Google Alerts is a very helpful tool for tracking what people are saying about you or your company.  Here are my favorite ways of using it

1) Track competition’s backlinks by entering in the searchterm box link:http://www.your-competition’s-website.com and select the Web type.  Now whenever Google updates your competitions backlinks you’ll be notified right away and you can then go contact those sites and try to also get a link for yourself.

2) Monitor and protect your copyrights by entering in your copyrighted names in the search box.  Now whenever someone mentions your copyrighted name you will know and can find out if it is good press, bad press or even worse copyright infringement. 

3) Find out when people mention your name by typing your name in the search box.  You will be surprised how many people talk about you but never link to your site.  With Google Alerts you can easily find these people and ask for them to link to your site.  If they are saying something bad about you at least you will know who your enemies are

4) Reduce the number of people misspelling your name.  If your name has a common misspelling then enter the misspelled word into the search box.  Now you can easily find the people that misspell your name and ask them to correct it in a very quick way.

5) Spy on your competitions website by entering in the search box site:your-competition’s-website.com this will have the Google bot inform you every time they add something to their site.