I’m sure you’ve noticed already that I love Twitter and all things tweeted! When I saw this new Twitter app I thought it was pretty cool. I’m a forgetful being you see, and I do get and send quite a lot of packages. So, here goes nothing, going to give TrackThis a try.

Following the steps on their website:

1. Go to twitter.com/trackthis and click the Follow button
Since trackthis uses direct messages, you must follow it so it can send direct messages to you. trackthis will follow you back immediately so that you can send direct messages to it.

Done! And within less than a minute my Gmail popped that TrackThis was following me back Who knew auto following could me smile so easily -lol-

2. Send a Direct Message to trackthis like: 123456789123 New PC
Click here to send your message, with the FedEx/UPS/USPS/DHL tracking code first, followed by a nickname for the package.
Example: 123456789123 Macbook Air

I have a package full of bath and body goodies headed my way from The Scented Tub, so I figured I’d pop that tracking code in there.

3. Sit Back and Wait!
We’ll send you a direct message each time your package changes location. You should receive the first message within twenty minutes.

Sitting back ….. done, waiting…. boring! But, I’m hopeful that when it updates I’ll catch the tweet going by. I just did a quick check at USPS.com to see where the package was and it currently says:

Status: Processed

Your item was processed and left our RENO, NV 89510 facility on December 2, 2008. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

It would be nice to see an automated confirmation message letting you know your tracking ID has been received sucessfully at this stage since you’re not going to get an update right away. The sitting and waiting without confirmation can make a person wonder if they did everything correctly or not. I’ll come back and edit this post when TrackThis tweets at me and let’s me know something new!

–
edit # 1 update received
About 10-15 minutes later I received two updates via direct message from TrackThis

The first message was a thank you message requesting donations to support the app. The second was the current status of my package that I entered the tracking number for.

Magpie is a unique advertising for Twitter users. If you tweet frequently, it might be a monetization option that you’re interested in looking into. If you’re an advertiser looking to spread the word about your new website or service and build links at the same time, then it might be something to try out for you too.

I decided to sign up with a twitter account to give it a try. Here’s an example of a magpie tweet that came through on that account.

I think that they are monitoring the adverts as they go through, I haven’t seen anything gross, offensive, or otherwise a turn off going through #magpie yet. If you want to get a feel for the type of advertisers that are using the service so far you can go to http://search.twitter.com and search for the hashtag #magpie.

As a twitterer I like that you can set the frequency of #magpie tweets in your account. You can set it to be every other tweet, every 3rd tweet, every 5th tweet, etc… However, it is only setup to have one Twitter account per magpie account. Now, that is both a blessing and a curse. It’s good because people can’t take advantage and have 50 Twitter accounts hogging up all of the ad que.

However, if you’ve got multiple twitter accounts, then I suppose it’s bad for you too because you have to pick just one to use with Magpie. Although, I suppose you could open additional Magpie accounts to match your Twitter accounts, I don’t know if anyone has tried that yet. As long as they all had unique email addresses (Which they’d have to for Twitter anyhow,) then you should be okay.

So far I find the Magpie service interesting and unique. But, to use it I think it depends on how you are using Twitter. If you’re using Twitter to be social, hang out with your friends and chit chat throughout the day, then having ads go by in your Twitter stream is probably not for you. Take some time and think about your Twitter goals and expectations before you sign up as a user.

I haven’t tested out the system as an advertiser yet, but I’m looking forward to doing so. Almost forgot, you can take the money you earn as a Magpie and set up your own ads and pay for them that way. Using it that way makes it more like a tweet swap than an ad platform, but it’s not a bad idea if you’re just sticking your toe in the water.

: Twitter, Magpie

Perhaps you’ve heard about Twitter. We’ve discussed it here quite a bit. Briefly, it’s a social media tool which enables people to post via instant message. Originally designed to help people stay connected it’s quickly becoming a tool used by businesses around the world.

So how do you respond to the question, “What are you doing?” and make it about your business? How do you respond and make it interesting, something your target audience will respond to?

Here are some options to use Twitter to market your business:

Drive traffic to your blog. Post a question on Twitter and include a link to your blog. For example. If you’re a pet trainer or sell pet products you could write a blog post on how to train your dog. Using twitter you could post the following question – “How do you get your dog to stop jumping on visitors?” Follow the question with a link to your blog and then track the traffic to your blog post.

Another way to drive traffic to your blog is to write a twitter post using some of the more interesting or unique comments to blog posts you’ve written. These can start very interesting conversations and drive traffic to your blog and company website.

Announce contests – with a link to your website where the contest details are offered OR post a question and challenge someone to be the first response. Give them something related to your business for answering the question correctly first. Again, using the pet store example, you could give away a pet food bowl or training book.

Share personal adventures which relate to your business. If you’re having a company picnic, share a picture or post a funny or thought provoking quote the CEO just made during a speech. Anything that helps build your brand, company philosophy, and marketing strategy is worthy of posting.

Post interesting or thought provoking statistics, quotes, or headlines and start a conversation. During the conversation, when appropriate, it may be possible to link to your company website.

Make an announcement. Have a new wonderful product or service to share with the world? Use twitter to make an announcement – amplify the power of the announcement and post a code to give the first 5,10, or 50 customers. Make it an event.

Like any social marketing tool the key is to market subtly. No one wants to read an advertisement for your business – however it can still be a valuable marketing tool. Be creative. There are a wide variety of ways to make Twitter more than just a fun social tool, use it to build your business.