Imagine That – Maps As Unique As Your YouTube Feed
Discover how marketers can personalize the present-day mapping applications.
Joshua Kaufman, co-founder of Atly, delves into the issue of current mapping platforms inundating users with generic information devoid of personalized suggestions. He explains how marketers can take cues from YouTube’s customized content strategy. Kaufman suggests that maps must undergo significant transformation by harnessing user-generated data and employing advanced personalization techniques. This transformation would enable like-minded individuals to connect and uncover unique, hidden treasures.
Say a tourist in New York City wants to find a place to have dinner. They search for restaurants in the area, and their phone screen fills with countless red pins. Lacking user interface (UI) features that could suggest certain spots tailored to personal preferences, all options are presented equally and all at once, leaving users to find the right spot on their own.
Many will find this predicament quite familiar, suggesting that current mapping platforms don’t necessarily simplify one’s decision-making. Rather, they often fail to provide in-depth insights into unfamiliar locales, overwhelming users with overgeneralized information and struggling to connect users with points of interest that would most resonate with them.
The solution? – they may want to take a page from YouTube.
Since its introduction in 2005, the online video-sharing platform has changed what it means to consume media. Instead of channel surfing to find content that may only somewhat satisfy viewing desires, YouTube, which now hosts an estimated 38 million active channels, brings an endless, specific, and – most importantly – highly personalized stream of content to users.
Map applications need a “YouTube-inspired” transformation of their own to enable the sharing of tailored content with like-minded people.
See More: How Inventory Data Can Boost Retail Personalization
Get Exactly What You Want
For instance, TV channels like Animal Planet used to be deemed “good enough” to satisfy a broad range of wildlife enthusiasts by offering a wide variety of content that they hoped would resonate with the viewer. YouTube completely disrupted this paradigm. Are you fascinated by gripping footage of lions on the hunt or cheetahs giving chase? There’s a video for that, which you can access in real-time. Are you more interested in watching the rich biodiversity of the deep sea? Some random YouTube channel or your favorite deep-sea creator has covered you.
While some still have a soft spot for general TV content, younger generations have embraced the internet’s boundless tailored content, exemplified by the fact that teenagers are now watching more videos on YouTube than Netflix.
But contrary to most other social media, which strive to match users with the content most aligned with their interests, maps, by and large, are unable to offer any additional specificity beyond their basic functions.
Much like TV channels, map interfaces only enable users to search for points of interest in unspecific ways and organize locations based on general categories – cuisine, nightlife, and services, among others. So, while maps may indeed be capable of highlighting the nearest sushi joints, for example, they are more or less useless when it comes to providing a personalized suggestion that best fits the user and the occasion – say, the premier sushi spots for a romantic first date or a party of 10+ people or for a vegan. As soon as your search reaches beyond just surface-level needs, the difficulty of finding the right spot grows exponentially, requiring a deep, time-consuming dive into reviews and online sources.
Volume with a Dose of Specificity
The secret to YouTube’s success lies in its ability to collect huge amounts of highly specific content produced by the site’s mass number of content creators and distribute it to users who fit their target audiences by watching related content. Here, volume and specificity complement each other.
By comparison, maps offer an enormous volume of locations but lack the means to curate them. It’s unsurprising that nearly 40% of young people prefer the specificity and volume of TikTok and Instagram over the general recommendations of Google Maps, as both platforms facilitate more direct pathways for users to see the content they desire.
However, map platforms can be far more intuitive.
The democratization of mapping, the crowdsourcing of information from those with first-hand experience and shared interests, combined with better personalization algorithms, will enable map platforms to better assist users in finding tons of hidden gems – say, the finest vegan, gluten-free pizzeria or the quintessential Salsa dancing hotspot.
Mapping the Future
Considering the millions of users actively using mapping applications, these geographic tools are long overdue for their “YouTube moment.” Maps should be redesigned to harness their vast user base to share countless locations tailored to their unique interests.
To bring about this transformation, maps must go beyond traditional generic search queries to promote interactions amongst users and connect those who share similar interests to help others identify the most desirable hotspots with minimal guesswork.
Although map platforms have been short on personalization, such advances have the potential to revolutionize how we discover, share, and navigate the world around us.
Do you believe that personalization has the potential to enhance customer engagement and improve mapping? Please share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
Image Source: Shutterstock
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