What does google maps say about you?

Google maps is an incredibly powerful tool.  Only 25 years ago, the ability to walk the streets of Paris, block by block, and view the buildings as they exist nearly in present time while sitting on a computer several thousand miles away would have seemed impossible.  Never has the human race had such an accurate idea of where we were in relationship to one another.  Compare this ability with the maps available to explorers 200 years ago, and we can appreciate how far we've come.

Recently, a boy who had been lost for over 25 years rediscovered his family using only his childhood memories and google maps.  He was five years old when he fell asleep on a train for 14 hours, arriving in Calcutta with no knowledge of where his home was located, no family and no money.  After becoming a beggar then getting adopted and relocating to Australia, he had no way to retrace his steps to rediscover his family until he used google maps to view the countryside in a 14-hour radius around Calcutta until he recognized landmarks from childhood.  From there, he was able to locate his mother and reunite with her after 25 years.  

This story  is an inspiring reminder of the fact that anyone can find us using google maps.  For better or worse, anyone can use "street view" and look right at our front door.  They can also read the reviews which have been written about us by our past customers.  

How much control do you have right now over your google places presence?  Have you addressed any negative reviews?  Have you updated your company's profile?  Do you ask your happy customers to write favorable reviews?  Remember that many people use their "google maps" function on their phones to navigate to your brick and mortar location.  Better that this function is accompanied by happy, thoughtful reviews and an updated profile.  This simple action only takes a few minutes, is free, and may well produce dividends in increased traffic.

If a man who grew up as an illiterate orphan on the streets of Calcutta can eventually be reunited with his family through the use of google maps, then we can acknowledge that google maps is now as integral in our lives as google itself, and we can learn to use these tools for our own advantage and success.