mariare … Yep. Its true, something of Google can be of use to you… And, you will actually enjoy this tool that Google has for you: Google Alerts.
Coaches, consultants, speakers, writers, book authors, trainers, lawyers, online entrepreneurs, and really anyone who is:
- … wanting to develop a solid online brand.
- … wanting to build online and offline expert status.
- … wanting to network and build potential contacts for joint ventures.
- … wanting to “get your name out there”
… should, dare I say, must use Google Alerts.
How you ask? So glad your on top of things .Here’s a list of how to use Google Alerts as a tool in our online marketing arsenal:
- by entering my name (Maria Reyes-McDavis) and our company names (Peas and Carrots Company, Web Success Diva, and MariaReyesMcDavis.com) we are able to track what is being said, linked, or noted about our companies online. This is critical for monitoring your online brand and reputation. Information travels fast online – you need to be aware of what others are saying — your potential clients will be seeing this same information.
- we enter the names of who we consider to be direct and indirect competition. Not only will you get a lot of information about your competitor (I’m assuming we all understand why this is very important), you also will pick up great information on what is online in your industry or niche. Your smart competitors are searching for what you are, follow their lead to cut your work in half.
- we will also enter the names of those who we want to network or connect with on professional levels. Let me illustrate. We travel to conferences at least 20 times a year, while we are at these events, we make sure to network, network, network. Fly home and enter those contacts which interest us most – we watch what their doing so we can network at a deeper level with them. Just last night, we sent a congratulatory email, for an award received by one of our networking contacts. That email led to a phone call, discussion of joint possibilities, and there you go… What does this have to do with branding? “You are who you associate with.”
These will get you started. When you know what’s being said about you, you can determine how to better brand yourself online. When your aware of what’s going on in your industry and with your competitors, you can begin to develop your online expert status. When you network and use creative ways for staying ahead of the pack in the business contact game, you tend to always be ahead of the pack within your industry.