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What are Google Alerts and why should you know how to use them?
It's a question we've been asked many times and a strategy we advocate to anyone in business.
If you've ever struggled for content on your social media or marketing emails, etc. clever selection of alerts will drive a steady stream of news and information straight to your inbox.
And you'd want to know if anyone was talking about you online, right? Or keep an eye on your competition, well Google Alerts can do that too!
Google Alerts is a completely free tool that allows you to get an email directly to your inbox, letting you know whenever any word, phrase or search term you've chosen is used online. So as you can see, used carefully it's an awesome tool!
So what can you use Google Alerts for?
To inspire content for your marketing
Clever selection of alert terms will drive content ideas that can be used on your social media and marketing, making you the best informed person in your sector and positioning you as an influencer among your peers.
Regularly updating your Google alerts terms and acting as soon as alerts come in will definitely position you as a font of knowledge and make you the envy of those around you.
To stay abreast of news and events
Making the alert term your town or place name will give you alerts about anything happening that you might need to know about. Whether it's your town or local area, your industry sector or something that might affect your market, the terms you can set alerts for are virtually limitless, as is the number of alerts you can set.
To keep an eye on your reputation - Your BRAND!
Using your company name as the term you're being alerted to, means that anyone writing about your company online will alert you immediately, allowing you to take any appropriate action necessary, or to simply thank them if the comments are favourable.
It's worth mentioning at this point too, that when you set up the alert, also set up alerts with common misspellings or abbreviations to your company name, especially if there is any quirkiness or colloquialisms involved.
For example, a previous business of ours was called 'Authorized Access', so setting up aterts for Authorized spelled with an s and a z would be advisable.
To keep an eye on your competitors
It's always good to keep an eye on the competition, even if it's only to take inspiration from their marketing or initiatives and simply using their brand name, in a similar way to how you monitor your own, you will quickly be made aware of any changes in their operation, giving you the opportunity to respond appropriately.
All this and it's absolutely FREE!
So what's the catch, you're thinking? The beautiful thing about Google Alerts is that it is absolutely free and you don't even have to jump through a ton of hoops to use them.
All you have to do is have a Google account. It really is as simple as that!
Moreover, it's easy to use and endlessly flexible.
What are the limitations?
While it really is a great tool and so valuable to any small business, Google Alerts doesn't give you all the answers.
Google Alerts doesn't monitor social media, however there are paid options that do!
It only alerts mentions on indexed pages and while pages not indexed are much less likely to be of importance or influence, if your brand is being talked about, you'd want to know about it, no matter how insignificant.
Google Alerts doesn't have any reporting features, which means you won't know how many times a mention has been seen or where it's being viewed but if you're really interested in that sort of detail, there are other ways it can be monitored.
In Conclusion
Google Alerts is a hugely valuable source of free information about almost anything that's being talked about online and used smartly can give you competitive advantage in many different ways.
So what's to lose? Get involved and become among the best informed people in business.