If you aren’t using Google Alerts yet to listen to what’s being said about your company or industry then you should start today. Here’s a quick overview of how to get it set up.
1. Set up a Free Google Account. You don’t need a Gmail Account, you can use your business or personal email.
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
2. Browse to the Google Alerts page http://www.google.com/alerts
3. Start adding some alerts by clicking the “new alert” button. You can add a general word or phrase that you want tracked over the entire web or you can be more specific on particular keywords and be specific on words used on a specific web site. See example below that tracks every time the word “facebook” or “twitter” are mentioned in NYTimes.com by using this search string: site:nytimes.com +twitter +facebook
4. Wait for alerts to show up in your email based on the frequency (daily, weekly, as it happens) you set up to receive them.
Another great resource for doing alerts on keywords in the Social Media arenas like Blogs, Microblogs, Networks, Comments, Questions, etc. is BrandMentions.
Here are some of the things you can do with BrandMentions:
- Get real-time notifications on any brand or topic
- Get accurate sentiment analysis
- Perform efficient web&social listening
- Schedule white-label report
- Reveal competitors' marketing strategies
Would love to hear any other sites out there that you use for “listening”, please add a comment below.
