Using Google Alerts to track online buzz

You’re not using Google Alerts? Well actually you’re not the only one – there’s so many new developments it’s not easy to keep up with them. The tool is not new but there’s a lot of people who haven’t taken up the offering through not realising how powerful it really is. If you are not using Google Alerts you are missing out on a huge opportunity to keep track of what people are saying out there on the web.

Google Alerts is a free service offered by Google which will ‘alert’ you to the latest relevant Google results on a search terms specified by you. It’s extremely easy to set up, with your alerts coming into your email, or via rss feed to the likes of iGoogle and Google Reader. The types of Google results you can search are; News, Blogs, Web, Comprehensive, Video, or Groups. You can also choose how often you want to receive the alerts, although i would recommend doing it daily when you are starting out until to get an idea of what will work best for you.

Google Alerts is so easy to set up!

Obviously in the advertising space the benefits of this tool are instantly apparent. You can track who is talking about you, your clients, and also your competition. By listening in on these various channels you can monitor developing campaigns and what is being said about them. You can listen in on comments about brands and what people think of them. The uses are numerous. You can set up alerts for as you like, with the only limit really being how many alerts you can realistically be bothered keeping track of.

I can’t think of anyone in advertising, marketing or PR who would not want to use this tool. So if you’re not using Google Alerts, what’s stopping you?