Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Google Alerts, do you use them?


By: Angela Raleigh, Account Executive, Leonard & Finco Public Relations, Inc.

We’ve all heard of them. Google Alerts give us a heads up whenever Google creates new web content that includes select keywords or phrases…such as your company name. But dig a little deeper and you’ll notice that you can do a lot more with Google Alerts to help monitor what is being said about your company or one of your clients.

The basic principle of a Google Alert allows you to monitor your company name, product or brand. Just fill out a form to create an alert and indicate how often you want to be alerted about new content; you can get an email every time Google finds a page that contains your company name or as little as once a week. All in all, it’s a quick and easy way to see who’s mentioning your company on the web.

But many people may not realize you can do much more with Google Alerts to get different and more specific results for your company or your client. Why not use Google Alerts to:
  • Track your brand, name and online reputation
  • Track your competition
  • Stay on top of news in your business field
  • Learn about new content and topics
  • Discover relevant social media pages, websites and blogs
  • Build your network
Google Alerts can be extremely helpful in monitoring new content that builds your online reputation. And it’s a free tool. The options available help reduce the volume of alerts you receive. Plus you can always adjust the settings, add new alerts and or delete old alerts that are no longer relevant.

Do you use Google Alerts? Do you find them useful? What do you see as the main benefit of Google Alerts?

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