocery store on my block or a shale hidden in Italian Alps. While it is a must for me to share a word to my friends about where I’ve been and what I’ve seen at some point, I felt I wanted to share with more people. I started to add places to the map where they were not yet there, to write longer reviews and add the pictures I took. It energises me – revealing new places, promoting what has wowed me and providing constructive feedback where I felt this could help. I’ve always seen it as a kind of code of ethics for a good citizen to thank and express my appreciation when I am happy and point out what I think could be done better. As we say in Russian “Even a cat likes to hear something nice”.
Once, about a year ago, I wrote a review for a café where I had breakfast with my friends. We agreed to meet around Kings Cross in London but didn’t agree on any specific place. I took the lead and as usual, looked on Google Maps to find a decent place: it had be open for breakfast, not too expensive, with nice vibe and good reviews. So I found a small and cosy place called Café OZ to which we all headed. We didn’t regret our choice. We had a great time catching up and enjoyed a delicious breakfast. Being very happy with the experience I shared my detailed review and photos. It was early morning on the weekend and very calm and sunny. Over time, I forgot about this outing. What followed to my big surprise was that I got an email saying that picture I took that morning had been seen by over a million people over the past 6 months. I was somewhat shocked and delighted to know that my contribution had in fact helped people to discover that nice place and probably made a contribution to the marketing of the place as well. That was the moment when I realised what a big impact my contribution can make for people and places around me. By capturing my own positive emotions and sharing my experiences as a Local Guide via review I feel I serve a valuable purpose and make it possible to share my excitement and joyful experiences with other people.
I also recall another time when I stopped off at a nice boutique beauty salon in Soho London. I checked Google Maps for reviews – the salon was not listed. Since I needed their service quite urgently I went there at my own risk. Luckily it was a success – the service was fast and great. I talked to a beautician who helped me, and it turned out she was the business owner running the salon. She was very professional and pleasant, the director and beautician in one. I couldn’t hold myself back from asking why her place wasn’t listed on Google Maps and it turned out she had never heard of Google Maps and that this was an option to promote her business. We exchanged contacts and I promised to send her some instructions on how to get her place added. That was the day when I learned that I can add places and business like that myself - which I proceeded to do that same evening. As I can see from the statistics today, the listing for the salon has already been seen more than 40,000 times.
Helping others in this way really warms my heart. People need other people. And I can make this change every day just by sharing what I lived through and felt that day.