If you use Google Chrome, you know it is a great search engine. If you’re not a chrome user then I’m sure you’ve used the word Google as a verb: “just Google it!”
Did you know that you can set up alerts to notify you whenever a keyword is used? I have a couple of alerts set up to help me keep up to date on my business savvy.
The alerts I am interested in are “essential oil” (since that’s kinda what I do) and “health freedom” (because of the streak of liberty that runs through my veins). Most days, the essential oil alerts that I get are about some new product that a company is marketing, or new research-which is very applicable- or even just recipes and information that someone wants to pass on.
It’s important, if you’re interested in the topic, to go ahead and click on the link because, sometimes, the article that it directs you to is not the article that is featured in the short write up. At that point, you can flag the article as irrelevant. As with any social media platform, the more we interact with it, the better it can be tailored to fit our desires.
I did click on one such article in last night’s summary of alerts. I was a teaser talking about vaping essential oils. The summary ended with:
Some folks are recommending adding essential oils to your cartridges,
but I would encourage talking with an aromatherapist or naturopath first to get …
I clicked the article link and it took me to a completely unrelated article about blending herbs, grasses, and plants from your yard with your cannabis to make it a more pleasant smoking experience. Well….that didn’t live up to its summary promise.
So, not every alert that comes through is applicable, but if I didn’t have that alert set up, I wouldn’t get any hints about what happened that day in regards to my keywords.
Setting up alerts is easy. You can just google for the instructions–after all, it is a Google feature! or, just simply follow the instructions below:
- Go to google.com/alerts in your browser
- Enter a search term for the topic you want to track. As you enter your terms, you can view a preview of the results
- Choose Show Options to narrow the alert to a specific source, language, and/or region.
- Specify how often, how many, and how to receive alerts.
- Select Create Alert.
Easy as pie!
So, now you know….and, as GI Joe says, knowing is half the battle.