Earlier this year I responded to an invitation from Google to enroll in their Local Guide program. Google Local Guides are volunteers who routinely write reviews, share photos, answer questions and fact check Google Maps. Participating in the program seemed a natural extension of my day job and gives me the opportunity to help out others by providing timely details about a business or location.
Besides simply providing reviews and sharing personal pics from places they’ve visited, Local Guides play an important role in fact checking information reported on Google Maps and in the Google My Business listing like hours of operation and, following the COVID shut down, whether a business was still operating.
Google rewards Local Guides not with $$ but with reports of engagement data on their posts. For me, this is where things get really interesting.
I spent Mother’s Day weekend in Mt. Pleasant, SC, with my family and patronized a coffee bar for breakfast that doubled as a haven for board enthusiasts. At the end of my (very enjoyable) visit, I quickly snapped and then shared a few quick pictures of the venue including the bookshelf full of games that were available for guests to enjoy during their visit. (Full disclosure: We played Mountain Goats and it was great fun!)
The coffee bar was just one of three destinations that I documented as a Local Guide on my travel weekend but three months later it has proven to be the most appreciated of the bunch. Remember I told you that Google rewards Local Guides with reports of engagement data? During the first few days and weeks after my visit, I began to get notifications of the number of viewers of my images. I thought this was pretty funny, especially the report number of people looking at images I shared of my food, but it was the picture I shared of the board games available for use that has been the runaway winner for traffic. Ninety days after my visit there have been 12,205 views of the picture I took showing the bookshelf full of games.
Let this be a lesson to you. People like to look at pictures and the nerdier and more discrete and detailed the image, the more helpful it can be to other viewers.
We routinely advocate that our clients document and share images from their daily business activities, especially during outings to client sites and special events. We know that these images not only educate customers and prospects about their firm but ultimately amp up their engagement on social. Image posts on social routinely outperform text only posts by a factor of five or more.
This post is courtesy of MMC Principal Jennifer Koon.