What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Google!

So, I was smart enough to do something for work a year ago that I hadn't done for myself until today--GOOGLE ALERTS. Great things, really, but for some reason had never thought to do them for my name and blog. It all goes back to how Randy and Spence talked about branding yourself.

I love branding, why didn't I think about this sooner? hmmm....
If I already received Google Alerts, I would have discovered several neat things about my social media "conversation" yesterday. First, one of my social media heroes @GailHyatt RT'ed me. I knew that from Twitter but I also would have seen it in my Google Alerts if I got them before today. Second, two (count them TWO) CEO's tweeted AND posted a link to my blog from theirs. That must explain the spike in my blog views from 20 to almost 200 yesterday. I was also tweeted by six complete strangers which I found out about on this neat little site called Tweet Meme. I'm still not exactly sure what this site is but it looks interesting. Anyone familiar with it?

Monitoring your web presense is also essential for businesses and non-profits. If Etapestry and FristGiving didn't moniter theirs, they would have no idea about a disgruntled customer from a little non-profit in Nashville. And who would have thought they'd care? But they were watch and they did care. That situation is completely worked out now and I can say with 100% certainty that it wouldn't be if it weren't for Twitter.

Tomorrow, I should recieve Google Alert e-mails for "Mandy Singleton," "mandycsingleton," "mandycsingleton.blogspot.com," and "Mandy C. Singleton." We'll see how that goes. Now I just have to keep writing, doing and being interesting so there's actually a reason for an alert!

Do you have Google Alerts and how else do you manage your brand and web presence?