Talk about putting Listowel on the map!

THE work of the newly-configured Listowel Business and Community Alliance is already putting the town on the map in no uncertain way as a group of local business people take to the streets to capture photos of beautiful local scenes to upload to a mapping app that’s fast becoming the most used of its kind in the world.

Local man Damien O’Mahony - of Jumbo’s fame - is the tech talent behind the latest venture and he led out a group of fellow Listowel lovers on Saturday morning on a tour to capture images and information in order to build a more complete picture of Listowel than exists at present on Google Maps.

That the event co-incided with a worldwide initiative seeing similar initiatives in towns and cities across the world made it all the more prescient.

“It was something that came out of our work on the tourism subgroup of the new Business and Community Alliance,” Damien told The Kerryman this week.

“I’m already what’s known as a Local Guide on Google Maps through regularly updating our Jumbos profile on the app so it seemed the logical thing to try to organise something that would get more and more businesses out to upload all sorts of images and information.”

After placing a business on Google Maps, a trader is sent a postcard from the tech giant containing a code to verify one’s identity. After this is locked down, the business owner is free to manage their tradining profile to help boost sales.

“The more you use it the more points you get and once you accumulate a certain number you attain Local Guide status,” Damien explained.

With that status earned, a trader is then sent emails everytime a customer might leave a review through the app of their service. “It’s a great way to manage customer reaction as you can respond immediately to a review. We are already seeing increased footfall on the back of our Google Maps profile.”

Now, Damien’s helping fellow traders to reap similar benefits in a move that is generally helping create a much greater profile for the entire town on the app.

Setting off from the Castle on Saturday morning, their first big project was to document the Riverwalk in order to include it on the maps as a distinct trail and attraction, among many other objectives of the mapping expedition.