Google Alerts for Personal Branding Management

Googling yourself isn’t just for padding your ego, it should become a vital part of your online identity. Since so many of the world’s search queries go through Google in one way or another, knowing what information knows about you is more important than ever.

Below you’ll find the basic, quick, and easy steps to start tracking your online identity through Alerts

1) Visit Google Alerts

2) Type your search term into the form field

3) Select what type of types you would like to be alerted about. Typically you should select Comprehensive so that you are notified of any regardless of format.

4) Select how often you would like to receive notices, depending on your plan of action a digest of all hits once a day may be enough, or for a proactive approach select As It Happens.

5) Type in your address and click the Create Alert button.

6) If you aren’t signed in to a Google Account you will be asked to confirm your address by clicking on a verification link that sends you.

If you have a Account you’ll be able to edit, change and view all of your alert subscriptions in one place. Signing up for alerts will help you see what you create is being picked up by ’s spiders as well as what the blogosphere and other people are saying about you or your company.

Signing up for alerts and knowing what is out there is a big step, however you also need to plan on how to handle both positive and negative items as they come through.

This post is part of Jonathan Coffman’s Lessons in Social Media series.