Do you know what others are saying about you?

This past weekend I had the great opportunity to attend a friend of mine’s workshop called eBook Jumpstart, it’s facilitated by Peggy Richardson of Wizard of eBooks and well worth your time to attend if you are thinking of getting your own eBooks and info products out on the web.

Attending this event I quickly learned was how many people weren’t yet aware of a powerful Google Tool called Alerts.  So this got me to thinking that though it’s something I access and use everyday, maybe some of my readers as well as my clients we’re yet aware of this great tool.

It’s a pretty simple concept in it’s idea, but extremely powerful and limitless in it’s use. The basic concept is this, you tell Google Alerts what you’d like it to search the web for (a great one to start with is your name), be sure to put quotations around your topic so that Google Alerts only search for that combination, see the example below

I have quotations around my name so that only instances of Renee Shupe will appear in the email that I receive.  The Type, How Often, Email Length and Deliver To are all customizable options.

Using Google Alerts automatically updates you on any terms you choose and you can have an infinite amount of alerts set up.  The value in this gives you the opportunity to not only see what is being said about you, your business but others in your industry and niche, fantastic for competitive intelligence!

Don’t be limited to names and companies, think of niche terms, industry jargon, products, others in your industry that you’d like to know what’s going on with them.  It ‘s really whatever your imagination chooses, but ultimately it’s a vital application to have in your toolbox for your business.

You can find Peggy on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn as well at her website www.WizardofEbooks.com