Over the past couple of years, more and more people have begun using the social media site Twitter for obtaining information and connecting with others. In fact, news programs have even started to use people’s comments, or “tweets,” as sources for the latest stories. But perhaps what is most interesting to see is how Twitter has affected the ways of business around the world. For although it is mostly celebrities and sports figures that are grabbing headlines with tweets about their activities, many companies have also embraced this unique form of social media to connect with customers – often with great results.

Mongoose Metrics has quickly established itself as the authority for online marketing information in the Twitterverse. With a following of nearly 3,000 users and a Klout score of 29, it is obvious that many individuals are using the company’s Twitter page as the source for various forms of marketing intelligence. Since Mongoose Metrics joined Twitter in 2008, they have been tweeting incessantly about web analytics, SEO, PPC, B-to-B, Mobile Search, Social Media, and ROI Analysis.Mongoose Metrics’ CEO Bradley Reynolds believes that the company’s success on Twitter shows that the interaction between companies, competitors and customers is continuing to change. He says, “Our immediate success at engaging with potential customers and educating the business-to-business audience at large — not only about our core products and services but about emerging marketing trends — has been a powerful lesson in how social media plays a growing role in business-to-business marketing.”

Overall, Mongoose Metrics has embraced their growing influence on Twitter and sees it as an excellent opportunity for business. As Reynolds says, “If you’re passionate about online marketing, we want to follow you on Twitter.”Tweeting for the Mongoose team @mongoosemetrics are CEO Brad Reynolds @be_reynolds, executive vice president of business development Steve Abbey, marketing and content director Kathleen Colan @consumerati and sales consultant Drew Johnson @drewdjohnson.

This is a followup to the web site posting we made last week  exploring the Twitter/Mongoose Metrics Phone Call Tracking integration through our API. We felt it would be helpful to touch upon some of the frequently asked questions in this blog post.

First, phone call tracking through Twitter has always been possible through Mongoose Metrics’ AccuTrack 1:1 service. You just need to tweet to a tracking number associated that that tracking number’s appropriate postback URL. You can do so with Google’s URL builder tool. This is helpful if you wish to include a tracking number on each tweet at a broad level.

With Twitter phone call tracking, our focus was on how AccuTrack Session can use our API to integrate with Twitter’s API  to construct unique DMs to all followers. Each of these DMs will include a unique phone tracking number. This is a mass auto DM method.  With Mongoose Metrics’ AccuTrack Session API there is an auto phone number provisioning method that allows you to select your follower and provision a new tracking numbe into the DM. Hence, constructing a DM and provisioning and publishing phone number can all be done in one step. Since AccuTrack Session charges only for the publishing of the phone number, a Twitter auto DM phone call tracking campaign could be launched at an affordable cost related to the size of your list.  Since each follower now as a unique tracking number each call will be published to their DM.

Before you consider phone call tracking your followers through Twitter’s DM think about waht your Twitter community would think of this advertising.  I must admit that I am not engaged enough in the Twitter community to understand its marketing potential. Your followed may consider these positings spam.  I suggest caution because there are many in the Twitter community who have well constructed arguments against mass DM methods.   Here is a great discussion I found that brings out the arguments on both sides of the issues.

I’m in the camp that believes that if you don’t like what you’re getting in your DMs you should unfollow.  However, I would be wary of conducting a phone call tracking campaign through mass DMing if your followers are not expecting such messages.  I think a far more sound approach would be to create a Twitter account where followers know ahead of time that there will be marketing DMs. There is currently now way to segment followers in Twitters and this seems like the best compromise.

Marketing DMs could come from a Twitter account such as “[mycompany]CallForDeals”. Think of a local restaurant where it is hard to get a table and  reservations free up at the last minute. Consider the travel industry where last minute promotions can entice customers. These are just two quick example, but  I’m sure there are many other inductries where phone call tracking through Twitter’s mass DM can proves helpful.

In the end it’s up to you and your Twitter community to find ways where this model might work. However, from a technical level, phone call tracking to Twitter DMs can easily be done through Mongoose Metrics’ AccuTrack Session API.

Jeff Tirey is a Co-Founder of Mongoose Metrics you can find him @TireyTv