A good portion of online marketing is understanding how your professional brand is being influenced online. At some point in time, any company will be subject to having good (or bad) press coverage, customer commentary, or industry debate. Knowing that the conversation is occurring is the first part of winning the long-term battle of having a strong brand. For most companies, the knowledge to be aware of this information is mostly free (you just have to know it is there). For that reason, we will take a quick look at how to setup Google alerts for things that are important.

The simple description of Google Alerts is this: a simple e-mail notification that notifies you with the latest and most relevant website pages, blogs, videos, and news feeds found by Google’s search engine relating to particular search terms topics. The e-mail can be automatically set to arrive in your inbox at whatever frequency you need (daily, weekly, monthly.)

Why do you need to use Google Alerts?

This is really answered by a simple question: do you really want to be the last one to know that other people are talking about you?

There are dozens of topics (keywords) that involve you professionally. Your company name, your name, slogan, employees, products, location, competitors, clients, customers, etc.

When you write them all down, you could perhaps have hundreds of keywords and topics that would make you a more efficient business professional by being informed about things as they happen, rather than after they have happen.

Think about situations like:

• A past client post a bad review of your services- do you want to strategically respond?
• Your biggest client gets a commendation in the news- do you want to reach out and congratulate them?
• An employee posts information about the last after hours company party- should they really be publicizing some private moments?

All of this information can be incredibly valuable, you just have to condense it into a usable and friendly format.

An easy first step:

1. Visit www.google.com/alerts.
2. In the “Create a Google Alert” box on the right, insert your keyword in quotes, i.e. “underwater basket weaving training”.
3. Select the Type of alert (news, web, blog, video, etc)
4. Select your desired e-mail frequency.
5. Enter your e-mail address and you’re done!
6. Continue adding more alerts: enter your next keyword phrase, i.e. company name, competitor, employee name, etc.

Intelligence Data is the Most Valuable of all business tools

There are many ways this information can be leveraged for you professionally. Thinking a little out-of-the-box when browsing information about your business is a great way of finding niche areas that you can maximize results with.

• Manage your online identity
• Keep an eye on your industry
• Keep tabs on your competitors
• Join relevant conversations
• Expand your expertise & knowledge

If you want to delve into using Google Alerts a little more strategically I suggest you also read these articles:

• Online Reputation Control
  
• Social Media Measurement
• Can the Web Destroy Your Business?
• 10 Steps of Online Branding and Reputation Control

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