Reputation Mangement: Quick Look at Google Alerts

We all have a brand. You have your personal brand which is the group of perceived values and principles you live by. You may also have something to do with the brand of an organization or company. In this digital age it has become more difficult to monitor what is being said about your brand. There are a large number of reputation management tools that perform various forms of online searches for your brand's name or keywords. Today I am going to introduce Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is a no cost service that searches the ongoing Google index of the web for a preset list of your designated keywords or phrases. This is particularly effective at searching on blogs and news sites. The service is not perfect and the more remote the site where your keywords or phrases are used the less likely Google is to index it as part of your alert.

It is a simple enough service to use. Just visit http://www.google.com/alerts and put in your criteria. You can enter keywords or phrases. You can select different content types such as blogs, news, videos, etc. You can determine how often you want the alerts sent to you and to what email address.

According to your preferences you will begin to receive emails with an index of all the new web pages during the specified period of time that include your keyword or phrase. To change, delete, or otherwise manage your alerts return to the same URL and click on the “Manage Your Alerts” link below.

It isn't a perfect option but it is a no-cost option for small to medium size brands who want to begin to explore brand and reputation management.