How to NOT spend all day on Google (cool tools inside)

When you want to keep track of certain ideas, events or people, what do you do?

You could kill a couple of hours every week (heck, every day) cruising the web, checking out your competitors, following your clients, filtering the latest news on your topic.

Or, you could have those need-to-know gems delivered straight to you, automatically.

Google Alerts seems to be a goner. But not to worry – I’ve got you covered!

While there are lots of paid services that will monitor the interwebs for you, I want to tell you about two free services, Talkwalker and Mention.

1. Talkwalker.com.

Talkwalker sifts through Google, news, blogs and delivers alerts straight to your inbox or RSS.

It’s super easy to use. Just set up an alert for a name, a word or phrase, choose how often you want to be notified of results and you’re done! The alerts are already on their way to you. Snaps for simplicity.

2. Mention.net

Like Talkwalker, Mention searches Google results, news and blog listings and delivers the responses to your inbox. Mention’s alert service lets you connect your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Buffer so you know – without logging in – when someone has talked about you. You can even respond, directly from the Mention alert.

Take note: the free plan is pretty lean – one user, one alert (keyword or phrase) and 100 mentions per month.

Want a few ideas for using alert services like Talkwalker and Mention? I’m serving them up for you!

Speakers/Trainers/Coaches

Create alerts for:

• Calls for Proposals and your topic. Boom! Speaking opportunities, delivered right to you.
• Colleagues and competitors who speak to similar audiences as you. When you see that another speaker is
• Events where you’d like to be a speaker. You’ll get the inside scoop on early planning
• Meeting planners and event organizers. Just pop their names as an alert and keep up with their business moves.

Business owners

Create alerts for:

• Your best clients. You’ll know when their name appears in the news and you fire off a quick call or email. The result? You’re top of mind and they are glowing, ’cause everybody loves to be noticed.
• Keywords and phrases related to your products or services.
• Your company’s name.
• Your own name.
• Journalists who cover your industry.

Professionals within a company

Create alerts for:

• Keywords and phrases related to your area of expertise. Knowing the latest discoveries and trends in your field can help you wow your clients.
• Your own company. Did an analyst or magazine editor just publish something about your company? Or, ugh, a disgruntled customer? Resolve it, stat!
• Your own name. Building your digital footprint is vital to a successful and satisfying career.
• Your clients – both the organizations and the individuals you interact with.
• Competing individuals and companies.

Your Fame Boosting Assignment:

Fire up Talkwalker.com or Mention.net right now, and set up alerts for your name, your company’s name, your top 3-5 clients and the topic you want to be known for (define it narrowly, please, to avoid being flooded with hundreds of responses.)

Let’s go superstar!