A Free and Easy Way to Keep Tabs On Your Competition

Do you know what your customers, competition or the media are saying about you? While social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogs are brilliant tools to convey a message and monitor what’s being said, the simplest way to get started on gathering market intelligence is Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is probably one the most powerful Google services for people who want to stay ahead of the competition. With Google Alerts, you get an instant email notification whenever something happens in your niche or topics that matter to you.

A few excellent business uses of Google Alerts might include:

• Keeping tabs on your competitors
• Monitoring news or social media mentions of your company
• Following industry trends and updates

How do you get started? It's very easy. Just go to 'Google Alerts' at http://www.google.com/alerts, then enter what you want to monitor, the frequency you want to receive notices and your email address.

I recommend putting any words or phrases you use into quotes, otherwise you will receive a notice every time the word is mentioned. For instance, if you just type online hiring test, you will receive a notice every time online or hiring or test is mentioned. If you type “online hiring test,” you’ll only get notices when all three words are used in combination. 

You can also select which types of media you want to monitor. I recommend starting with 'Comprehensive', which means you'll get information on everything on the web (blogs, videos, articles, etc), rather than just web articles and copy…and then cut back later if you get too many alerts or unrelated information.

Oh…and did I mention the best part? It’s free!