How To Get Automatic Alerts When Your Band Is Mentioned Online Result

Receive instant notifications whenever your band is mentioned online -- such as on a blog, tweet, or website.

Overview
You can create alerts to automatically notify you when someone says something about you and your music online. By creating these automatic alerts, you can keep tabs on how you're being received and get valuable fan feedback, discover reviews, monitor your PR campaign, and possibly get some glowing testimonials to add to your press kit.

Estimated Preparation time: 20 minutes
Estimated Result Time: Immediate
Estimated Cost: FREE

Directions
1. Determine your keywords.
Define the keywords you want to track. Keywords can include:

• Your Name
• Your Band Name
• Your Website
• Album Titles
• Song Titles

Use quotation marks to focus the search alert by grouping multiple keywords. For example, "Beatnik Turtle" rather than Beatnik Turtle (which would pull alerts for both "Beatnik" and "Turtle", rather than just the band, "Beatnik Turtle").

2. Regsiter and set up alerts at various search services.
You will need to create an account at the services listed below. If you already have an account, you need only login. Set up your alerts at all the following:

• Google Alerts
• Yahoo! Alerts
• Windows Live Alerts
• TweetBeep (Twitter)
• Technorati
• Google Blog Search

Follow each service's instructions. Depending on the service, you will get a choice as to coverage (we recommend choosing the broadest as possible), how frequently you want to be notified (we recommend as-they-happen rather than a digest so you can stay on top of mentions), and whether you want alerts to go to your mobile device.

3. Keep track of mentions for publicity purposes.
You will want to keep track and organize positive mentions for future publicity purposes and PR campaigns.

4. Contact them and establish a relationship.
If you get a positive mention such as a review or comment, consider doing the following:

• Contact the person and send a "thank you".
• Post a link to the mention on your site and blog to help cross-promote the person.
• Add the person to your press contacts for future publicity and PR campaigns since people who write about you are the ones most likely to write about you again in the future.
• Send the person some music or a sneak preview of your next release.