Google Alerts For Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

 

I rely heavily on blogging and Twitter to build my own brand visibility and market my business. I count Google Alerts as one of the most important strategies in my personal brand toolkit.

If you’re not aware of or taking advantage of Google Alerts, set up an account with Alerts for whatever online mentions you want to track. They may include:

• Your name
• Your blog and website names
• Your company name, if you have one
• Names of companies you’re targeting or want to be informed about
• Keywords and phrases relevant to your niche
• Names of relevant products or services
• Names of subject matter experts and major players in your industry
• Names of people whose radar you want to get on.

When these words or names are mentioned in a blog post or online articles or anywhere online, Google Alerts promptly sends you an email with a link to the web page where they appear.

 

What’s the big deal?

Practically as it happens, Google delivers to you the latest news relevant to your chosen Alerts.

Not all the Alerts you receive will yield anything of value, but many will, and some will lead you to information and sites you never would have found otherwise.

Google Alerts will keep you apprised of what’s going on in your world and lead you to places where you can position your brand value, and hopefully generate interest in you and evangelism for your brand.

What do you do with all these incoming Alerts?

In general, Alerts help you:

♦  Keep track of what, if anything, people are saying about you and your blog, website or company.

♦  Find out what people of interest or others in your industry are thinking and talking about.

♦  Stay informed of the latest trends within your niche and areas of interest.

♦  Connect with new information to expand your knowledge base.

♦  Penetrate new communities of forward-thinking subject matter experts and extend your network.

For career marketing and job search:

♦  Uncover decision makers at companies of interest to you, with whom you can connect.

♦  Compile company and industry market intelligence when preparing for job interviews.

♦  Assess and conduct due diligence on companies you’re considering working for.

 

For blogging and Twitter:

♦  If you quickly act on an Alert, you may be the first responder to a new post on a blog. People reading blog comments are much more likely to notice, read the comment, and click on the link provided when a comment lands at the top of the list. And your blog comments build on-brand search results when people Google “yourname”, especially if the blog has good link weight.

♦  When you get an Alert on a blog post you’ve written within an hour or two of publishing it, you’ll know Google considers it highly relevant and will be sending other searchers to the post when they Google matching keywords.

♦  Generate ideas for blog posts and tweets from Alerts you receive.

♦  Find relevant sites where you may be able to publish an article or guest blog, adding more strong search results for your name and blog or website.

 

What has Google Alerts done for you lately?

 
Related posts:

How to Target and Network into Hidden C-Level Executive Jobs

Prepare for Executive Job Search Before You Have To!

Twitter Personal Branding Strategy — The Beauty of a Re-Tweet

LinkedIn Tips for Executive Job Search and Research