Google Alerts have been around for a while now, yet when I mention using them to many clients it is apparent that they have not used Google Alerts or do not understand how they can be used as an effective online reputation management tool. 

What Are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. 

There are 5 types of alerts that you can sign up for: 

1. News alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.
2. Web alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.
3. Blogs alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.
4. Groups alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.
5. Comprehensive alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.

Why Use Google Alerts?

Google Alerts can be a useful tool in two main areas:

1. Gathering Competitive Intelligence – use Google alerts to see what is happening with your major competitors in the news, on the Web and in the Blogosphere.  It can be a great tool for finding out about new developments in a timely manner.
    
2. Reputation Management – find out about what people are saying about you and your products, what people are blogging about.  Use Google Alerts to monitor your brand reputation on the web and in the blogosphere

How Do I Set Up Google Alerts?

1. Visit Google Alerts by going to: http://www.google.com/alerts
2. Enter a search query that you would like to be “alerted” about.  This could be a product name, a company name, a website URL or a more general key phrase that is specific to your industry.
3. Specify one of the 5 types of alerts that you would like to receive.
4. Specify the frequency of the alerts.  Your choices at this time are once a day, as-it-happens or once a week.
5. Enter your email address.  Not if you are setting up a number of alerts, you may want to considering creating a new email account such as a Gmail account to use as your Google Alerts email.
6. Click “Create Alert”

Checking/Managing Your Alerts 

The easiest way to check your alerts is through a Gmail email account.  With a Google Gmail account you are able to:

• Create Alerts without email verification
• Change how often an alert is emailed
• Access other Google products like Answers, Google Groups and more!
• On the 'Manage Your Alerts' page, you can view, create, verify, edit, and remove any alert you wish.  This page is accessed by logging into your Google account.

You can create up to 1000 alerts in total.   

Google Alert Resources

Google Alerts FAQ
Using Google Alerts for Intelligence Gathering
Google Alerts at Wikipedia