How to use Google News and Blog Alerts to Build Your Populist Media Empire

When I was employed by big-corporate PR, I used Google News Alerts religiously. Still do. It’s a fantastic service, constantly filtering the Google index for current news relevant to my search query and delivering it to my inbox every day. At Apollo, I was interested in news about our company, and news about our competitors, partners, and vendors. Every day I’d get slogs of data to pile through, press releases to scan, and punditry to parse.

And after the list of headlines came the list of mentions in the blogosphere; post after post of opinionated bloggers and students, some slamming the organization for one reason or another, largely for things we could do little to rectify (I lost my financial aid money, I can’t drive, the school hates me, my lemonade monkey peed in my hair, etc.). But most of the blog commentary came from conscientious, diligent writers, passionate about their cause, and eager to share that passion with the world.

What always struck me about those wonderful Google News pieces is this: I was one of only two people on the fourth floor who did not stop reading when the “News” bits ended. The clipping services, the executives, the communications team on the PR side of the house, they all poured over the headlines rigorously, and dutifully ignored the blogs.

[The other gent who read the blogs is Joe Cockrell, who is one of the most competent blokes I know in the PR biz, and a true gentleman, who smartly took a job as director of PR at Jobing.com, loves his pets, and twitters here.]

The other side of this lesson was brought into focus this morning when my new PR bff dropped me an email bright and early. Her message was about this very site, and included to a Google Blog email displaying a link to a post I’d written about Burgerville, for which she serves as account manager. See, I’d only just mentioned the name of the company, complimentarily, but when she came into my site, the database had blown a gasket and she couldn’t see the post. I got the database fixed and the post back online, then promptly called her back to talk about the company, and the progress I’m making on the video highlighting the team there.

What she knows, and what so many others have yet to learn even in this progressive industry, is that the power of connectivity reaches far beyond A-list press. A quick scan of relevant blogs can give you a snapshot of your market landscape, and indeed, the so-called “populist” media will give you a more accurate picture of your company than much of the mainstream press.

How To

To set up your own Google News Alerts, just visit http://www.google.com/news, and click on “Create a News Alert” in the right column. A simple box on the next screen will allow you to enter the terms you’d like to search, your company name, for example, and the type of search you’d like to perform. In the associated drop-down, you can choose from a number of options from News, Blogs, the Web, Google Groups… I typically choose “Comprehensive” to ensure I capture everything about the brands I’m researching. In some cases, where there is too much traffic, I set up separate alerts for blogs, and news, for the same alert search term.

The result rivals many paid clipping services, but it’s absolutely free. I swear by it. Stop reading and go sign up now.

Good. Now, final lesson then I’ll stop on this: Take a point from the lesson my new best PR friend already knows. It’s perfectly reasonable to reach out to the people that are writing about you. It’s OK to email them. It’s OK to call them. It’s OK to write about them on your own site. It’s always been OK to do this with reporters, but if you’re not equipped with an agency to handle your PR, you will likely get far more response from your bloggers than reporters when you pick up the phone yourself. Use the opportunity to cultivate a relationship with them. Correct them kindly when they’re in error, and praise them reasonably when they give kudos. Share the love and build your populist media empire around you. Feed them, keep them shod, and they will serve you well for years to come.