You could find situations in which to engage with those that think positively or negatively about your works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basically, you would have complete access to all things on the internet involving you, your books, or your brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I understand that ignorance is bliss, but we\u2019re talking about our author brand and our business<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, in this article, I am going to show you exactly how to setup something like this that will alert you every time someone mentions a particular word on the internet of your choosing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That could be your name, your book, your publishing company<\/a> or a specific keyword<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh and did I mention it\u2019s all free and will only take 5 minutes to setup?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A while ago, Google created a free service called \u201cGoogle Alerts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, you tell Google what words or phrases you want it to monitor and every time those words or phrases are mentioned on the Internet, Google will alert you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To many, this is used for research or for news feeds, but for us writers, it can be a direct path to engagement opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But first, let\u2019s set it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To setup Google Alerts in three easy steps, you need to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And BOOM, you now Google will send you messages every time someone mentions you or your brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretty simple right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In many cases this will depend on your situation. However, here a couple of potential alerts that most authors should think about using:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The above potential alerts all come with their own tactics in replying, but the key is to just engage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If someone mentions you or your book on their blog, take the time to leave a comment. It will show that you are engaging with them and make them more likely to edit or reply further with praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example of this was recently when a blogger posted my article in a Spanish website. Because he used the word “Kindlepreneur” I got an alert, checked it out and was pretty stoked to see how he used the information. So, I sent the writer a message, pushed his article on social media and struck up a conversation – which was nice. That's engagement!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be very important to know what people are saying about your work. If someone is criticizing your work, you need to first take a deep look and figure out whether or not there is some truth in their words. Not all criticism is bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the person is just spouting off non-constructive criticism, then it is usually best to leave this alone. However, if there is truth, then this could be an opportunity to engage further and find opportunity in the presented challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a close competitor, then it means you both share the same target market<\/a>. Therefore, by monitoring your competitor through Google Alerts, you can ascertain key information about your target market, find more opportunities to engage and could ultimately get some new fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, if a website were to do a review of your competitor\u2019s book and thought of it favorably, you might want to contact that reviewer or website and ask if they would be interested in your book as well. Sort of a \u201chey, if you liked that book, then you'll love this one as well\u201d sort of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is more of a non-fiction tactic, but can seriously be powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In non-fiction, we are trying to answer someone\u2019s question or teach about some subject. Using Google alerts, I can get a message every time someone asks a pertinent question online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being the first to answer their question is extremely important. This can play in very well with sites like Quora<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n Over 47,000+ authors, NYT bestsellers, and publishing companies use Publisher Rocket to gain key insight to the market.\u00a0Help your book now<\/b><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\n\n\n Kyle, of Food Delivery Guru<\/a>, setup a Google alert that would let him know any time the phrase “Food Delivery Guru” was used. By doing this, he found out that someone had not only linked to his article on the difference between Hello Fresh and Blue Apron<\/a>, but had praised his analysis of the two. This gave him an opportunity to reach out to the blogger, and develop a better relationship…all because of Google alert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, on the flip side, Kyle also found out when a spam site had scraped his article on ubereats vs postmates vs caviar<\/a>. How? Because when they scraped the information, they also posted one of his internal links that points to one of his other articles. But thanks to Google alerts, he was alerted and helped to DMCA take down the e-pirates<\/a> the scoundrels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, if you have a website, it can help there too – not just for books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google Alerts is great, but I found that it misses a lot of engagement opportunities…or takes forever before it reports it to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there is another free option that works even better: Mention.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mention goes even further and reports even more, including social media posts and forum comments at a higher rate than Google Alerts<\/a>. Plus, I can also link my social media accounts and discus account to Mention so that I can respond through mention instead of going to the social media platform….I'll get into this more later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only problem with Mention is that the free version only allows you to track one word. Now, that could be a problem for some of you. But even for me, one word is enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Table of contents<\/h2>
How to Setup Google Alerts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Google](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Google-Alerts-for-Kindlepreneur.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nWhat Should an Author Monitor with Google Alerts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How to Wield the Power of an Author Alert<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Random Mention On Their Blog<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Criticism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Competitor's Praise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Questions Involving Your Target Niche<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Publisher](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/PR_Competition-Feature-e1621274721682.png\")
\r\n \r\n <\/a> <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n Book Marketing Made Simple<\/h3>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n
Example of this in Action for Websites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why I Use Something Else Other Than Google<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Using-Mention-for-engagement\"](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Using-Mention-for-engagement.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Engaging-with-fans-using-Mention\"](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Engaging-with-fans-using-Mention.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n