Have you ever wondered where HandsOn Network operates?

This is a simple Map of HandsOn Affiliates made using Google Fusion Tables

Google Fusion Tables is by far the easiest tool I've tried.  It works especially well if you have a lot of data that you want to plot.

 Step 1: Create a table (I cheated and exported one from Salesforce, you can too!). 

Step 2:  Make sure this table has labeled columns.  Mine included “Billing Cities” and “addresses.” Google   uses the billing cities as the site location in order to plot the map.  Google layered my data over existing Google Maps so there is no need to map your entire community before attempting to create this map.  The columns without plotting data will appear on the scroll-over pop-ups so make sure to include any information you want viewers to know.  You will need to go back into the table format to hide any columns you don’t want viewers to see.

           Note: If you want the location of your plotted variables to be more exact then include as much address information as possible in ONE column (the other columns will appear in text format as you scroll over the plotted dots).  

Step 3: To provide a link to your creation look above the top right corner of the map (below your account options).  There is a button that says “get Link.”  This will give you a link to your map.  It will NOT upload the map to your website.  To do that you must share the map or buy a license.  I suggest sharing the map.  Next to the “get Link” button there is a “share” button.  Click it and change options to public.   

Step 4: Copy the “Get embeddable link” code and post it to your webpage.  Know whether you or not your website can interpret the code itself or if you need a software engineer to administer changes (most cloud websites will interpret the code and post the map rather than the string of code that you copied)

There are options for you to change the map markers, layer additional data sets, or edit your original table.