Discovering Leads (Part 3 of 3)

Here is a simple search to find recent and fast growing technology companies.  Of course, this search could be repeated with different search terms to find opportunities that are relevant to your market.  

In this search, I combined keyword location and date range to find reports and press releases of companies that were identified as fast growing. 

 

Try using these search skills to improve your ability to find business critical information.             

Discovering Leads (Part 2 of 3)

Discovering leads is a challenging task, and using Google can be a powerful tool when used effectively. 

 

Here is a sample search I did for someone who asked how to find the email address of the director of marketing or communications at DFine Inc.

 

I combined several searches, as you can see below.

 

In this search, I used Phrase Search to keep the email information together. Wildcard Search had Google fill in the blank of the person's name.  OR Search was helpful since the person who asked me to do this search did not know what the correct naming convention would be, and OR Search allowed me to search for both terms at the same time.

Try using this same type of combination in your field to see how you can use Google to easily find business critical information.             

Discovering Leads (Part 1 of 3)

Discovering leads is a challenging task, and using Google can be a powerful tool when used effectively.  Here is a sample search I did for someone who asked how to find names of Associations or Societies.  

 

By combining several searches, as you can see below.

This search generated many leads that this director of sales was then able to pass on to her sales team.

 

In this search, I combined: Phrase, OR, Wildcard, and Region search to discover information that can easily be acted on to turn into real leads.

Try using this same type of combination in your field to see how you can use Google to easily find business critical information.             

Find Region Specific Information (Part 4 of 4)

You can use the Advanced Search page to limit your results to a specific country.  This is a great feature, as it allows you to also use other filters and operators as well.

 

First, click on the link to the Advanced Search page.

 

Then, expand the Advanced Search page to find more search options.

 Next, select the region option.

 

Finally, select the country you want to limit your results to.

 

 

 

For example, you can compare Microsoft Office to Google Apps and get results limited to Australia.  This is a great way to learn more about what the locals are thinking.  Click here to see the results.

Find Region Specific Information (Part 3 of 4)

In this scenario, assume you are trying to contact people with the title VP of Sales in your area.  In this case, we will look for people in Greater Seattle.

Search by Zip Code
1.  Enter in you keywords.  In this case, “VP of Sales” (Use quotes and keep the terms together)
2.  Enter in the zip codes you want to search within.  In this case, 98000..98200

See the results
In these results, I notice that there are many offers from job websites.  I can further refine my search by typing [-jobs], which will remove the unwanted results.

 

See the results

 

Next lesson, we will explore how to use the advanced search page to find region specific results.

Find Region Specific Information (Part 2 of 4)

Last week, we covered how to use the advanced search page to limit your results to a specific region country.  This week we will discuss how to find results from multiple countries.

Each country has its own domain extension.  For example, in the United States the domain extension is .com, in the United Kingdom it is .uk.  A directory of domain extension can be found at the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/.

To find limit your results to website’s with a specific countries web extension, use Site Search.

Site Search
1. Type in your keywords, followed by site: and the country code representing the country you want to limit your results to.
2. For example, “green technologies” site:.uk, click here to see results of this search

To search within websites from multiple countries, use OR Search.  This will allow you to conduct multiple site searches simultaneously.  

OR Search
1. Enter your keywords, place an OR in between each site:.
2.For example, “green technologies” site:.uk OR site:.fr.  Click here to see results for this search.



Next time, we will cover how to search within specific zip codes.

Find Region Specific Information (Part 1 of 4)

Finding local information is one of the hardest challenges that face the knowledge worker. 
The MicroLearning email series is going to dedicate the next 4 emails to different techniques on how to find region specific information.  This lesson will demonstrate the Nearby function that was recently added to Google's show options tab.
Nearby Search
1.  To start, enter the keyword, such as a company name or product, into the Google search bar.
2.  Next, click on the show options tab on the left hand side above the search results.
3.  Click Nearby.  To see results for a different city or region, select the Custom Location tab.
Click here to see results for Starbucks Pike Place coffee nearby Chicago.

Use Google to Discover Information on Twitter (part 5 of 5)

One of the benefits of using Google to find business information on Twitter is the ability to research by specific date.  Twitter's search capability is limited in that it only provides-up-to-the-moment results.

Date Range
1. Enter your terms followed by [site:twitter.com]
2. Click the Show options button.
3. Select your desired time range.

Last week we taught how to discover what other people are saying about your product.  Combine that skill with date range to find what people are saying at a specific time.
See the below picture.



I hope you have enjoyed this mini-series.  Contact us to learn how we can provide this training for your organization through virtual-classes or eLearning.

Use Google to Discover Information on Twitter (part 4 of 5)

Twitter is a great place to catch snap-shots of what people are saying about your company or you company's products.  However, when do a Google search on the Twitter Site, you often get your own company's Tweets-- cluttering your results since you want to discover what other people are saying about you, not what your company has said about itself.

For example, if you wanted to know what people were saying about Starbucks Coffee Company and typed [starbucks site:twitter.com] you would get the following results; notice how they are almost all coming from the business itself:

Click here to see a current result for this search.

Use Not Search and Site
1. Type your company or product name into the Google Search bar, followed by [site:twitter.com]
2. Exclude the company name by typing a minus sign in front of the company name -"/starbucks"
3. For example, [Starbucks -"/starbucks" site:twitter.com].  If the link does not work, copy and paste -  Starbucks -"/starbucks" site:twitter.com - into the Google search bar.

Twitter does have a good ability to see what people are saying about a product.  However, it is limited to a small number of results at one time, and there is no way to sort the results by date, which is the topic of next week's MicroLearning email.            

Use Google to Discover Information on Twitter (part 3 of 5)

Last week we covered how to use Phrase Search multiple times in combination with Site Search to find product reviews from Twitter, such as ["starbucks via" "is good" site:twitter.com].

If you are not sure what keyword you want to use, you can add a tilde in front of that term and Google will look for all synonyms of that word.

Synonym and Site Search
1. Enter your keywords, place a tilde in front of the term that you want to find a synonym for
2. Follow with [site:twitter.com]
3. For example, ["starbucks via" ~fantastic site:twitter.com]

View Synonym Finder Lesson.

As you can see from the image below, Twitter does not support the Synonym Finder Operator.

Click here to see results from Google.

Use Google to Discover Information on Twitter (part 2 of 5)

This MicroLearning email will demonstrate a strategy for finding reviews on a product, while ensuring your results are relevant to the search terms you entered.

In our research, we were surprised to learn that only 75% of people are familiar with the most common and basic filter, Phrase Search.  By placing quotes around specific terms, you can hold those terms together.  This is incredibly helpful when looking for terms that may not have a high correlation together, such as "Starbucks Via".  If one did not use quotes, the terms would be separated by Google as the term Starbucks by itself is more closely correlated with other terms, not with the brand name of their instant coffee. 

Yet few people use Phrase Search multiple times in one search.  Combine multiple phrase searches with [site:twitter.com] to discover what people are saying about a product on Twitter.

Multiple Phrase Search and Site
1. Type a name of a product and "is good" or "is bad" to see positive and negative reviews.
2. Type [site:twitter.com] to limit your results to Twitter.
3. For example, ["Starbucks Via" "is good" site:twitter.com]

When using Twitters search capabilities, you get the results as in the image below:


The "Older tweets are temporarily unavailable" is a common problem when using Twitter as their search capability is not as robust as Google's.

Click here to see the results on this search from Google.

Use Google to Discover Info on Twitter (Part 1 of 5)

Twitter has become a popular place for people to share what is going on during their day, report on the news, or share links to interesting websites. 

All this information can be mined to discover insights into a product, business, or industry, be it your own business, your competition's, or a prospective client.

To help find information on Twitter, the next five MicroLearning Email's will focus on strategies on finding information within Twitter, using Google's unparalleled search technology.

Use Site Search

1.  Type in any keywords in the Google Search bar.

2.  After your keywords, enter [site:twitter.com]

3.  For example, cloud computing site:twitter.com

Twitter does have its own search box, but using Google's search technology has many advantages:

1.  Google will correct your spelling.  For example, if a person misspelled "Starbucks Via" and typed "Starbucks Vai" they would get a suggested spelling correction from Google, but Twitter offers results in Spanish. 

2.  Within Google's settings you can expand results to 100.  Often when searching on Twitter, a limited number of results are shown.  Google allows you to see many results at once.

Use Google to Find Reports From a Specific Site

The ability to find prepared documents from a quality source will save time and allow you to access information few others know how to find. The Filetype Filter will allow you to select whether you want a report, a spreadsheet, or presentation. The Site Search Filter will limit your results to a specific site.

Filetype and Site Search

1. Enter the terms you are looking for, followed by [filetype:] and the letters representing the filetype you need-- PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT

2. Next, enter [site:] followed by the website that you want your results to come from

3. For example, [green technologies filetype:pdf site:usda.gov]

The above example would provide you with reports on Green Technologies as they relate to Agriculture, since they are coming from the USDA's website. To find information coming from the technology sector, enter [green technologies filetype:pdf site:cisco.com]. This search will limit your results to coming from Cisco Systems website.

Use Google to Compare How Different Companies Cover the Same Topic

One of the main challenges a person faces when searching on the internet is ensuring that the results come from a source that contains relevant information. Very often, sites that aggregate a wide variety of information appear higher in the results since they have a higher Page Ranking. For example, Wikipedia has a tremendous number of pages and therefore appears towards the top of most searches on a generic topic. While the Wikipedia article may be very well written, it may not contain the type of information you are looking for.

Before conducting a search, ask yourself what types of results you would like to find. Do you want them to be a technical in nature? Should the results be from a government agency? If so, use Site Search to limit your results.

Site Search
1. Enter your keywords followed by site: and the domain that want to limit your results to.
2. For example, enter [term 1 site:mit.edu] to limit your results to MIT's website

You can also limit your results to Government Websites by entering [term 1 site:.gov]. In addition, you use the same search terms, and search two different sites at the same time to compare how the different companies report on the same topic. Type the OR filter in-between the two sites that you want to research. Here is an example taken from the news, ["toyota recall" site:www.foxnews.com OR site:www.cnn.com]. Of course, you can use any terms and any websites that would help give you a competitive advantage in your industry.

Search by Title of a Document

Searching by document type is a great way to ensure that you are finding information you need in the format you want. The filetype: filter is great for finding PDFs, DOCs, or XLSs.

Yet sometimes, using the filetype filter shows results where the keywords are in the body of the document and not closely correlated to what you are really looking for. To ensure your document is related to your keywords, use the Keyword Location filter.

Keyword Location

1. Type allintitle: followed by your keywords, followed by filetype: and your selected file type.

2. For example, [allintitle:social media trends filetype:pdf]

Use the allintitle: when you only want results with every keyword in the title. Type intitle: followed by the keywords and Google will look for results that have most of the words in the title. If you searched using the allintitle: filter and Google responded with "did not match any documents," search again with intitle:.

Select the Right File Type for your Search

In last weeks email I reviewed how to use the Filetype filter. This week we will take a closer look at the different file types that are available, and learn when you might want to search for each one.

Types of Filetypes:

PDF- Is usually a completed report. Great for taking a deep dive into a topic. ["New trends" "Social Media" filetype:pdf]

XLS- A spread sheet is great for figures, for example [US "auto sales" filetype:xls]

PPT- A presentation is helpful when you are looking for charts that you can use ["restaurant industry" filetype:ppt]

DOC- A document, of course, can be edited ["green technologies" filetype:doc]

Think about the results that you want to find, and then be go and find what you are looking for.

Next week, we will cover how Keyword Location can be combined with Filetype Search to find high value information.

Finding Documents Online and Off

Finding documents for research can take up a large amount of one's day. The IDC Reports that 22% of a knowledge workers day is spent looking for information.

To cut down on time spent looking for documents, useGoogle's filetype filter followed by the document extension that you are looking for.

Filetype Search:

Type [keywords filetype:pdf] to find keywords that are on aPDF.

[findability without complexityfiletype:pdf]

If you want to search through multiple filetypes at one time, combine them with Or Search.

[hybrid car sales filetype:xls ORfiletype:ppt]

This search skill can be used on Google.com, and on your intranet if it is powered by the Google Search Appliance.

Next week I'll review many of the different document types you can search by, and suggest which document type is most likely to have the information you are looking for.

Use Google to Searching within Twitter

For any person in a marketing or sales department, knowing what people are saying about your product, or about a potential client's product, is an essential piece of business information.

Using Site Search on Twitter's web site is an easy way to discover what people are saying about any product, and using Google's filters and operators gives you more search options than Twitter's search feature. We will take a look at Google's new cell phone, the Nexus One.

To Search with Twitter:

1. In the Google Search Bar, type [product name site:twitter.com]

2. For example: ["Nexus One" site:twitter.com]

See results of the site search search.

Limit Results to a Specific Time:

To see the most recent results of , select the "Show options" features on the top left of the page, then select "Latest."

See results of the Site Search with Latest.

Or, you can select the "Specific Date Range" option, then enter in dates of your choosing. In this example, I selected the day the Nexus One was released and the day after.

See results of Site Search with Specific Date Range

The content for this MicroLearning post is taken from the Boost eLearning Google Search Training Course. To learn more about Boost eLearning's interactive training on Google Search, please contact us.