Why You Need a Google Alerts Alternative

Google Alerts is a powerful tool to stay on top of news.  You can use it to track your organization's reputation and see what competitors are up to or to understand when a particular topic is mentioned.

But you might be looking for an even more powerful alternative solution, for some of these reasons.

‍

You're missing results!  

Google Alerts allows you to search for web, news and video results, but you'll find that it frequently misses content.  This includes many blog posts, social channels and TV or radio.  And, if you're looking for every hit (including smaller publications), you may miss mentions.

‍

You need to understand trends in media coverage

If you're looking to run analysis and visualizations on trends over time, Google Alerts will leave you high and dry.  There's no way to build reports or graph results.

‍

You need more powerful granular filtering‍

If you're looking for results in a specific location or country, your ability to explicitly include/exclude sources is limited with Google Alerts.  Especially if the topic that you're monitoring is broad, you'll want to use filters to narrow down your results.

‍

You want results in alternative channels

Google Alerts sends your results to an email address.  But what if you want to receive alerts in a Slack channel?  Or as a mobile notification?  

‍

If you work in digital communications or social media, be sure to shop around and find the best tools that work for you.  You may find that more powerful brand monitoring and PR analytics tools, like PeakMetrics, are a better fit - or a complementary solution - for your strategy.