Do you monitor your name if someone mentions it in a blog post? Whether you are an individual, company, nonprofit organization, or government agency, you’re keeping tabs on bloggers who write about you, right?
By means of example, if I didn’t ego surf my own name and links to my blog, I wouldn’t know that David Bradley credited me, techRepublican acknowledged me, Christopher Gabriel mentioned me, Marc Meyer linked to me, Ken Burbary applauded me, Justin Levy included me, Danny Brown positioned me, Meznor thanked me, Erika Napoletano called me out, MW referenced me, Victoria Webb appreciated me, Fred Wilson praised me, Tom Salemi saw the praise about me, Jason Alba profiled me, or most recently, Aaron Strout published me.
There are many web monitoring tools out there, but the simplest is the free Google Alerts tool.
By clicking that link, you are brought to a screen that enables you type in a word or phrase, select the type of media to search (websites, blogs, groups, video, etc.), and the frequency of alerts to arrive in your email inbox.
For instance, if your name is John Smith, you nickname is Johnny Smith, and you tweet as @JohnSmith, you could either create three separate search strings, or loop them together, e.g. “John Smith” OR “Johnny Smith” OR “JohnSmith”. If your website is JS.com, you could have a separate search for link:http://js.com. Any search strings enabled in Google Web Search or Google Blog Search are allowed in Google Alerts. Make sense?
If you’re not currently running ego searches, perhaps you’ve now seen the light?
Many social media consultants and community managers routinely search for their names, their corporate executives’ names, and their competitors’ names. At least, that’s my theory!
Let’s test the theory with Amber Naslund of Radian6, Marla Erwin of Whole Foods, Andrew Nystrom of the Los Angeles Times, Wendy Harman of the American Red Cross, Morgan Johnston of JetBlue, and Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research.
I’ve communicated with all of them, so it’s a 50-50 chance any of them might follow my blog and are tickled to read the entire post. It’s also a gamble if they are monitoring their personal or corporate names.
If you are one of the six named individuals, or are a colleague at said organizations, do you mind adding a comment below and indicating how you came here?
Photo credit: law_keven
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Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Boom. Did someone mention monitoring? I see that Ari has mentioned my name…
Marc Meyer´s last blog post..Don’t hide behind the brand
Twitter Comment
You’re keeping an eye out for your name on the web, right? [link to post] I use whostalkin.com for me and BVC.
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Can we – meaning you, Monsieur Herzog – attempt to show a bit more interest in detail? Yes, I did indeed mention you but let’s be clear: It was much more than a mention. You know it, I know it and the mayors of 38 American towns with populations of less than 2ooo having names with the letters A-R-I in them know it as well. Here was that mention: “You may not know the names but their stars, either established or rising, are shining brighter every day. Folks like Shel Israel, Ari Herzog, Liz Strauss, Shannon Paul and Twitter’s Oracle at Delphi, Chris Brogan, are but a few…”
I remain in the camp that calls you an established star. And Brogan — he’s on the way out.
And yes, I monitor my name.
Excellent post, as always.
CGabriel´s last blog post..Nikos Got a Gig!
Yes, of course you wrote more but for a one-word adjective, do you have a better alternative?
No – I was just making sure you’re monitoring your comments.
CGabriel´s last blog post..Eye on Monday: Cannon Beach, Oregon
Hi Ari, nice comment bait post. I use a variety of monitoring tools; Google toolkit remains chief among them.
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Why Monitoring Your Name is Important [link to post]
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RT: @FreelanceSw: Why Monitoring Your Name is Important [link to post]
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Great post and I do think quite a few people miss the opportunity of this powerful tool. It is always good to see if and where you’re mentioned so you can perhaps network better with those new contacts.
Keep up the great work, Ari!
Alex | Zen Elements
Alex Mitchell´s last blog post..Google Launch UK Street View
Thanks for the kind words, Alex.
Important post, Ari – specifically in terms of blogger relations. When someone mentions my name or quotes/refers to a post, it’s important to me to connect with them and thank them and – as you’ve asked for here – comment back. Also, what a great way to do damage control and to be aware of what’s going on out there in the world…
I use Google Alerts. I know you showed examples using ” ” but it’s surprising how many people don’t know why…so let’s tell them. If you just write John Smith – you’ll get returns for all of the Johns and all of the Smiths – and that would be way counter-productive, eh?
Julie Roads´s last blog post..Don’t get Twitter? Think of the golf course.
I use google alerts because as an online merchant and crafter I love to know when someone mentions me in their blog or twitter post. Google alerts will bring you twitter messages as well!
Mathea Ford´s last blog post..Some Neat Craft Projects You TOO Can Do
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This is nice, unless of course, your name is Necessary: RT @FreelanceSw: Why Monitoring Your Name is Important [link to post]
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RT @FreelanceSw: Why Monitoring Your Name is Important [link to post] Keep up by using google alerts. Very smart
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Hi Ari,
You can bet that I’m listening, both for my name and my company name.
It’s not just about knowing that people are talking about you, either; it’s about understanding a bit about how the social ecosystem works and wanting to be a contributing member of the community whenever the conversation allows.
Best,
Amber
Amber Naslund´s last blog post..Connecting Expectations and Experiences
What tool(s) do you use for monitoring? As you work for a firm that markets its own tool, are you dedicated to it alone?
Hi Ari,
Sorry I’m so late getting back to you. Right now yes, I use Radian6 to do all of my monitoring. In the past, I’ve used several tools including Google Alerts, Technorati, Backtype, SocialMention, and Twitter Search.
Hope that helps.
Amber
Amber Naslund´s last blog post..Community Inside the Walls
Sure I’m listening – I was alerted via rss feeds of technorati and google hits for both my name and JetBlue’s.
Not sure whether it’s in the interest in monitoring my personal and professional brand, or just plain vanity however.
Ditto – found Ari’s post because he referenced me. “Listening/monitoring” is one of the MOST important things any individual and/or brand could be doing these days.
Well done Ari.
Aaron
Aaron Strout´s last blog post..Time to Give Back
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RT @_sarakate_: Why Monitoring Your Name is Important [link to post] by @ariherzog
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While Google Alerts is a good starting point, I find it to be way off course at times as well. I’m currently getting alerts for Danny Gokey of American Idol fame, not to mention Narnia for some bizarre reason?
But monitoring is hugely important and it’s a service that I include for all my clients.
I love combining tools like Serph and Monitter to keep tabs on what’s happening.
Of course, premium tools are where businesses need to be if they’re serious about brand monitoring and there are plenty great options available there as well. Just ask Amber Naslund about Radian 6
Danny Brown´s last blog post..What’s Your Satisfaction Level?
The Da Vinci Code I would understand; but Narnia?
Google Alerts work fine if you have a unique name like Ari Herzog. I set up Alerts for my name, Susan Greene, and I get tons of listings for every Susan, every Greene, and every Susan Greene in the universe. I think it’s giving me a complex — I’m just one of soooo many.
Echoing Andrew’s response on subtracting extraneous Susan Greenes, let’s imagine that three of the people with your name are associated with xxx.com, yyy.com, and zzz.com, run a search such as: “Susan Greene” -xxx -yyy -zzz
You can also run link searches when people link to your blog, i.e. link:http://susangreenecopywriter.com
You can similarly combine your name and keywords, e.g. “Susan Greene” AND writer
Make sense?
Follow-up: I find following the same comprehensive Alerts search on Google and Yahoo yields complementary results that don’t always overlap.
@Susan, in addition to quote marks, try using a minus (-) sign to filter out common results for other people with your same name; eventually you should be able to extract useful results.
Other helpful monitoring tools w/ good search + filtering capability: Tweetdeck, twithority.com.
I have had Google Alerts setup for awhile now, and it does come in handy for finding out about people who mention your name/website. Of course, that is only if I remember to check that folder that I filter them into periodically.
~ Kristi
I’ve been a big name-monitor for years, but it’s worth remembering to include any “brands” or phrases with which you are associated and adding those to the Google Alert too, so I have one set up for my domain names and the names of the blogs and ezines I publish.
It’s a useful way to find new people with common interests as well as spotting defamers and scrapers…
…although whether it’s ever worth chasing the latter two down is a different matter.
Actually, I found this because I have an alert for “google alerts”. You have some good tips here. There are more ways to narrow down a search to just the real you. Here is one post I wrote on this.
One small quibble, Google doesn’t recognize AND in queries as a true search operator. In fact, using it adds AND as one of the words being searched for.
Adam Green´s last blog post..5 Killer SEO hacks for Google Alerts
Ari,
My 2 cents…
While not all of the individuals you singled out left a comment as requested, I doubt it means they aren’t listening. All of them understand the importance of listening and recommend it to clients. I received the google alert notifying me of a mention of my name for this post, but didn’t respond until now. Given the sheer volume of communications that some of these individuals receive, I suspect they simply didn’t act on it but did get mention of it. Time, time, time and priorities.
Ken Burbary´s last blog post..Social Media by the Numbers
Fair enough, Ken. Suppose I wasn’t me and this blog wasn’t mine but I was the president of a multinational firm writing on my blog positing the value of, say, JetBlue vs AirTran as which carrier my company’s 10,000+ employees should favor.
One would presume both airline companies, if monitoring the web, would respond, no?
Yes, under those circumstances, I would sure HOPE they would have responded. I get your point. This situation was different, but still an interesting test.
Ken Burbary´s last blog post..Social Media by the Numbers
Thanks Ari for this interesting test, I left a comment on your follow-up blog post.
Twitter Comment
Reading: “Why Monitoring Your Name is Important — AriWriter” ( [link to post] )
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This is great Ari. I’ve been using Google Alerts for topics I want to follow, but I’ve not set one up for myself. I will now!
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