New to map-making with Google tools? Start out with a simple and useful application of Google mapping technology. Give your website visitors a quick visual overview of where your organization works with Google Maps My Places . Creating a map via My Places takes only minutes to make, but can leave a lasting impression on someone who is interested in your organization’s geographic scope.
Here’s how you can get started:
1. Go to
maps.google.com and sign in to your Google Account (look for the link in the upper right-hand corner).
2. Click on the
My Places link next to
Get Directions under the search box. A list of all the maps you've created (or will create!) with My Places should appear in the left-hand panel.
3. Create a new map, and add a title and description, such as “Where We Work”. Set your map’s
privacy settings . Don’t forget to click the
Save button!
4. Now we’re ready to start adding offices! Let’s say one of your offices is in Washington, D.C. You can add it manually using the placemark icon to drop and drag a placemark on the map, or you can search for the address and add the location with the
Save to Map link.
5. You can change the icon color or shape; or add text, pictures and video to your placemark by simply clicking the placemark in question when your map is in edit mode.
6. Now that you’ve got the hang of it, add your other offices!
7. Once you’ve finished your map, you can share it with others by clicking
Link for the direct link and the HTML code that lets you easily embed it in your website.
If you’d like step-by-step instructions for the above, you can find them in the
Google Earth Outreach "Creating Maps Using My Maps" tutorial.
If creating your first map with My Places whets your appetite for more, there’s plenty of other ways you can get creative with My Places for outreach and campaigns. You can create a map showing drop-off locations for donations like
this one from
Mother’s Milk Bank at Austin or a map that shows where those donations went and resulting impact on the recipients like
this map showing bicycle donations to Africa from
Kona Basic Needs /
Kona Bike Town . Using the polygon tool (right next to the placemark tool), you can draw the districts in which your organization provides services or highlight where donor funds are going.
300 Acres did just that with a map that showed how each donor’s contribution went to save 300 acres of the Amazon Rainforest. This campaign raised over $100K in just 60 days and succeeded in buying and saving the forest from destruction.
If you have more than just a handful of offices or project sites, or you want a more interactive map that allows users to filter placemarks or perform more complex tasks, you might want to think about using
Google Maps API or
Google Fusion Tables to create your map. Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of this blog post, which will describe how you can use Google Fusion Tables for mapmaking.
Posted by Raleigh Seamster, Google Earth Outreach Team
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