Using Google Alerts for Promotional Intelligence: What Romance Writers And Business Owners Want To Know

Last night I had the privilege of speaking with the San Antonio Romance Writers about using Word of Mouse promotion. A sincere thanks to Ellen Wulf Vice President of SARA who invited me. When Ellen isn't busy writing her own books, she is at Barnes and Noble as the Customer Relations Manager.  Ellen brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the group knowing  how to pitch booksellers for book readings and signings.

Google Alerts

One subject which received a lot of interest was Google Alerts. It's a free service from Google which delivers to your email places where your name, business or product is being talked about online.

Google sends you an email with a series of links and a short description of the article or blog post. By clicking on the link, you can read the entire article or post.

Every business owner, writer, speaker should sign up for Google Alert. It provides a good way to track what the buzz is about your business and you. You can sign up by typing Google Alert in your browser and following the directions. You can choose a variety of delivery options such as immediate notification, once a day and so on.

Other ways of using Google Alert :

• Tracking your competition: Put your competitor's name in as the word or name you want to track and presto! Instant competitive intelligence without hiring a detective.
• Finding out more about issues of concern or interest to your audience or business. Use keywords your audience, customers or prospects use to find your type of book, product or service. This lets you uncover information which will produce laser targeted promotions, articles, and news releases.
• Discovering media and blogging contacts who are interested in the same topics as you developing a media and key blogger list is critical when promoting yourself online. By noting the name of the media person writing the article you now have a potential contact when you go to write a news release or want to pitch a story idea. If you like what you read in the article, send the media contact an email.  Let them know what you thought about the story. If you find a writer who just clicks with the way you think or do business, put a Google Alert on their name.  Then when you go to pitch a story for promoting you, you will know what story angle to use.

  If one of the links is a blog post, click and read. Find a blog post you enjoy, relate to or even disagree with? Take the time to post a comment in the blog and let the writer know what you thought of the post. Not all blogs accept comments, but many do. The advantage of you posting a response on a blog is you get to promote yourself and your thoughts on the subject. Blog posts are not commercials or ads for your products. But you can demonstrate your expertise and knowledge through your posts. Frequently other readers of the blog will read your post and come to your blog or website to check you and your business out. It's a great promotional strategy that takes a little bit of time, thought and writing.

So who's going on your Google Alert List?