Keep up with the latest online news about your area of expertise, your competition and even your own business with Google Alerts…it’s a great app!
Set up google alerts, and have this information delivered to your inbox. Google Alerts allows you to monitor the internet for interesting new content on topics you select. They are a great tool to use to get the news you need, and they are simple to set up. But first, let me explain how Google Alerts will help you:
Keeping up-to-date online serves multiple purposes.
THE OBVIOUS BENEFIT: It helps keep you & your staff informed on the latest news, so that you are prepared to answer questions and speak intelligently about these topics relevant to your business.
THE BONUS BENEFIT: It gives you great SHAREABLE content that you can post on your social media accounts.
I’ve mentioned before how content is important to your Blogs, Website, Facebook & Twitter postings. While the content should always be valuable…the content doesn’t always have to be original! You can SHARE reliable information from other sources by posting the links to this content on your accounts. You can give an introduction to the link with your with your own preface…but remember you are SHARING…by posting the link, you give full credit to the original source.
But read carefully! You want to make sure the information you are sharing is from established professional organizations offers valuable content to share; while information that is not researched or well-documented is not! Although some people believe that “It must be true, I read it on the internet!” you want to make sure that the information you share is reputable! A link to a report from the New York Times is a home run…a link to an editorial rant may be a total foul ball!
Sharing links can help customers better understand your business philosophy. If you share a link that confirms your methods or products, you enhance your credibility. You not only illustrate that your business is solid, but that these your practices are recognized by the larger community.
Setting up your Google Alerts:
First you need a Google account. If you don’t have one yet, it will take only a few minutes to set one up. Go to Google, and type in How to Set up a Google account.
When you set up your alerts, select key words that will locate articles or information that you will find relevant. Let’s make up a hypothetical business to show how you would use Google Alerts to keep you informed: Your business is an Ophthalmology practice business called, “Eye2Eye”. You might want to include these items for Alerts.
– Your doctors names: Dr. Samuel See; Dr. Lisa Lash
– Dry Eye Treatment
– LASIK
Once you have selected your topics, you can also select how often you receive your alerts. Maybe you want a daily report, or a weekly report will be enough for you. I set up an alert to receive daily updates on LASIK news. The picture below shows what you will have delivered to your mailbox.
Once you start to receive these alerts, you may find that the results are not quite on target. It is easy to modify the search terms to get the info that you want. Just follow the Help listing on page. After you open your Google account, you have access to many free apps that Google has to offer: alerts is just one of them.
Google Alerts is a simple tool that will provide you with a wealth of information and give a boost to your social media efforts. Give it a try, and share the results.