How To Monitor News About Your Company and Keep Tabs On Your Competitors Using Google Alerts

If you're a small business owner, getting online to do essential research about your industry and your competitors could be next to impossible.  With the endless number of tasks that you need to oversee, delegate, or finalize each day, it's not easy to schedule this important reconnaissance.

For instance, it's hard to stay on top of posts about, or mentions of, your company in news stories, opinion pieces, forums, and reviews. It's equally tough to keep up with what your competitors are up to, and how your industry is reacting to their latest developments.

In today’s marketplace, knowledge is power – so to increase both, Google Alerts can be a fast, simple, and convenient solution.

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your queries.  They allow you to choose what or who you’d like to be alerted about, and the results can be delivered to your in box as the information hits the web, once a day, or once a week.

Sign up is free.  To get started, enter in your search query, choose your delivery options, and enter the email address where you’d like your alerts to be sent.

You can sign up for as many alerts as you’d like, and once you start receiving them, you’ll be better equipped to make smarter decisions about such things as…

• how to create relationships with industry thought leaders who are supportive or critical of your company
• how to respond to negative news or posts about your company 
• how to react to gains that your competitors are making 
• how to take advantage of opportunities that your competition is ignoring, unaware of, or handling poorly

Since these in-depth investigations are being done for you and delivered to you, Google Alerts takes one crucial task off of your ever growing to-do list.