Earlier this month I asked a question to the Microsoft CRM community and my LinkedIn network about e-mails with large attachments set regarding an item forwarded through the CRM organization (By the way, LinkedIn tagline and position are really helpful in identifying who in LinkedIn you can ask a question to – subject of another blog post entirely.). I wanted a definitive answer I could tell our clients who ask these kinds of questions (they have). (more…)
Are you using Google Alerts and RSS feeds to track your company’s presence on the internet? How about competitors?
Since this blog reflects me personally, I choose to omit specific company names. As the disclaimer says, opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and not of any employer, past or present.
A few months ago I set up some Google Alerts and RSS feeds to track mentions of the company as well as its other web properties, and the names of key management personnel. Also, at the management’s request, I set up some additional alerts for another company against whom the company has taken legal action.
Most of the time I get false positives or results I’m already aware of. Yesterday, however, I saw an article (and several subsequent links to it via Google Alerts/RSS feeds) about that other company and forwarded it to the COO.
I received this email a few minutes ago (emphasis added by me):
Dan,
Your article yesterday on [THE OTHER COMPANY] was great. I shared it with [THE OWNER OF OUR COMPANY] and there was information in that article that our attorney did not know about.
Yesterday the COO of the company asked me to search the internet far and wide for any information about a certain company. I spent about two hours searching across as many search engines as I could find, and had a friend with a paid subscription to ZoomInfo do a search for me. I also searched the Thomas Register, Jigsaw.com, the Yellow Pages, Reuters, US Newswire, and in social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, Digg and the like.
While I was somewhat fruitful, I found I really enjoyed the opportunity to play detective for a little while. The company could have instructed me to sign up for some paid services, but they were looking for some quick information.
It also taught me a lesson about making oneself visible. This company has apparently done a fantastic job of making itself invisible. Contrast that to a Google search done on “Daniel Johnson, Jr.” Aside from a Canadian politician of the same name, most of the top results are related to me, which excites me a lot.
Daniel Johnson, Jr. uses Eventbrite to organize, plan, and run social media events and has no problem recommending it to you (and using his affiliate link).
