Content is a key component of operating your websites and delivering your social media strategy. One of the questions we are often asked as an agency is how we find new ideas for content or how do we keep up with everything going on across social media channels.
Posted Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Well, one of the tools we often use is Google Alerts.
It is a free tool from Google that allows you to customize the frequency you get notified and allows you to have curated and customized content delivered directly to your email address on a daily or weekly basis. Within your custom email, Google will essentially give you a newsletter-style email that will feature stories and articles on all the keywords that you have asked to be notified about.
The best thing is, it’s super simple to set up. Simply make sure you are logged into your Google account and visit www.google.com/alerts.
Once there you will see the alerts tabs which will allow you to input terms for the kinds of content you want to be kept updated about. For the purpose of this example, we are simply going to type in Digital Marketing.
You will notice underneath the terms you have entered that there is a 'more options' tab. Click on this, and you will be presented with a few additional options. This includes how often you want to be alerted, where the sources are from, the language, the region, how many alerts you would like, and the email address you want them to be delivered to.
Once you have customised this to your liking, simply click the ‘create alert’ option and it will start to compile a list of your alerts for you. You can populate your list with as many alerts as you like and edit them simply by clicking on the pencil icon.
Google also sets up optional alerts for your Google email address and account name so you can see where you might be appearing on the web in articles and web searches. 
Google alerts is the perfect tool to help you find and source information and to give you inspiration on content generation ideas for your social media channels and website that are specific to your business and industry. By having this delivered directly to your inbox every day/week you can maximize your efficiency and cut out those lengthy sessions searching for inspiration online.
If you want to know more about creating content for your social media channels and websites, why not take our Content Marketing training course? Click here to find out more details about the course.