How to Monitor What Is Being Said about You

There are many tools and services out there that will monitor everything that is being said about anything on the Internet and report it back to you. There are free tools like Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) (Figure 11.1) where, within minutes:

1. You set up an account.
2. Next you define the search terms you want reported back to you—you start with your company name and the names of key company officials. You can manage your account to add other terms later. Some choose to keep a close eye on the competition. Others put in terms that potential customers use. Sometimes you will put in a term from your marketingcampaign or one of your videos you hope to go viral.
3. Next you tell Google Alerts where you want them to look for those terms. The options are news, blogs, video, Web groups, or comprehensive.
4. Next you choose from a drop-down menu how often you want to be notified. The options are: as it happens, once a day, or once a week.
5. Next, from a drop-down menu, you choose either up to 20 results or up to 50 results for the email length.
6. Then you provide the email address that you would like to receive these alerts. And you’re done.

Now you start to receive the alerts with a short copy of the mention along with a link to where the term was used.

There are similar tools for your social media. You can go to Social Mention and search directly for a term, or you can set up an ongoing Social Mention Alert. Social Mention Alerts (http://www.socialmention.com/alerts) (Figure 11.2) works in a very similar way to Google Alerts:

1. First you define the search terms you want reported back to you—again, you start with your company name and the names of key company officials. You can manage your account to add other terms later. Some choose to keep a close eye on the competition. Others put in terms that potential customers use. Sometimes you will put in a term from your marketing campaign or one of your videos you hope to go viral.
2. Next you tell Social Mention where you want them to look for those terms. The options are blogs, microblogs, networks, bookmarks, comments, images, news, video, audio, Q&A, or ALL.
3. Next you choose the language.
4. Next you choose the email type from a drop-down menu. The options are HTML or text.
5. Then you provide the email address that you would like to receive these alerts.
6. Then it asks how often you want this delivered. The only option is daily.
7. Once you’ve completed this, you are sent a verification email. You confirm and you’re done.

Again, you will start to receive the alerts with the details of where your defined terms have been used.