School PR pro Tom Page at School Communicators Network recently wrote a blog post describing frustrations with and alternatives to Google Alerts. His post has inspired me to write a blog post I’ve been considering for a few years (yes, really). While Google Alerts has definitely gone down on the company’s priority list and it does have its limitations, there are some ways to get more targeted results.
Tip 1: Be sure to use the special search operators when doing any Google search, including Google Alerts.
For example, quotation marks will search for an exact phrase instead of just the words individually:
“Fair City Public Schools”
The minus sign will exclude a word. For example, if there is a district or school with the same name as yours but in a different state:
“Fair City Public Schools” -Illinois
Combine quotation marks and the minus sign for ultimate Google search power:
“T.C. Williams High School” -“Remember the Titans”
(The search above will show results for the phrase “T.C. Williams High School” but exclude any results that have the phrase “Remember the Titans”)
See a list of even more Google Search Operators.
Tip 2: Test and refine
Your results won’t be perfect from the start. When I first began using Google Alerts, I noticed a lot of results for new home listings, which are irrelevant to me. So I edited my searches to exclude popular home listings and realtors. Further, for some of our schools with popular names, I added the name of our city.
“George Washington Middle School” Alexandria -trulia -zillow
You’ll also want to consider mentions that don’t use the exact full name of your district or schools:
“T.C. Williams” -trulia -zillow
Again, none of these will be perfect the first time around. Test and refine.
Tip 3: Consider the alternatives
As Tom Page wrote, he’s also trying out Mention.com. I use this specifically because in the past, Google didn’t appear to be the best at finding mentions on social media. It seems to be getting better. But if you’d like a second option, definitely give Mention a try, using the same types of search operators. *Note: You may have to pay a subscription fee to set up multiple search alerts on Mention.
Do you have other tips or websites you use to catch mentions of your schools and districts?
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