Monitor your mentions on the web like a pro with Google Reader
Google Reader can be used as a powerful aggregator of multiple sources of information which mention your product or brand. Google Reader is a free tool from Google which allows you to stay up-to-date with the content from any site which publishes to the web using a feed or RSS*. It can be tough monitoring and tracking mentions of your product, brand or service in multiple locations, so to help we've put together a list of examples of how you can let Google Reader do the work for you. With a little setting up, we've found Google Reader not only saves time and effort but makes reading and sharing stuff on the web fun too.
Here are some examples of ways you can keep tabs on mentions of your product or brand on the Internet with Google Reader:
- Set up a Google Alert for your product and subscribe to it in Google Reader to see a range of updates from the web.
- Subscribe to the latest posts from your competitors' blogs to make sure you don't inadvertently miss something important! Just look for the RSS logo on their site.
- Subscribe to Google Blog Search and Google News Search results for your brand or product in Google Reader to see what top publishers and bloggers are saying. In Blog Search you'll find the feed to the left of the search results; in Google News, you'll see the feed at the bottom of the page.
- Create a Twitter Search for your product and subscribe in Google Reader to see what consumers are saying on the popular micro-blogging service. You'll see a 'Feed for this Query' button on the right hand side of the search results.
With all these feeds, the easiest way to add them to Google Reader is to copy the URL of the feed, go to Google Reader and paste it in the 'Add a Subscription' box. (More help here). And voila! Now mentions of your product or brand will be collected for you in one place. Got some more suggestions for updates to subscribe to using Google Reader? Let us know.
*What's an RSS feed? Feeds let websites distribute their content much more widely by inviting users to subscribe to regular updates delivered via their method of choice e.g. web portal, news reader or email. Google Reader is one such news reader designed to let you easily collect and read your RSS subscriptions. Learn more.