This morning I opened a Google Alerts email only to find that I died – and it’s only Wednesday. OMG what a week! Well at least my five year quest to lose weight is over. Oh, and no more taxes. Except the death tax. Sweet death take me now!

Goolge Alerts tried to kill me! Brian Bluff obituary.

But why did I (appear to) die? It’s in all in the way Google Alerts works.

Here’s what Google says about Google Alerts:

“Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results — such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs — that match your search term. You can use Google Alerts to monitor anything on the Web. For example, people use Google Alerts to:

• find out what is being said about their company or product.
• monitor a developing news story.
• keep up to date on a competitor or industry.
• get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team.
• find out what’s being said about themselves.

Here’s how it works:

1. You enter a query that you’re interested in.
2. Google Alerts checks regularly to see if there are new results for your query.
3. If there are new results, Google Alerts sends them to you in an email.

For general queries like [ football ], you can get a summary of the new results every day. For specific topics, like [ cardiovascular atherosclerosis ], you might not get an email every day, but you’ll find out when something new and relevant is published. See more examples of how Google Alerts are used“.

When my Google Alert phrase, “brian bluff”, appeared on the below website, I received a Google Alert email.

Notice the use of the phrase "brian bluff", my alert phrase. This triggered a Google Alert email.

We use Google Alerts to monitor the our brand (and the brands of our Clients) and in this case my name. Every reputation management program should include Google Alerts.

It’s also a great way to keep track of competitors and your kids (no kidding, you might be surprised what you find). Sometimes you get crazy emails like this one, but in most cases it’s just a real simple way to monitor the use of a particular phrase online.

So while Google Alerts tried to kill me, I still consider them a friend and don’t hold a grudge.

Who Uses Twitter by Demographic (Age, Race, Sex, Income Level, Country and More).

I’m preparing for a talk on Twitter usage and I thought I’d use this post as virtual cue cards. I gathered the below from a number of credible sites.

Twitter Usage Demographic Overview

• According to Quancast, 27 million people in the US used Twitter as of 09/03/2009.
• 63% of Twitter users are less than 35 years old.
• 60% Twitterers, are Caucasian, but a higher than average (compared to other Internet properties) are African American (16%) and Hispanic (11%).
• 58% of people using Twitter have a total household income of at least $60K.

Quancast's US Twitter demographics.

Twitter Usage by Age Group

ComScore provides more insight.

• Twitter usage in 2009 grew approximately 900% – from 2 million users to 20 million in 2009.
• In December 2008, 65% of all Twitter users was between 25 and 54 years old.
• The fastest growing group of Twitter users was the under 25 group. Jumped from 20% to 30% of all users in 2009.

Twitter Demographic Segment Trend by Comscore - December 2008 to December 2009.

Global Twitter Usage by Country

The US accounts for 51% of all Twitter users. See the below Table created by Sysomos.

Global Twitter usage by Country from Sysomos - June 2009. Based on data from 13 million Twitter Accounts.

More to come…

World wide there are over one-billion online consumers. Add to the mix a struggling US economy, and it’s pretty easy to see why so many US based b2b, b2c and educational institutions are more interested than ever in international Internet marketing.

While the US has the second largest number of Internet users world wide, there is little room for expansion as 74% of the population is already online. Within the top four, China and India have the greatest opportunity for growth with only 27% and 7% of their populations online respectively. US businesses and educational institutions recognize the opportunity and are seeking ways to expand their markets globally.

I’m very happy to be moderating a panel discussion at the June 9 and 10, 2010 Leveraging Your Website to Increase International Sales seminar in Boston, MA. Our panel will focus on how Social Media and Search Engine Marketing can be used to reach international customers. More on this as our event takes shape.

The June event is really gaining traction as the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Commercial Service has begun delivering a series of local seminars and national webinars discussing this growing opportunity for eager US companies, Colleges, and Universities. These local seminars and webinars teach attendees valuable tips to attract business online internationally.

In the past few weeks, I have been privileged to support U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Commercial Service staff members Rosanna Masucci, (International Trade Specialist) and Joel Reynoso (Director US and Foreign Service) in the delivery of a seminar in Syracuse, NY and a webinar. Both events were well attended and received. The seminars in particular spurred a lot of great discussion about how the attending US companies could break into foreign markets through the development and implementation of solid international Internet marketing plan.

As momentum for the June event picks up the list of speakers is growing and the agenda is taking shape. A few of the discussion areas include:

• Marketing Your Brand Online to Overseas Customers,
• Keeping International Visitors on Your Website, and
• Getting Paid While Avoiding Fraud.

I’ll write more about this exciting event as the day nears. Hope to see you there. Register for this event.