It can sometimes be overwhelming and time consuming to keep up with your web presence. Do you know if others are talking about you on the different social networks and blogs? Are you engaging in these discussions about “you”? These discussions may be not even be negative but instead may be a simple mention or even praise. If it is a negative comment or discussion are you there to defend yourself in a timely manner? If it is positive are you there to give your thanks?
SETUP GOOGLE ALERTS
Okay
so now you may be asking yourself “How the heck do I monitor all
that is being said about me on the huge web space?” The easiest
way I have found is Google Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts.
You can setup alerts that monitor your name, your company, etc. You can choose
to have these alerts sent to your email or a feed. I set mine to deliver to
a feed because I can then easily look at that feed each day through the Google
feed reader and respond quickly.
TWITTER SEARCH FEED
In
addition, I add a Twitter search feed to my Google reader. You can get the Twitter
search feed by going to http://search.twitter.com, perform a search for your
name and then click the “Feed this query” link.
DISCUSSIONS ABOUT YOU IN ONE PLACE
Once you have the Twitter feed, you can simply add it to your Google Reader.
Now you have web, blog, news and Twitter discussions about you all in once place.
This makes it much easier to respond and connect with others who are discussing
“you”.
Let me know if you have other tricks or methods you use to monitor what’s being discussed about you. I would love to hear them.
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Misty - Google Alert is pretty cool. I just learned about it a couple of weeks ago... Happy New Year! :)
We have been getting Google alerts for a while now it is amazing the results . Have a Happy New Year.
I'll have to look into it
Great blog, for some reason I haven't heard of google alert yet until now. Thank you, I'm going now to check it out now!!
I'm all in for google alerts. Thanks for the post...hope I can set it up this weekend.
What do you guys think about me. :))
Great Blog!
Happy Selling!
I set up google alerts earlier this year and it's a pretty interesting thing. Sometimes I get an alert and it's all gibberish. But today, for instance, I got one concerning one of our listings. We're in western NC and somehow this listing got picked up as a vacation property and was showing up on the KOMO News website in Seattle, WA.Go figure!
I have had googel alerts on for a year or so and get a daily email. It really helps you see what your competition is up to... for example, do not just track your name, company etc. I track "akron ohio homes for sale", etc and get some good results....
Thanks for the tips. I'll have to look into it. Great to know.
Carol - Wow! Seems like this method can also help Agents stay on top of their listings to make sure they are being advertised properly.
David - Great point! That's a great way to determine what you need to be doing to stay on top for competitive search terms.
I have been doing this for about two weeks and it is pretty neat to see what shows up. Great post!
Hi Mistie - Google alerts are awesome. I ahve them set up for my name, for my local keywords, and for my blogs so I know if someone is linking to any of my posts.
Misty- This is a really great way to make sure you know what's being said about you online. Much easier than just Googling yourself sporadically. Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks for this...I've never checked up on what's being said and will do this. Appreciated your post!
Misty, I use the Google Alert and love it. I haven't tried the twitter feed yet. More to do in '09!
Misty I knew about Google Alerts but I didn't know about the tweet alerts so of course I did it right away. And there was a nice recommendation about a post I did from someone else. I am thankful to you that I got to say ty to them!
Good advice for anyone who is on the Internet. I find my Google alerts work very well for keeping up with mentions of my name.
kk
Misty, great advice ! I have my name and blog set up but not the twitter ! Will look to do that now !!!
Misty, you always have such great tips and information. I knew about the google alerts, but like the idea of the feed into google reader...;-)
Thanks Misty, off to Google alerts I go
By putting my alert search requests in " " do I limit the search to the actual words I want, ie. "Christine Donovan" as opposed to every Christine and/or every Donovan on Google?
Thank you for putting another great tool on my radar.
Heading right over to set up my alert right now!
Misty, I have done the Google search query, but was not aware of the Twitte app. I appreciate the info.
Bo
Hi Misty~ I have google alerts set up, but I never thought about the twitter seach feed to google reader.... I am not even sure I can set it up, LOL!
We are signed up for Google Alert but we also did not know about the Twitter search. We will check it out, thanks!
thanks for the alert on how to set one up. I am going to do it right now
Misty, Google alerts should be apart of every business plan - keeps you in the "know" of your neighborhood, your city and yourself! I love it!
Very Cute post
ambient video
Misty: Great tips.. I have been using Google Alerts for some time now. I track several key workds and phrases
I know its there and view it every now and then. Just have too much to do with 2 websites and a blog. I am glad you called it to my attention however.
Duh! Lightening Bolt! What a great idea! THANK YOU!
I get so many wonderful ideas and tips from Active Rain... This is great!
Happy New Year!
I have google alerts set up for other things, but not for what's being said! Great idea - thanks!
Congrats on the feature and Happy New Year!
Google alerts are the best -- it is important to know what is happening out "there". All the best for the new year.
Thanks for the concise directions...loved the idea of the Google Reader...makes the process much more time and user efficient!
Google alerts are great! If people are talking about you, it means you are relevant!
I found out about Google alerts early on here in the Rain and it is fantastic. I have my name, my husbands, our team, and local areas. I also like Bill's idea about puting my blogs there. Great idea! Happy New Year!
Tami - that's great! I think a lot of people forget about Twitter search.
Hi Christine - yes by placing a search in quotes will narrow down your alerts to the exact phrase between the quotes.
Todd- thanks for commenting but you should know that placing links to your products in comments on other peoples posts is not seen well by most here on Active Rain. I will leave your comment because I am certain most who read it will pass right by it and AR adds nofollow to comment links anyway, so it won't help you much in search engines.
Sondra - I would be lost without the reader. You are correct, it does make things more efficient
I've used Google Alerts for awhile but had the results sent to email. In 2009 I'm going to combine them with the Twitter Search Feed and track everything in Google Reader.
Misty, I started getting my Google Alerts in a feed to, posted on it a few weeks ago. It has really helped my email box. I love it. Thanks for the setting up of Twitter feed on my name. I just did it. Happy New Year.
Hi Misti,
You're right, Google Alerts are awesome. I found out someone wrote a blog post based on a quotation he had noticed on my blog. I would never have known had I not had a Google Alert set up.
I'm back....just to let you know that I just got a Google Alert about the comment I made earlier to your post.
Misty - thanks, didn't think about being able to do this with Twitter. Cool. I have to go set it up. ~Rita
Hi Misty, Just like everyones comment before mine... Thank you for this information it is great. I did not know about google alerts.
Misty, I actually just signed up for Google Alerts two days ago and I opted for the emails but perhaps I will switch to the feed. It may sound silly but one thing I am confused on is are the alerts if someone searched your name on google or doesn't matter what they searched for but my name came up in one of the searches? Does that make sense? I'm very active in the Q&A on Trulia and most of my alerts are coming in from the Q&A section so does that mean someone searched my name "Gina Chirico" or say they searched for something general like "NJ real estate" and my Q&A activity came up in the search results? Thanks!
That's too funny Carol. Yep - Google Alerts even picks up blog comments with your name.
Hi Gina - Google Alerts will pick up posts, comments, etc. that it finds on the internet with your name or whatever you setup the alert for. I assume you are commenting in Trulia's Q&A with your name, which is why you are receiving the alerts.
My Google Alerts gives me way more than I even want. It's now picking up my own comments on other blogs! =/
This is too cool. One more thing that I learned on AR that I need to do. Gotta get busy!
Melinda
Misty -
This is COOL - everyday, something new on the Internet.
I'm going to sign up for the Google Alert right away, and investigate Twitter as well.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Happy New Year!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
Misty,
Thank you for sharing this. I just went and created my first Google Alert. Great post and a great new tool to discover and start using with the beginning of the New Year!
these are some good tools to see where our traffic comes in from, thanks
Hi Misty. How right you are! I have a few google alerts set up, but really should set up a couple more. Great point about keeping track of whats being discussed. :)
I also use Google alerts for keywords that I relate to my business (Example: Macomb County real estate). It's great to see what my competition is doing out on the web. Keeps me on my toes.
Great tips, but the more I learn, the more time I spend on the internet. I'm afraid that I eventually will be online all day, every day.
Love the tool. We have been using for about a year now. Have it set up for weekly updates, but may change to daily.
Misty you are a genius!
I think this is a wonderful idea, thanks! I do have one question though... if Google alerts pick everything up on the web, wouldn't it also pickup all the twitter "tweets" too? Why would I need a separate feed?
Thanks, Lin
I've done Google alerts for quite awhile but sometimes I get wacky results that don't even pertain to me. I think there may be a way to refine the search further.
Thanks, I set up my google alert. I'm looking forward to see what they tell me.
I have a google alert but it's not about what is being said about me...If someone has to talk about me or someone other than themselves then I guess they have too much time on their hands.
You are the best for sharing this with AR! I am going to get my Google alerts right away!!!
Misty, AWESOME advice. I had set up some Google alerts but this other stuff is great. I'm bookmarking this post to take a more in-depth look later. Thanks.
Wow! Amazing. Will check it out.
Thanks for the tip. I've bookmarked so I can later get my google alerts.
Great tip! I am going to set it up right now. Maybe in the new year I will figure out Twitter!
Neal- what if someone is saying something "good" about you? What if they are referencing a blog post you did? Wouldn't you want to engage in the conversation? Google Alerts helps you engage in conversations that reference you. Good or bad. It also helps you track other keywords that relate to your business. We also use it to track competitve search phrases we rank or want to rank for. Seems like others who have commented here use if for that too.
Diane - you can try surrounding your name with quotes in your alert.
Hi Lin- At least in my cases, Google Alerts doesn't pick up tweets. This is the reason I use the Twitter search feed within my Google feed reader.
Misty, I have had Google alerts since starting on AR. I have them go to an e-mail, but feed may be a better option. It helps me monitor not only my Internet presence, but may be even more importantly monitor the competition: what Google returns for the key word searches.
Good advice. I just created a few alerts.
Thank you Misty, that was a great blog. It was very useful and informative. Thank you for sharing that with us! I hope you have a great day! Happy New Years by the way!
just got a hold of the Google alerts a month ago -- they are great -- also great for letting you know what your competitors are up to ;) -- best of luck in 2009!
Misty - I think Google Alerts are great. And I know others in my area use this tool also, because a local business I posted an article on last year contact me confused when my article popped up in their alerts! It's that great AR SEO!
I use Google Alert for so many things and never thought about using my name. Love it!
Great post Misty thanks. I knew about Google Alerts but not about the Twitter search. I'll check that out - good info!
While I setup some alerts a while back, I never thought about combining them into a feed, this was very informative -- thanks Misty!
I'm so excited, I just followed your instructions and can't weait to see the results, if any. Misty, this was very helpful. Thank you.
This sounds good. I signed up but an interested to see if I can actually track myself or the movie star by the same name :-)
Thank you for the information. It can be good information & might answer questions for some of us why our business is where it is.
Happy New Year
Hi Misty, Obviously I'm not using Google to its full extent. Thanks for this and I will get in there and set myself up for some specific allerts and to have them sent to feed. You are, as usual, a font of helpful info!
I have never heard of Google alerts...Thanks foer the tip, I'm gonna check it out!
Google alerts are really cool! Helps you to keep tabs on your online reputation and find out who's talking about you and why.
I have set up alerts for my AR blog'sgut only some are registering not all
Hi Misty thanks for the comps on my post. Are your Google alerts working for people linking to your blog or website? This only works very sporadically for me.
Hey Bill- good point about using it to find people who are linking to your websites and blogs. Yes I use it for that. I place our websites/blogs in the alerts a few different ways. With www, http, without them, just name of website, etc. It works well to find and track backlinks.
I really do think your recent post "Social Marketing, Blogging, Short Sales and the Seller I Never Met" is amazing and every Agent/Broker should read it.
More great info.
Thank you!
Cindy
Thanks for the tips! So much to learn. Thanks for taking the time to post1
Misty, great info, I have just recently set up alerts on keywords but never considered getting alerts to my name - who would want to talk about me??? Hopefully a client or realtor, but it never occurred to me, I will follow your advice!
Misty, thanks for taking time to post this. It's important to protect your online presence and these two tools will help.
Hi, I have been using google alerts for awhile now, and love it. I get alot on the olsen twins, but checking my name and area is a smart thing to be doing.
I'm glad I found this! Great tip and thank you!
Late to this post but it is still great information! Thank you.
Misty,
I am another late bloomer, but I am here. Thanks for the tip about Google Alerts. I found myself on Google. Thanks. I subscribed to your tech blog. One of my resolutions for 2009 is learn one new tech tip each week.
See you in the rain.
Mary Yonkers 814.881.7548 http://www.linkedin.com/in/maryyonkers
Alan Kells Schools of Real Estate Inc 412.967.9000 www.alankells.com
Hi Misty;
Feedback's are very important to me, negative or positive.
Thanks..I did this and its great!
Cindy
MIsty,
I'm new to this, I'll have to check into it further.
Thanks,
Pamela
I set up alerts for myself as well as other niche terms that I like to follow.
Alot of people are amazed at what they can find out about themselves and others via internet. It must be a monitored process.
There is so much Google offers, I am glad that you have taken time to post this feature. It is one I need to set up. Thanks.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
I have my Google Alerts sent to my BlackBerry now that you wrote this post and suggested it. It helps me keep an eye on Google success at crawling and indexing my sites.
This is great to know. Unfortuntely, I didn't know about Google Alert or Twitter Alert. But I'm def. going to try it out. Reading all the comments here, seems to be a good way of keeping track of things. Thanks again.
Twitter had an alert too? Going to it right now! Is my picture automatically coming up?
Wow!
Thanks,
Cindy
Yes it is!! Very Very Very Cooooooooool!
Thanks again,
Cindy