Over the years I’ve written about the importance of a food truck’s online reputation management on Mobile Cuisine. During the time in which the mobile food industry has seen monumental growth, there has been even more growth in online review sites that can influence where consumers eat out. Because of this, it has become even more important for food truck owners to make sure they are engaged with their customers online. Today we’ll discuss an easy to use tool to help vendors stay informed and engaged: Google Alerts.
It’s Tough To Stay Informed
The problem in staying informed is that there are dozens of sites where your customers could be talking about your food truck. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day. I am not suggesting that you should spend your time combing the internet for every last mention of you or your food truck. What this article is intended to do is to show you that there’s an easy way to manage the most important mentions of your food truck empire and quickly decide where to respond without adding a lot of work to your already busy day. The best part…IT’s FREE!
Using Google Alerts To Stay Informed
Google Alerts is a way to make the most popular search engine in the world work specifically for you and your food truck business. By entering your food truck name as a keyword in Alerts; Google will keep an eye out for that name on every webpage it crawls.
Every time Google’s crawler finds a mention of your food truck business name it will save it to a report. That report is automatically emailed to you every day where results are found. This way you can sit back, check your email, and watch for the places on the internet where your customers are talking about.
How To Set Up A Google Alert:
Setting up a Google Alert for your food truck is easy. Simply follow these steps.
- Step One. Go to The Google Alerts page.
- Step Two. Click the “Alerts” under the Specialized Search section.
- Final Step. Enter the keywords you want Google to search for and the email address you want them sent to.
See? That’s it, you Google Alert is all set up. Now managing your food truck’s online reputation just got a whole lot easier. You’ll want to still check up on business on the sites such as Yelp to make sure important comments don’t slip past.
Be sure you refine the keywords you use to search for customer comments based on what Google Alerts is sending you versus what you find when you do a search.
Refining Your Search:
Make sure you don’t waste any time in search out articles that include your truck’s name, but don’t actually discuss your truck.
- Use quotation marks. Use quotes (“ “) around your truck’s name to make sure results match the phrase exactly and not just partially. This will help limit the number of irrelevant results you get, but may cut out some relevant ones as well.
- Try different combinations. Experiment with some common variations of your food truck’s name to make sure you are catching all the references your customers might be using.
RELATED: Keeping An Eye On Your Food Truck Online Reputation
The Bottom Line
Google Alerts is a quick, free and easy way to help you manage your food truck’s online reputation. Take advantage of this free tool today. Share your experience with Google Alerts in the comment section or social media. Facebook | Twitter
