Using Google Alerts for Blog Content

Friday, November 13th, 2009

I have been speaking to a group of small business owners and employees about creating a cross marketing web site to boost sales in their respective businesses.  The idea is that each has a business that compliments the other and has a wealth of information that they could use for mutual benefit.  If they combine their knowledge and repackage it in a joint effort website – they have more to gain with less effort.  To take it a step further, I strongly suggested that they create a blog with content focused on the local area (Nashua, NH) and shares stories about how they use their expertise to help local people.  I explained that they could create an article site but that the effort in the long run would be greater than producing a blog.  Blog entries tend to be more concise, conversational (easier to write), indexed by search engines faster and easier to write about that day’s relevant topics as they relate to their business.

To help me gather information to present to the group, I created some Google alerts to see what others might be doing online related to the Southern New Hampshire region and specifically Nashua, NH.  I found very little and most of what I found was a mention of Southern NH or Nashua in an article or blog post about something completely unrelated to the area.  I have since given my presentation to the business group but my efforts to set up the Google alert for my research is also giving me content to write about in my blog.

This morning my Google Alert for “Southern New Hampshire” pulled up a post on a Toyota Tundra Forum where a person is looking for recommendations for “a good independent Toyota mechanic the Southern New Hampshire area”.  I also happened to receive an email from Ticketmaster asking me to do an online review about the Star Wars in Concert event I attended last night in Manchester, NH.  The two emails got me thinking about how small business owners and businesses in general are afraid of bad reviews in online recommender communities and how they should be exactly the opposite.  So, my plan is to following what sort of responses the Toyota Tundra Forum gets to the post and create a blog post about why small businesses should monitor and become active online recommender communities.  I will also try to pull in what Ticketmaster did by asking me to post a review of the concert online.