Monday, January 4, 2010

Using Google Alerts to Monitor the Social Web


Google Alert

This year has seen an explosion in growth of the social Web. According to a recent study from Forrester Research, more than four out of five online adults in the U.S. now participate socially. Nielsen Online estimates that, "Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year..." and Technorati indexes more than 100 million blogs, with over 100 thousand new ones appearing each day.

With such astronomical increases in social media, how can a company hope to navigate through this ever expanding sea of content to find and track its presence online? In my last post, I showed you how to use RSS to monitor the social Web. Now we turn our attention to Google Alerts, which provide a highly focused and targeted means to keep tabs on mentions of your brand and products.

Google Alerts automatically search the Web, videos, images, audio, blogs, and so on to find and notify you of new content via the Google Reader or email updates, avoiding the need to conduct these searches manually. To set up Google Alerts, simply to to Google, click the more link, even more link, and Alerts. The screen shown below appears.

To use Google Alerts to monitor the social Web, perform these
steps:
  1. In the Search terms text box, type in the keywords, phrases, and other operators necessary to locate the content you seek (--just like you would do in a normal Google search). For example, if wanted to keep tabs a new mentions of a brand name like Hershey's Chocolate, you could enter: "Hershey chocolate". Of course, you could narrow the search to spot negative comments about the brand by adding perjorative keywords, such as "sucks," "poor quality," "inferior," "tastes bad," and so on. Or the
    inverse, if you want to focus on finding positive remarks, then you could include such keywords as "tastes great," "quality chocolate," "tasty treat," "yummy," etc.
  2. The default setting for the type of media to be searched is Comprehensive. The other media options are News, Blogs, Web, Video, and Groups. However, you will almost always want to leave the media type selection set to Comprehensive, unless the number of results are excessive. In which case, you should set up separate Google Alerts for each media type.
  3. Choose how often you would like receive alerts, "as-it-happens," "once a day," and "once a week." In this fast past business climate, “as-it-happens” is the most appropriate.
  4. The last step is to enter the email where you want the alerts sent. If you want to manage multiple alerts or receive your updates in your Google Reader, then you will need to create a Google Account.
  5. To complete the process, click the Create Alert button.
You can also use Google Alerts to monitor your competitors' brands and products. You can also use this service to measure your personal Web presence.Google Alerts offer one of the quickest and least expensive ways to monitor a social media marketing campaign.

The following resources provide further details regarding Google Alerts and other social media monitoring tools:

27 comments:

  1. Another great post Melissa! I am already using Google Alerts as my Social Web listening post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was a great post! I had no idea that there was a way to do anything like this on Google. Google Alerts seems like a quick and simple way to track different things and also to narrow your search time.

    In the beginning of the article you also talked about a couple of different social media websites. I never thought that one website such as Twitter would grow so rapidly. It is crazy to me that so many different people use these sites. What a great marketing idea!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! This post is great! What an awesome way to keep tabs on your competition or to keep tabs on what's happening with a favorite product. I didn't realize Google had this option. It seems that every day I learn something new about Google. I wonder if I could use Google alerts to stay on top of what Google is doing. Probably so!

    I'm interested in staying informed about what's going on in the organic farming world. I think I'll set up a Google alert to notify me of new postings that relate to organic farming. I'll use words like: organic farming and tips; Seattle organic farmers; chemical free pesticides. I'm also interested in what's going on with genetic engineering. I think I'll use words like: anti-genetic engineering (can I use ANTI??); Monsanto; genetic engineering law suits; genetic engineering labels.

    VERY helpful information and your links are great, too. Thank you for this post.

    Jo Ann Geer

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Jo Ann,

    Thank you for the kind words about the post. You might also try using "DNA advancements" as keywords.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is a great way to watch your competition. I have heard about the Google alerts but have not taken the time as of yet to explore them. This is definetily a great idea. Google just keeps getting better all the time. I find them the best site when browsing for something on the internet.

    It is amazing how fast information travels throughout the net. As yo mentioned Twitter has grown tremendously in the last years as has Myspace, Facebook and many more. They are a great way to advertise, communicate and get with social networks. The technology today on the internet is growing so rapidly that if you are not watching closely you will miss the latest advances. This is a great post and youhave some very inetresting links here as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a great way to watch your competition. I have heard about the Google alerts but have not taken the time as of yet to explore them. This is definetily a great idea. Google just keeps getting better all the time. I find them the best site when browsing for something on the internet.

    It is amazing how fast information travels throughout the net. As yo mentioned Twitter has grown tremendously in the last years as has Myspace, Facebook and many more. They are a great way to advertise, communicate and get with social networks. The technology today on the internet is growing so rapidly that if you are not watching closely you will miss the latest advances. This is a great post and youhave some very inetresting links here as well.

    Debbie Clark

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Debbie,

    Glad you found the information of value. Google Alerts is really a "listening station" that allows you to keep tabs about what is being said about a business, product, or even a person. It is an indispensable tool in today's Internet marketer's toolbox.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Not too many years ago, companies used to hire companies to do basically this same thing. The company would scan or skim articles from publications all over the country for news regarding a particular brand or product, and then clip and send the articles to the company that hired them.

    Having all of the same information at your fingertips, like with Google Alerts, saves those same companies a lot of time and money to find out what the world is saying about them.

    Stacey Carlton

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think it is great to have Wiki as a social media tool. For small business owners it can be very helpful considering financial help. As we all know. Advertising cost a lot of money where as on Wiki you can advertise for free. Which is very conveinant and inexpensive. Also, I think the information a business owner receive on Wiki can be very helpful in suceeding in a small business. We already have the odds against us in small business but this can help us get off to a great start.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think that having Google Alert is very nice for its very quick to find and alert you to what you need or are looking for. Google has such a wide spectrum of searching for things you need and want to read up on.
    If you want Google to send you alerts on anything that you are looking for because its via the internet the searching is minimal and fast which is nice plus when you are searching for any paticular thing its easy because google brings so many items up for you to browse and look after.

    ReplyDelete
  12. To have Google and to use it in such a way for social media and help assist you if you need to search or keep track of certain business to use google alerts is great. Also if you are wanting a fast and easier way to search to use Google is much easier and faster. Google has such a search engine that it brings up such a vast aray items that are what you are looking for and near what you are looking for.
    To use the Google alert to help you in your business or to keep up on the latest compitition is nice to have the google alert you on what is going on.
    Min Kyung Delaney

    ReplyDelete
  13. In the "old days" the access to the minds of the public was a feat to be reckoned with. Psychologists would be hired... a lot of extra steps, and all we really needed was google alerts! A popular tool, it seems, and an incredibly valuable one as well. It's like giving business people and marketing whizzes a mind reading super-power, consumers beware!

    Just being able to read blogs and see personal comments about one thing or another is so amazing, it gives public relations people and marketing masters an incredible edge, puts them a cut above the rest. You can take criticizm that people don't even know they're giving out. Free ideas, suggestions, and hate letters all in one simple place... one giant suggestion box for the lookin! :)
    -Krystianna Wichman

    ReplyDelete
  14. I really like this write-up its very informative. I never even knew that google offered features like this. After reading this write-up I went to google's website and researched other features that they have to discover there are alot of features that google has that are very useful.

    I like the Google alerts feature because if your one the go alot, like I am, its much easier to have google from site to site to site checking my alerts rather then me having to take the time out of my day to do it myself.

    Ashley Petersen

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great post! Google is my home page and didn’t know about Google Alerts. I can see me using this for business and personal use. Google has so many great things, just one more resourceful idea to add to the list.
    I just did a search and it gave me an entire page of what I was searching for. This is even better than just a regular search on Google. Thanks for the information!!
    Sanna Grohn

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sanna--you are most welcome and I please to see that you found this information of value. It is also worth noting that Google Alerts are automated, so once you set them up, you don't need to repeat the same search again. You can even have Google Alerts notify you by email when new information is available that matches your search criteria.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow, I didn't know Google had such an interesting feature! Google alerts is really easy to use and eliminates extra time and money that would be spent on discovering the customer's opinion on a product or service. I can see myself using this feature both for personal and work related projects.
    I like how you said that Google Alerts can be used to track how a competitor is viewed. I am always so wrapped up in improving my own product that I often don't think about how my competitor is doing. Google Alerts would be a really easy way to keep tabs on them and make sure they don't one up my business. Lots of great information here, thanks.
    Jana Ingersoll

    ReplyDelete
  18. That is such a good idea with the google alerts. Google alerts will make the interenet an even easier and faster way to use the internet. It will be veery useful for so many people and compnays, great idea.

    Also the twitter growth is so amazing, things like that such as mayspace and facebook grow so fast it is amazing to see how many people are involved.
    John Beach

    ReplyDelete
  19. Well I had no idea something like this existed. Thanks for the informative post! What a great free way for a company to track what is being said about them. The fact that they can get up to the minute or as they called it as it happens information about what consumers are saying is amazing to me!

    I'm glad you brought up the statistic about how many blogs are posted per day on that website. It's good to put it in perspective like that. The one thing people should remember though about Google Alerts is that it still doesn't capture the entire market because not everyone uses blogs and the internet. Nevertheless this was a great post. I didn't even know this existed.

    Wyatt Russell

    ReplyDelete
  20. Well I had no idea something like this existed. Thanks for the informative post! What a great free way for a company to track what is being said about them. The fact that they can get up to the minute or as they called it as it happens information about what consumers are saying is amazing to me!

    I'm glad you brought up the statistic about how many blogs are posted per day on that website. It's good to put it in perspective like that. The one thing people should remember though about Google Alerts is that it still doesn't capture the entire market because not everyone uses blogs and the internet. Nevertheless this was a great post. I didn't even know this existed.

    Wyatt Russell

    ReplyDelete
  21. Using the google alerts seems to be a very expedient answer to the overflow of content out there in cyberspace. With such a huge portion of the adult internet using community utilizing social content, it is imperative in our high speed lifestyle that we can gain access to only the content that meets our needs. The Google Alerts allows everyone the satisfaction of having the info displaced to their computer the instant a change is happening – thus giving the user the information they need when it happens.

    Nanette Lewis

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wyatt--you are quite right, Google Alerts don't cover those offline, indeed, they don't even cover everyone online posting content because much the material on the Internet is in databases that Google doesn't index. However, there are tools for accessing this "hidden" or deep Web. Sounds like this would be a good topic for a future post!

    ReplyDelete
  23. This is great information I am going to implement it imediately. I didn't realize this technology was available by google.
    It wil be great to see what my competition is doing and if they repeat doing it I will assume it works and copy it. Thank you.
    Bill Meredith

    ReplyDelete
  24. This is all extremely fascinating and a bit over-whelming. I am only familiar with a few of these social media websites. I have found these sites to be both useful and quite frankly odd. Twitter, for example, I find odd. I hear of people posting the most random comments, or more like utterances. I don't think people always realize that when they express these utterances in this type of forum, that it is like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. Once it is out there.... Anyway, I am a much more private person than that.
    The social media aspect I do like, is that of the websites that now allow for people to network about businesses. I find that consumer rating and recommendation is really an awesome tool when deciding the value of a specific product or service.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This is all extremely fascinating and a bit over-whelming. I am only familiar with a few of these social media websites. I have found these sites to be both useful and quite frankly odd. Twitter, for example, I find odd. I hear of people posting the most random comments, or more like utterances. I don't think people always realize that when they express these utterances in this type of forum, that it is like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. Once it is out there.... Anyway, I am a much more private person than that.
    The social media aspect I do like, is that of the websites that now allow for people to network about businesses. I find that consumer rating and recommendation is really an awesome tool when deciding the value of a specific product or service.

    Shayne Wakefield

    ReplyDelete
  26. I apologize I did not post in exactly the right area. I am sure you figured it out.

    Shayne Wakefield

    ReplyDelete
  27. Shayne--hey, I am just glad you are reading my blog! Seriously, you make a great point regarding the fact that the social Web is all about connecting people in new and exciting ways!

    ReplyDelete