How to Create Simple News Alerts

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As I think most of you know, I'm always on the lookout for news articles about the SBDC and our clients. Some of you are great about sending me new pieces that feature your workshops and successes, and I love you for that!

I frequently use simple alerts from Yahoo! and Google to find mentions of the NYS SBDC in internet news sources. A few days ago I wrote up some basic instructions for one director, describing how to set up your own alerts. I thought they might be useful to everyone, so here they are:

Setting up Yahoo! Alerts:

Select “News”
Select “Keyword News”

Type in the keywords that you are interested in.

I have two alerts set up here: One for “SBDC” and the other for “Small Business Development Center.” Those are broad, but since I am looking for all the NYS centers, “New York” may never appear in the article. I get a lot of articles I have no interest in, but I skip through them quickly, and catch things I might have otherwise missed.

For your center you may want to leave out the quotes, since your location and name might be written differently each time. You could also set up alerts for your name, clients names, etc…

Google Alerts is similar. Choose your search terms, how often you want to receive messages etc., and add your email address.

Do you have other databases at your disposal? Or local online newspapers? Oftentimes they will also have an alert feature, or you can save a search. I have searches saved at bizjournals, EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier, and Newsbank, and receive emails from these databases when my search terms appear in their content.

If you need any help setting up alerts in these or any other databases, let me know, and I’d be happy to assist.

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