Boxcar is a free iPhone / iPad app that sends free push notification to your iPhone or iPad for services like Twitter, Facebook, email and RSS feeds.

Boxcar is a great way to be notified when someone sends you a tweet, retweets you, or sends you a direct message on Twitter.  You are on Twitter right?

Here is a demo of the app.  Click Here if you can not see the video below.

Setting up Boxcar with Twitter and Facebook is pretty straight forward.  You can even add more than one Twitter account.

To set up push notifications for your email, you will need to forward the email messages you want pushed to your phone to a unique Boxcar email address.  For Gmail, you will probably need to set up filters so you are only notified of the most important emails.  Rebliss covered how to setup filters in Gmail in a previous post.

Boxcar lets you receive notifications for mentions, retweets, and direct messages on Twitter.

Boxcar integrates with most twitter clients so you can pick which client will open when you view a new message.

One of best features about Boxcar is the Quite Time feature that lets you specify when you don’t want to be alerted to new messages.

Once you have the services setup, you will receive a push notification for each new message.

Boxcar is free but does have some advertisements.  You can get rid of the ads with a one time fee of $4.95.  Boxcar also has an API so you can integrate your website or service with Boxcar.

What service or app do you use to notify you of new Twitter messages?

Are you still not sure if you should use Twitter?  Have you joined only to quit shortly after?  I bet you have a Facebook account.  Would you enjoy using Facebook if you never added any friends, never uploaded any photos, and never commented on anyone’s status?  Probably not.

Twitter is what you make it.  There is a ton of interesting and useful information on Twitter and it has become a powerful tool for businesses.

Here are 7 reasons why you should use Twitter:

#1 Grow your online network

One of the great things about Twitter is that you can potentially reach anyone in the world with a 140 character tweet.  Twitter allows you to network with prominent and influential people you might not otherwise meet; celebrities, CEOs, entrepreneurs, industry experts, etc.

You can use WeFollow, Twellow, or Listorious to find people with common interests.  Are you a Real Estate Professional looking to connect with others in your field?  WeFollow has 43 users tagged with the word “Appraiser” and 6,143 users tagged with the word “RealEstate”.

Use localtweeps, twellowhood or twitterlocal to find and connect with people in your same city.

#2 Build credibility

Twitter is a great tool to help to build credibility.  You can use it to

• Share your knowledge and expertise
• Share insight and opinion
• Use twitter to be accessible
• Promote others
• Break the news in your industry

#3 Monitor your industry, your brand, or competitors

Twitter is a valuable tool for keeping up with your competitors as well as your brand or industry.  Twitter’s website allows you to search for a keyword or hashtag.  Most twitter clients (brizzly, tweetdeck, seesmic, etc) let you save a search so you can view it when ever you want to.

No only can you track keywords with Twitter, you can listen in on conversations about your industry or see how your competitors are interacting with their customers.

You can also conduct polls with twitter. twtpoll helps you to conduct polls/surveys on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media site.

#4 Market your business or blog

Use Twitter to promote your latest blog posts or newsletters.  Google and Bing index tweets so Twitter can be a good way to drive traffic back to  your blog.  Microsoft has launched a new beta feature within its Bing search engine that is available at www.bing.com/twitter.

#5 Use Twitter Instead of an RSS reader

If you are interested in following a blog you can follow the blog on Twitter.  Blogs have several different ways to stay up to date with their content and most push their blog posts to twitter.  You can read their blog posts in your twitter client and even have them sent to your phone as a text message.

#6 Get up to the minute news and updates

Twitter is a great way to keep up with people are talking about.  Twitter will show you what people are currently talking about at any given time.  Twitter’s trending topics can be shown for your local area, a country, or worldwide.

Twitter accounts like @cnnbrk (CNN Breaking News) constantly tweet the latest headlines.

#7 Have fun!

Twitter is a great place to show your true character and a great place to learn new things. You can:

• share things that make you laugh
• Find content that motivates you
• Ask questions and learn new things
• Make friends
• Find new blog post ideas
• Be yourself

Sign Up with Twitter, follow interesting people, and join the conversation.  And don’t give up, it takes time to grow your network.

How do you use Twitter?  Do you see any benefit from using it?