Quick Tutorial: Google Alerts (Part One – Why Alerts?)

Google Alerts – email or RSS updates of the latest news, web, and blog Google results on any topic of your choice – can be a very helpful tool for anyone who is doing business or trying to build a platform online.

What follows in this post, part one of a two part series, is a brief description of why you might set up alerts. Part two (available right here) will give a brief overview of how to set up basic alerts. There are other alert services, but I quite like the easy, free Google Alerts. So…

Why Alerts?

There are many specific, business/professional reasons to use alerts. I’ve broken some them down into categories, but I know there are countless more reasons beyond the ones listed below. If you have questions or ideas after this list, by all means, please let me hear from you.

Monitor Your Name/Brand Name/Book Title(s)

Finding out what people are saying about you and your business shouldn’t be about ego. Instead, it’s about reputation management, building relationships and, often, making sales. A Google Alert set up let you see where your name or brand name are appearing can help you…

• Find conversations where you can naturally join, add value, and/or build relationships
• Discover people or whole communities who are fans and, therefore, potential customers
• Uncover people using your name or work improperly  or spreading misinformation (hey… it happens!)
• See who’s linking to you (and know where to go to say thanks/or find out why)
• Learn about unique ways your product or book is being used

Yes, you’ll also likely see good and bad reviews or mentions where there’s nothing to be gained for you by joining a conversation (or even knowing about the review!), but the ability to connect with others who are predisposed to being interested, as well as the ability to monitor your good name, more than makes up for the possible frustration.

Stay Up to Date on News, Trends, and Changes within Your Profession

Knowing what’s going on in your profession can help you in many ways, from keeping up with the competition to forging relationships straight on through to making sales. You could set up alerts to…

• See who’s moving from company to company (which can benefit you personally, at times, but also make you a great resource for others)
• Follow news or spot trends within the news
• Learn what is and isn’t working in sales, marketing and promotion for others in your field
• Spot mistakes to avoid and opportunities to fill

You might have specific publications in your field that track a lot of this for you, but you might also spot opportunity by seeing something others don’t… or getting a new perspective on what you’ve already learned.

Research a Specific Topic

If you’re writing an article, book, or report or simply trying to learn about a topic for any reason (vacation anyone?), alerts can…

• Help you see new information as it becomes available
• Let you target very small niches or broad topics, as you see fit
• Find experts and become an expert, too

Researching specific topics also overlaps with the final point on this brief list…

Find Conversations and Communities of Interest

If you want to build traffic to your site or grow your online reputation, one great way is to join into existing conversations on your key topics – add value, and folks will want to see more of what you offer.  Tangentially, if you are looking to grow your market, finding communities where you or your product or book might fit in can make it that much easier. Alerts can…

• Help you find conversations where your expertise can offer value and build your reputation
• Let you discover online communities where you, your product, or services would be a good fit
• Enable you to find experts long before you even know you’re going to want to find one
• Make it easy for you to build relationships by pointing you in the right direction: it’s always easier to start building a relationship online when you have common interests or touchstones.
• Identify communities where you will find support, knowledge, and friendship

For me, finding the conversations where I want to be involved has led to many happy accidents. When my Fibonacci poetry at GottaBook went viral, for example, my alerts helped me find conversations to join… and, in the process, I discovered broader communities (knitters and actuaries among others) where the Fibonacci sequence had built in “fans.” I had fun, judged contests, learned a ton… and made relationships that will help me sell copies of my book when it comes out.

Be Efficient

One great thing about Google Alerts is that they send you the information you want instead of you having to go out and find it. This is highly efficient, whether you choose alerts by email or RSS feed, and a great time saver.

Alerts are more thorough than most of us would ever be able to be on our own, though they are not foolproof. I have found blog links and even a few article mentions that didn’t show up via alerts. In general, though, they’ve kept me “in the know” about whatever I wanted to know.

If you have questions or ideas about the “why” of alerts, I’d love to hear about them. And I hope you’ll click here for part two, the “how to set up alerts” quick tutorial.

Tagged as: googlealerts, tutorial