The Value of a Map
How often have you seen a friend on social media ask for restaurant recommendation or ideas for a fun family outing around town? How about that client who is looking for the location of all of the active adult communities in town? As real estate agents we are expected to be community experts. Knowing the best restaurants, hiking trails, fun family spots and other community locations should be part of our knowledge base and it also happens to be a great way to show value to our followers and remain at the top of their mind.
Knowing this information is super useful, but being able to deliver it in a meaningful way is sometimes challenging. Enter –
MyMaps from Google. A little-known feature of Google Maps is the ability for users to create their own custom maps. These maps can then be embedded into your site or simply shared by a unique link with your followers and potential clients.
Google Maps
Google Maps offers a quick and easy way to search for your favorite spots around town and then add them to lists, called “layers” within the map. The map can then be embedded (example below). Embedding the map on your site allows you to use it as content marketing, which you can then share on social media and email campaigns bringing the viewer back to your site to see other resources and tools that they may wish to bookmark or share themselves. You can find an example of such a landing page on my client site at
www.fxbglife.com. The best part of this technique is that building the map is just as easy as using Google Maps. Watch the video below for a step-by-step tutorial of how to do it!
Here’s a sample of the what the map embed looks like 
