Google has an outstanding service called Google Alerts that I cannot live without. I use it to alert me whenever my name appears on a website and to track blog posts and websites on key product terms that affect my business.
The alerts are sent to an email address you designate. You can set the alerts to arrive as they happen, once a day or once a week. Many times I post something on this blog and minutes later I have a Google Alert in my email indicating the new post.
Essentially Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- getting the latest on a celebrity or event
- keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams
To manage my reputation online I also use Technorati to search the blogos0phere for blogs that make reference to me just in case someone is re-purposing my work without credit and TweetBeep to scan Twitter for references to me. Am I being paranoid? No just cautious as all I have is my reputation when it comes right down to it and it is easy for people to start rumors with all of the social networking options out there.
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Posted by Mike Blaney 
If you are interested in discussing any of these ideas please call me at 604-618-5512 in Vancouver or anywhere in North America at 800-568-8338 or email me at marketingguy@shaw.ca.
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