One of the most effective no-cost research tools I have use and recommend to my clients is Google Alerts.
This is an amazing resource that I use to access information about:
- the industry I work in and trends in the market
- my competition and marketing strategies they are implementng
- research about market trends in my clients industry
- reviewing the strength of my clients brand
- researching my clients competition
- accessing statistics to use in presentations, reports and articles
- identifying potential joint ventures and strategic alliances
- discovering new business tools
- research for my book
- content for my products, programmes and live events.
Google Alerts enables you to set up an email alert on a daily or weekly basis or if you prefer, in real time.
I recommend putting in place a once-a-day Google Alert which you can then review at the start of each day.
Items that feature in the news, in blogs or on the web can be included in the alert.
I highly recommend you setting up your own Google Alerts – and don’t forget to set an alert up for
- your own name
- the names of your key products
- and of course your business.
This will enable you to monitor and track your personal and corporate brand and where people are reporting on you, your products and services and your business.
Google Alerts is how I found out that the Howth Coastguard had blogged about my review of their blog. You are very welcome guys – just make sure that you enter for the Irish Blog Awards won’t you!
January 8th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Wow – second helpful resource in two days!
One of my clients, Michael Port, uses this service and I’ve been meaning to sign up for Google Alerts but hadn’t actually taken the time to do it. Well, I am now registered and I’ve setup about eight or nine different alerts.
I’m looking forward to seeing what comes back in the alert and I’m going to use this to focus my writing and my keywords.
Thanks again Krishna – your blog is becoming one of the best resources I have in Newsgator!
Erin
January 9th, 2007 at 3:15 am
Your comment about it being one of the best resources is wonderful – thank you. That is what I wish for.
When you get chance take a look at the recommended resources – top right link on the blog – you will find a host of other things posted there.
If you find this blog helpful perhaps you could recommend it to others. Your recommendation is how we grow!
And don’t forget you can join me each week on my weekly interviews with experts about building your brand and growing your business – you can register on this page or go to:
http://www.bizgrowthlive.com
Thanks again Erin for taking time to post a comment.
January 22nd, 2007 at 8:37 am
Carnival of the Capitalists – January 22, 2007…
It is my pleasure to host this week’s edition of Carnival of the Capitalists as promised (or threatened) a collection of blog articles about business and economics submitted for review….
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
[...] The first-click-through award goes to Krishna De at BizGrowth News for “Google alerts – probably the best free research tool in the world” because of my recent disappointing discover that Google Answers is no more. Google alerts don’t replace Google Answers, but rather tracks web traffic related to your personal or business-related concerns. After reading this post, I logged in to Google and created three alerts to see how it works. [...]
January 23rd, 2007 at 7:38 am
HI,
Google Alerts is a great facility. I have been using the same for a long time now and have many alerts on all the topics and words I want to follow.
There are few limitations though. The alerts do not give all the changes in the web. Google has listed sites which when change will be given as alerts but in case you want what all has been added on one topic on most of the websites of the world then you can user googlealert.com (a paid service) which is not a Google site but using Googles crawlings and gives all the results of your topic of interest.
January 24th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Thanks for this Krishna! I’ve just found your site through David Maister’s blog, and have signed up for a whole lot of Google alerts. Should save me a lot of time tracking down info about our competitors’ movements and press about our company! I’ll be back!
January 24th, 2007 at 12:54 am
[...] Robert Hunt presents Universal Law Of Attraction Kavit Haria presents How To Deal With Choice Overload Christine Kane presents Business Advice for Artists and Sensitive People Maria Yu presents Interactive Quotes for Daily Inspiration Krishna De presents Google alerts – probably the best free research tool in the world [...]
January 24th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
[...] Krishna De recommends using Google alerts as a research tool. It’s a great recommendation. You can use it to track what others are saying about you, news in your industry and more. Kohl’s should use it. [...]
January 25th, 2007 at 9:13 am
January 25th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Over the last few months, I have found that using Google image search is often more effective for finding some items than using regular text search. I have asked friends, family, clients to try it and give me feedback. The results have been very positive. I do wonder if part of the reason for the positive feedback is that many people are very “visual” by nature so seeing a picture of what they are searching for is more captivating than text results. This applies mostly to searches for specific tangible items such as, say, “wooden benches” as opposed to more intellectual items such as “sales leads.”
January 26th, 2007 at 8:42 am
That would certainly lend itself to an image search.
I also wonder if it’s proving effective as to view something we are able to make assessments quickly on the presentation, quality and packaging of a product or brand – where as reading a text search requires more attention and concentration before we make a decision of whether it’s worth clicking through to the website in the link.
January 26th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
[...] Krishna De presents Google alerts – probably the best free research tool in the world posted at Krishna De, saying, “Discover 10 keys to using Google Alerts to grow your business” [...]
January 26th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Thanks for the info. Don’t have time to check your site out right now, but will mark as favorite, and will be checking it out on a daily basis.
January 28th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
[...] Krishna De presents Google alerts – probably the best free research tool in the world, saying, “Discover 10 ways to use Google Alerts to grow your business” [...]
February 4th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
[...] Krishna De presents Google alerts – probably the best free research tool in the world posted at Krishna De, saying, “Discover 10 keys to using Google Alerts to growth your business” [...]
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
[...] Krishna De presents Google alerts – probably the best free research tool in the world posted at Krishna De. [...]
July 26th, 2007 at 11:32 am
[...] Use Google Alerts to generate ideas and research your marketplace and industry – you‘ll find some excellent ideas on using google alerts as a research tool on Krishna De’s blog; [...]
December 28th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
[...] BetterDays provide a great tutorial on setting up a Google Alert, if you’re struggling at all, and Krishna De will tell you exactly how useful she finds Google Alerts. [...]
May 29th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Couldn’t help chiming in here… late… as usual.
I use Google Alerts, tell my business partners and friends to use Google Alerts, and emailed my list about it. It’s a great resource for research. Or as I like to say, Google is my personal research assistant.
However, a few of my friends and business partners are total newbies when it comes to the Internet, so I created a video showing them exactly how to setup an account, login and create your first alert.
Could I share that here?
Google As Your Personal Research Assistant
Your list of 10 exceeds mine, so I will be updating my notes. You thought of a few ideas that never occurred to me!
Thanks!
Cenay’
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
June 4th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
[...] I use Google Alerts to support my research,and you can read an article here about 10 ways I use Google Alerts in my research. [...]
June 6th, 2008 at 4:06 am
[...] I use Google Alerts to support my research,and you can read an article here about 10 ways I use Google Alerts in my research. [...]
June 21st, 2008 at 8:08 pm
[...] This article from BizGrowthNews provides some more information about the benefits of this great tool. I recommend putting in place a once-a-day Google Alert which you can then review at the start of each day. [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
[...] I use Google Alerts to support my research,and you can read an article here about 10 ways I use Google Alerts in my research. [...]
April 17th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Since you describe Google Alerts as a research tool, Krishna, I thought it would be worth describing how it can be used to monitor real academic research. If you target your search correctly, you can get alerts on what university researchers are saying about any topic. For example:
gene splicing site:edu filetype:pdf
This will deliver alerts on papers published as PDF files at colleges on gene splicing. You can use this type of info for product development, or as the subject of a blog post. Everyone is impressed by academic references, so add some mentions of a symposium happening at a local college on your topic of interest:
“social media” symposium site:harvard.edu
I’ve written up hundreds of these tips in a free Google Alerts tutorial that your readers might find helpful:
http://www.alertrank.com/google-alerts-marketing.html