My first real job out of college was at a company devoted towards leveraging the local search market. Marchex, BlitzLocal, and many other companies out there today see local as the blossoming form of main stream search. Essentially, they are banking on the fact that what people actually search for online will change to a more centralized and local base. Is this the case, and should we too be seizing this opportunity? Hell yeah! Well at least to some degree.

Today, applications and websites such as Google Maps and Yelp have helped pave a new local channel for people to funnel through in order to reach their destination. Local restaurants, service companies, and tech savvy independent business owners have harnessed this evolving channel in hopes of capitalizing on the trend that is local. Bring Twitter into the discussion and this shift is hugely magnified

If you browse through the millions and millions of Twitter users out there, you might just notice something. There are a lot of businesses, corporate accounts, as well as things which I would like to call community broadcast accounts. One example of a community broadcast account I personally follow is @CenPhoTV (Central Phoenix). So what do I mean by local broadcast account? With the ease and simplicity that Twitter represents, many people today are creating their own news feeds much like how a year or two ago,  RSS and other numerous technologies were helping people decide what is and what is not read-worthy. With Twitter, what was once a personal news feed for Joe who works in accounting, is now a public news feed for many other people who are interested in the same thing Joe is interested in. Even more, communication and chat can be added to the picture. Do you want to know what is happening downtown? What local restaurants are having specials tonight? Do a Twitter search and see if you can’t navigate your way through the TRAP (Twitter Crap.. I should brand the term – Look for a blog post later!) out there, to something that is meaningful AND LOCAL to you! Maybe a wine bar is hosting a tasting for $20 tonight. Entertainment on a Saturday? Sure why not. Plus… it’s local.

So why does this matter?

Let’s just say a map represents a grid. Like an X/Y grid. Oh.. this is an easy comparison. Google Maps has come a long long way in terms of shoving data into the actual maps. Restaurant locations, addresses, barber shop phone numbers (I don’t use a barber.. I use a very sophisticated beautician) and everything else you can think of is displayed on these maps. But as more and more information gets published, the more the clutter we need to sift through.

Real time statuses, reviews, and specials offers a totally different thing…

Put these two things together, and you have the capability of creating some of the most complex XYZ three-dimensional models out there. It’s like walking down the street and hearing every single person’s word of mouth blurb. … they should make an application that lists the most referenced restaurants on Twitter in a given city. Talk about word of mouth!

Alright, so while this might not be the best example, it does show a lot of what I’m talking about.

Today’s searching community is smart and can pretty much put two and two together. I know real time Twitter updates on Google Maps is just about here (maybe it’s already here and just not mainstream.. or maybe I’m totally out of the loop. I dunno), but we don’t need an application to do that kinda stuff for us! (Then again, we don’t need an application to decide on where we’re going to eat dinner tonight).

Maximizing Twitter, Maps, Yelp, Review Sites, Facebook, and everything else out there, searchers and social media users today are living proof as to why Local is now here more then ever. You know who you’re looking for. Do they blog?

Peace!

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Any ways, if you haven’t noticed, you’re now able to click on various parts of the street view map to zoom in or travel to the specific location of which you clicked. Gone are the days of clicking through streets to find the restaurant you want to go to. Gone are the days of thinking.. ‘Wow, somehow, I’m here when I need to be all the way down there.. it’s too much work to go to map view again just to go to the right location. I’m going to just keep clicking until I get there.’ – Okay so that might just be me, but you get my point. Take a minute to go to maps.google.com and play around in street view. It’s kinda fun!

But whats the point? Why make a good thing better?

So Google Maps isn’t Social Media. It isn’t SEO, or even PPC, but it is content… and you better believe you’ll be finding all three of those things embedded into it sooner or later if not already. Take for example. Google Business Listings. Google was smart enough to tell people.. ‘Hey… we’ve got this application out there that is way better then other maps on the internet, that we’d like to populate with GOOD information.. such as your business! Do you want to be on GOOGLE MAPS?’

‘Sure?’ says Barry Wells of Barry Wells Chevrolet. (Disclaimer: I don’t think there is a Barry Wells Chevrolet.. if there is, you should rejoice in my free publicity!)

Why wouldn’t local businesses want to show up on the map most Googlers, let alone people, use today. – Add features such as kick ass zoom, position warping, and simulated earthquake damage.. this is not available yet, and you’ve got a content factory that people are just going to want to keep pouring their heart and soul into. It’s the Google business model. (If you don’t know the Google business model…. Create Content Theme Parks (Search Engines) -> Slowly Incorporate Advertising -> Make Gazillions… its sort of similar to this video:

Alright so those mind trick videos are kinda dumb; your attention is not on the moving bear, but nonetheless, the bear was there… you can never go back and tell me otherwise. Although the bear is irrelevant to the basketball players, it does ad value to the video. Essentially.. Google has perfected this illusion, so much that it’s not really an illusion anymore. PEOPLE LOVE BEARS!

As Google Maps continues to pull more and more people, businesses, and cool tools/applications that make map navigation easier, why not optimize for this local audience. Make the effort to create the Local Business Listing, or submit some photos for a particular address, or just write a review or two. You know SEO, you know that content is key. Join the local conversation, and you might be surprised at who sees you. But although you might not be a local business owner, you can at at least wave to people when they drive by.

Peace