Every day, I get an email with links to articles and blog posts that mention my name, my business, and the key words I use in my marketing. These Google Alerts allow me to see what others are saying about me and what they are doing that I might want to know about. It also provides me a starting point for ideas for blog posts, interviews, and networking opportunities.
Google Alerts are a simple way to stay informed, automatically.
You can set up Google Alerts for
- Your name, firm, partners
- Your blog or web site
- Your practice areas
- Cases or issues you are following
- Your clients’ names, products or services, or issues relating to them
- Your competition’s name, blog, services, or other connections
- Names of experts you or your opposition use or are considering
- Your key words
- Titles of articles you have published (see who is quoting them–or stealing them)
- Organizations you belong to, causes you are involved in
- Legal research (case citations, key words)
- Anything you are researching or want to know about
Another benefit of Google Alerts is that it allows you to see what’s not being said. You may think you’re ranking well for certain key words, for example, but if you’re not seeing your posts in your Alerts, you know you have some work to do.
You can have up to 1000 alerts and have them sent to you as often as you want. You can have them emailed or sent to a feed. You will need a gmail or other google account to set up alerts.
Are you using Google Alerts in your practice? What you have you learned as a result? Share your experiences in the comments.
