OurTraction

The release of Google Street View for London Ontario has got me thinking about how businesses and industry can take advantage of user generated maps to promote their businesses and connect with their clients, customers or partners.

Business Listings

Adding your business location and description to a map is a simple technique that does not require any further active involvement. Google Local Business Center and Bing’s Local Listing Center make adding your business to a map as easy as filling out a form. Google also provides data and metrics about your listing so you can see how people are finding you online. The Google maps listing for rtraction shows what type of information can be included.

Photos and Videos

Google and Bing maps both have the ability to add your own information to them; such as photos or video or links to articles about landmarks or features. You can add rich content about your business that is included on the map when someone searches for your business or industry.

Geo-location

This technology allows any kind of post or update to indicate the specific location of the upload. One of the biggest benefits is with Twitter. Tweets can be placed on a map to show exactly where they were sent from.

Another feature, only available on Bing, is to identify points of interests along a planned route. So when I input my starting and ending points, I can find out what businesses are along my route.

There are a number of applications being rolled out to Bing in the coming weeks.

Don’t Neglect the Maps

User generated maps are the Yellow Pages of the 21st century but are often forgotten as a strategy. Incorporating them into your social media campaign doesn’t require a lot of effort and will increase your online presence organically.

Titus

Titus role is to help keep our clients fluent in many dialects of social media. Titus has been a key organizer for a variety of local technology events. A true conversationalist both online and off, Titus rarely shies away from a healthy debate and is motivated to see the Internet become more social and move towards more engaging conversations. Titus is also an avid cook and would rather eat a failed recipe then throw out food. As a student, in order to save a few bucks, he would often brew his own beer.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 9:20 am and is filed under OurTraction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.