Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/51756
Tech Talk
5 Great Google Alerts for the Foodservice Industry
By David Limon, Ecommerce Manager Mission Restaurant Supply
I
've been in the foodservice industry for about 18 years now and it's not just "pots and pans" anymore. To
maintain a competitive edge, you've got to keep up with the latest technologies and figure out the best use for the appli- cation of choice. One often-overlooked tool,GoogleAlerts, is offered by Google free of charge and can take as little as a couple ofminutes to set up or a number of days, depending on its intended func- tionality. But once the set up is com- plete, you can sit back and let Google keep you up to date on any information you note in your alerts. It's great for helping salespeople find newleads,mar- keting personnel monitor product trends and webmasters stay on the cut- ting edge of technology, not to mention many other uses limited only by your imagination. Listed below are five great uses for GoogleAlerts in your E&S deal- ership.
Salespeople–A New Restaurant or Bar is Opening inTown There are many lead-generating serv-
ices available to help salespeople, but sometimes the leads are a bit outdated and a little pricey. How do free leads newly posted to the Internet sound? Below is a string of text you can use to find out when a new foodservice estab- lishment opens in your area. Simply replace "Chicago" with your city. Don't be afraid to explore this string of text by adding or deleting keywords to fine tune your results.
26 FEDA News & Views those that are praising your company.
Add the following to the Alert text box: "opening soon"OR "opening-soon" OR "coming soon" OR "coming- soon" AND restaurant OR bar OR cafe OR diner OR steakhouse OR "steak house"AND"Chicago" Leave all other settings on their default settings.
Marketing–Find New Link's to YourWebsite andYour Competitor's This is a simple, yet effective, tech-
nique for marketers looking to add new back-links to your website by monitor- ing competitors.The idea is to be noti- fied any time a website adds a link directing traffic to one of your competi- tors. Most likely the website sending a link to your competitor is relevant to your business (since you are both in the foodservice industry). Once you are alerted of a new link to your competi- tor's site,you will want to visit the web- site sending the link to your competitor. See if you can place a link to your web- site as well.
Add the following to the Alert text box: link:www.competitor.com Leave all other settings on their default settings.
As long as you are tracking your com-
petitor'swebsite, it's actually a great idea to track your own website as well.This is a great way to keep tabs on sites link- ing to you and to monitor what is being said about your company. It also gives you a chance to fix any negative feed- back right away—plus a chance to thank
Webmasters-Is Someone Using Your Content? Many of us webmasters work hard to
add unique content to our website. It doesn't matter if you worked hours adding the content yourself or you paid continued on page 28
Add the following to the Alert text box: link:www.your-website.com Leave all other settings on their default settings.
Marketing–Find QuestionsThat NeedAnswers Another technique for generating
back-links (as most of you know by now), is by answering questions posted on forums, blogs and social media sites and then adding a link to your website. This is generally a time-consuming task, but with Google Alerts, your time spent surfing the Internet is zero seconds.You simply need to create several Google Alerts that include common phrases found in a question. Then Google will notify you as soon as someone asks a question you are looking to answer. First, leave all GoogleAlert settings on
their default settings. Then try these phrases in the text box: "where can I find a