How To Build A Quick And Dirty Monitoring Tool For Learning, Listening, Or Tracking Anything

1. Free Social Media
Monitoring Dashboard
How To Build A Quick And Dirty Monitoring Tool For
Learning, Listening, Or Tracking Anything
By Steve Farnsworth

2. Who Is This For?
Anyone who needs a quick and
free social listening dashboard

3. How Can You Use This
Technique?
#1 Become an “Expert” on any topic by reading
3 to 5 blog posts a day for a month on your topic
of interest

4. How Can You Use This
Technique?
#2 Know when people talk about you or your
company online

5. How Can You Use This
Technique?
#3 Keep a sharp eye on your competitors

6. You will need
a Google
account. If
you already
have one,
then go to the
next step.

7. Pick the keywords you
want to track
For this project
let's use my name
“Steve Farnsworth”

8. Let's test our search term on
Google to see what kind of
results we get with
Steve Farnsworth

9. Steve Farnsworth has 592,000
search results. That's lot.

10. However, we can use Boolean
search operators to get fewer, but
targeted results

11. Boolean search operators
are symbols we can use to fine-
tune our search request

12. Let's quickly review the most
common ones

13. “ ” = Using quotes returns results
with that exact phrase.
Example “San Francisco”
AND = Using AND returns only
matches with both terms.
Example Baseball AND Angels

14. + = Using a plus sign in front of a word
returns only results WITH that word.
Example +Cats
- = Using a minus sign in front of a
word returns only results
WITHOUT that word.
Example -Dogs

15. And you can combine them! Let's
try a few with our search...
Fewer results!

16. Let's use a few more Boolean
operators and keywords to see if
we can achieve better results

17. Even better! Now, 98% of the
results are just what I want

18. Also, don't forget to use the
+ and the –
They're very powerful in
fine-tuning your search

19. I'm happy with those kind of
results. So, I'll make a note and
save the search term:
"Steve Farnsworth" AND "Social
Media" OR Marketing

20. Now Google “Google Alerts” or go
to http://www.google.com/alert

21. Now, type in
your search
term and make
the selections
I've marked
Now click here

22. You will now see a list of your
Google Alerts

23. View new results as they come
in by visiting Google Reader

24. Let's take a look at your Google
Reader.
A.K.A. Your New Free
Social Media
Monitoring/Listening
Dashboard.

25. This is where your search results
will automatically be sent every
few hours

26. You can find Google Reader from
the Google home page, too

27. See our Google Alert
was saved for us

28. You'll see results here
as they come in

29. You may need to have a number
of searches depending on your
needs. So, here is how to keep it
organized.

30. Keep searches organized
by using folders

31. You can add other searches and
subscriptions to your Google
Reader

32. When you see
this symbol on a
website it
means you can
subscribe to
receive updates

33. This service is
called RSS.
While many
blogs, websites,
and search
engines have it,
not all do.

34. When you find and click that RSS
button it should look like this
Select and
copy that URL

35. Go back to your Google
Reader and click on
“Add A Subscription”

36. A box will pop-up. Paste
your RSS feed URL and
click “Add”

37. Now, new results will be
delivered to your dashboard as
they're found

38. Test different keywords to
perfect what search queries
work best. Have fun, and...
Remember, learning and
experimenting equal experience

39. Steve Farnsworth
Provides training, workshops, consulting, and strategic
action plans to help mid to large-sized companies and
organizations incorporate best marketing practices to
shorten sale cycles and increase preference for their
products or service by effectively integrating social media
into their marketing mix.
Jolt Social Media
(650) 331-0594 (land & mobile)
Email: JoltSocialMedia@Gmail.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefarnsworth
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steveology
Blog: http://stevefarnsworth.wordpress.com (Digital Marketing Mercenary)