Ryan Haworth
CEO
Ryan Haworth is CEO of Social Places, the platform and managed service that keeps multi-location brands accurate and discoverable at store level. He works with brands running anywhere from fifty to several thousand locations, in more than eighty countries. QSR, retail and banking make up the bulk of that, but the problem is the same in any industry with more locations than head office can watch. He writes here about local search, the operational side of franchise marketing, and what happens to store discovery when customers stop searching and start asking. Less theory, more what actually works when a change has to land across hundreds of locations at once.
Articles by Ryan Haworth
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Google's Business Agent Puts an AI Sales Associate on Your Search Result
Google's new Business Agent puts a Gemini AI sales associate on your Search result. What it means for multi-location brand data, content and chat readiness.
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TikTok's Local Feed Isn't in South Africa Yet. That's the Head Start.
TikTok's Local Feed launched in the US in February 2026 but has not reached South Africa. What multi-location brands should do with the head start.
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ChatGPT Has a Maps Tab. The Real Story Is Where the Pins Come From.
ChatGPT now has a Maps tab on desktop. The bigger shift is that its business pins now come from at least four data providers, not just Google.
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The Impression Recession: Why Visibility Metrics Stopped Telling the Truth
Search Console now has a Generative AI section, and location impressions fell 53.8% while customer actions held. What the 2026 metrics shift means, and what to measure.
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Apple's Local Lists Are Coming. Most of Your Branches Won't Make 'Best Open Now'.
Apple Maps now builds AI-curated "Best Open Now" lists. Here is why multi-location brands with inaccurate hours get quietly left off, and how to qualify.
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Your Rankings Haven't Changed. So Why Is Your Traffic Disappearing?
Organic traffic is falling for brands across every sector and rankings aren't the reason. Here's what AI search is doing, what metrics to watch, and what to do next.