The secret to a good inbound marketing plan involves the creation of remarkable content, a lot of remarkable content.  So how do we manage this without spending hours and hours in front of a computer?  One way is setting up a variety of tools to keep your reserves full.

One way to do this is by using Google Alerts.  This has been around for awhile but I find a lot of people are still not aware of the power of such a simple tool in making things a little easier.  This feature can help in a number of ways. First, we can set up alerts to monitor our own profiles; our name, our brand, our competitors, etc.  Next, we can monitor industry news which is particularly useful for sales people in keeping in the loop with their clients.  Finally, we can use it to monitor the keywords for articles and news related to our core subject matter.  Previously I’ve posted here about the importance of carefully selecting the keywords – both for SEO (search engine optimization) and to provide a clear focus to keep us on track with our content.  Staying focused is important in an inbound marketing strategy because your audience must be clear in what to expect from you – it is what will keep them coming back for frequent visits and providing more opporunities for you to engage with them.

Simply visit Google Alerts and set things up.  Getting things up and running is pretty straight forward but if you want a good overview, I’ve posted a great video for you here on the topic, explaining step by step, how to set up Google alerts. The video also contains some good tips and advice.

Now, see how you can use what you find to fill your Twitter feeds with useful, timely, engaging Tweets, your Facebook status updates with some of the same and I’m also willing to bet you will be inspired to write a blog post or two out of what you find.  Google alerts are just one way to keep your creative tank full, there’s a lot more to come - sign up for my email updates for monthly summaries so you don’t miss out.