Each day I monitor not just my own Google alerts but those of my clients as well. If you are wondering what people have to say about your business you should be using Google Alerts as well.

Getting started is easy, simply go to Google Alerts and complete the form.

Of course like any web based tool, there are always a few tricks:

1. Don’t just track your company name, track the names of your products and services.

2. Track your name and executives names as well. If you own a blog, consider tracking the names of your main writers. This will let you know  when ever a news article or blog mentions their names.

3. Think like a search engine.

Track phrases by using “quotations” and ” -negative keywords”. For example my name is Karrine unfortunately I share this name with a video vixen who receives a lot more press then I do so I search  “Karrine -Steffans”.

Things to Google Alert:

Your name

Your business name

Your executives names

Your product names

Your competitors business names

Your competitors Executives names

Industry phrases with quotations

Someone mentioned recent investors jumping on board with Meet Up recently and it got me thinking about a favourite of mine from way back when. Ryze.

Ryze isn’t really a social networking tool but it is a (or was) a great business networking tool when I actively used it upon its launch in 2001. I stopped using it when there seemed to be a it too much MLM activity for my personal taste.

Take a look way back:

Ryze may not be for bloggers, but it definitely has some networking possibilities for small business owners. So as a business owner I thought I would take another look at Ryze and maybe compare it to Linked In.

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Staying close to the topic of promoting your business online, as an entrepreneur I have learned its often who you know, not just what you know.

I discovered this from a post back in 2007 on Guy’s blog How to Change the World.

• The average number of LinkedIn connections for people who work at Google is forty-seven.
• The average number for Harvard Business School grads is fifty-eight, so you could skip the MBA, work at Google, and probably get most of the connections you need. Later, you can hire Harvard MBAs to prepare your income taxes.

I am new to Linked in, so I have been doing some research on how to get the most out of your linked in membership.

Be sure to check out Jason Alaba’s Linked in pages.

If you haven’t already found Her Media on Linked in stop by and say hello. The link can be found on the right side bar of our blog.

In my search for information on how to track keywords used in Twitter I discovered Tweet Board, which appears to be a unique Twitter Analytics tool.  It appears you have to follow them on twitter and hopefully you will get added.

The subject at hand is how to scan Tweets to as a business tool. If you don’t mind receiving text messages of your tweets or you use one of the few IM programs offered by twitter you can simply log onto your twitter account and go to the devices tab.

These options don’t work for me, however I discovered Tweet Scan simply register and insert your search terms. Tweet scan will perform a daily search and email the posts to you.

This is a great way to know who’s talking about your business industry, competitors and your business online.

I have been working on organizing my business life this last week in an attempt to save time anywhere possible.

One of the ways is that I have begun requesting V Cards, from new clients, networking partners, and anyone who emails me. I spend too much time entering signature details manually into outlook contacts, and as a small business owner I bet you do as well, Of course that’s when we actually do it and don’t simply flag the email to follow up on. (How many of those flagged emails are in your inbox?).

So today I encourage you to go into outlook right NOW. Really it will take 2.5 minutes.

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I belong to a few women in business groups. Some are formal networking groups, and some are online “forums”. The one thing that often astounds me is that people do not take the opportunity to establish business contacts out of these online business networks, groups, and forums.

I am not suggesting you spam your groups with your business. I am talking about REAL business networking opportunities and missing them when you don’t use those opportunities to introduce yourself.

About 10 years ago I attended a series of classes for entrepreneurs starting a new business. A three month program covering everything from business plans to finding investors. Even accounting. I think I went blank during the bookkeeping and accounting, but one thing that REALLY sticks out to me is the entire day we spent on introducing your business when given the opportunity.

With a recent roll call in one of my online Women in Business forums, (OK I started it - I was talking to all these women and I had NO idea what their business were), I was a bit shocked that these women weren’t taking the opportunity to really make an impression, one that I would remember next time I needed a service so I could find them again or remember their business name when someone I know was asking about their type of product.

Let me state, signatures do NOT work as a means of introducing yourself and your business.

I rarely click on a signatures, but if I feel I personally know you AND I have a real understanding of what you offer I will Google for you in the future. Just this week I found a copy writer and hired her, she couldn’t recall how she knew me. Thats OK, because I remembered her telling me what she did and the name “Crayon” ( i recall it being part of her blog domain) two minutes on Google and there she was.

I went online to see if I could find some articles on how to introduce yourself in business networking situations, specifically online. There are many business forums that came up in my search asking you to introduce yourself, however nary an article on HOW TO introduce yourself in these online business networking situations.

So here is what I want and need from you in an online business networking introduction.

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