Reasons to Be Aware of What Others are Talking About in the Niche You are Blogging

There are quite a few reasons that bloggers monitor what’s being said on other blogs and in the news on certain topics. These include:
1. Ideas for Posts - one of the main challenges that bloggers face at different times is running out of things to blog about. One thing that you must bear in mind is that you should never copy or re-write the content from the others. It will only have undesirable effects on your reputation as a blogger. Keeping abreast of what others are writing about gives you an almost unlimited supply of ideas and helps you to keep your posts on topic with what is buzzing in your niche at any given point of time.
2. Awareness of Breaking News - you should have the acute sense as dogs on this point. This is more relevant for some niches than others but sometimes knowing when a story is breaking in your industry can be very important. Being unaware of such stories can make your blog look out of touch to readers wanting to know the latest.You should be even more alert when you are blogging in the niche that always has new things coming up.
3. Profile Building and Perceived Expertise - bloggers who are obviously aware of what else is happening in their niche are often seen as experts and authorities in their industry. I know of a number of bloggers and twitter users who’ve built profiles for themselves simply by having their finger on the pulse of their niche and linking to interesting and useful content on other sites.
4. Networking - using some of the ‘alert’ tools below enables you to know who is talking about issues relevant to your niche within a short time of them doing so. This enables you to make connections and build relationships with these people.
5. Reputation Management - knowing quickly when others are talking about you, your company, your brands and your blog is valuable information as it enables you to not only build relationships with those who are saying positive things about you but also manage negative talk.
There are other reasons to be aware of what people are saying in your niche - but lets move on to some of the ‘how to do it’.