Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

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As the internet becomes an ever increasing part of the business of selling real estate, it is important for Realtors to keep an eye on how they are being perceived online.  With at least 84% of real estate clients using the internet (according to NAR), it is a safe bet that the people you are working with look for you online.  I’d go as far as to say that every client you are working with Google’s you.  What do they see?

Google yourself and find out.

Google Alerts

Now that you know what is out there about you, would you like to be able to automatically keep up with what is being said about you on the internet?  Google has a simple (and free) tool called Google Alerts that let’s you monitor yourself (or anything else of interest to you) on the internet.

You can set up Google alerts so that any time your name appears on the internet, you get an email.  It’s easy.  Here is how:

1.  Go to Google Alerts:  www.google.com/alerts
2.  Fill in the Form to tell Google what you want to track:

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In this example, I’m telling Google to search the internet for:

  • Search Term:  My name “stacey harmon”.  VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL THAT MATTERS – You want to put your name in quotes.  This way, Google will only send you alerts when your full name appears, otherwise, it will send you an alert any time either your first name OR your last name appears on the web (and this can become very annoying).
  • Type:  “Comprehensive” vs. a simple search of my name in blogs, or web pages, or videos.  Comprehensive means I want to receive an alert any time my name shows up in any of those places.
  • How often:  You can choose to receive an email alert “once a day”, “once a week” or “as-it-happens”.  I’ve chosen “as-it-happens” because I want to know as soon as something is posted on the internet about me.
  • Your Email:  Enter the email address you want to have the alert sent to.  It doesn’t have to be a gmail account, although if you have a gmail account, it makes it simpler to manage multiple Google alerts that you set up.

3.   Select “Create Alert” and you will see this message:

Google Alert Web Confirm

4.  Go to your email and click on the blue link after “Verify this Google Alert request” in the verification email that was sent to you:

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You are now confirmed and will receive an email anytime your name (as you typed it in the Google alert) appears on the internet.

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Google Alert Considerations:

  • You Have a Common Name: If you have a common name, you will receive alerts anytime that your name appears on the internet and it might not be content related to you.  For example, there is a woman named Stacey Harmon Deckard who lives in Indiana.  Sometimes her name will appear on the web and I will receive an alert with information about her because my Google alert searches for the term “Stacey harmon”.
  • Name Commonly Misspelled? If your name is hard to spell, or commonly misspelled, consider setting up a separate Google alert for the misspelling of your name as well.  For example, people commonly spell my name “stacy” (without the “e”) so I also have a Google alert for “Stacy Harmon” so that if people reference me in a blog and spell my name incorrectly, it will come up in my google alerts.

Google alerts are a simple and easy way to follow the conversation about yourself online and in social media.  Go set one up today and start tracking how you appear on the web!

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