I know, I know as much as some of us groan over so-called corporate giants dictating what we should and should not do for our businesses, it pays to stop for a second and consider how Google Alerts and Google Reader can help you streamline who and what you want to see in your business, and not to mention the time saving benefits of doing so.
Google Reader
Quite simply, Google Reader will check your favorite blogs or news sites for new content, so you don’t have to! Do you routinely check the same news sources each day? How about your favorite blogs? Or, how many times have you came across something and shared it with your clients or friends? Google Reader makes it easy to share with just a click. Better yet, look like a rock star for your clients and set an account up for them or monitor one for them and pass along relevant content that is meaningful to their business.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a great way to monitor news, either generally or as it pertains to your industry, industry talk about your business, what your competitors are up to, the latest industry trends or what’s going on in the world of your clients. For example, if you are a business or life coach and you are looking to increase your speaking opportunities. All you need to do is set up an alert with text such as “call for proposals” and viola’, you will be alerted when Google finds those relevant terms in the news or blog posting etc.
Take away: How will you set up Google Reader and Google Alerts to help you in your business?