An easy Pointing opportunity has nudged me into expanding my social media footprint. Prompted by a marketing email I received late yesterday afternoon from United’s Mileage Plus program, I finally added Twitter and Foursquare to my list of “places on the internet where I waste my time.” MileagePlus has partnered with social media marketing platform BCKSTGR to offer 1000 miles for simply registering (400 points) and linking your Facebook (200 points), Twitter (200 points) and Foursquare (200 points) accounts.  This offer is valid through December 15.

BCKSTGR is a startup company that offers it members the opportunity to earn frequent flyer miles for logging their social media activities (e.g., Checking in and taking a snapshot of your drink at the Old Town Pour House).  At the current time, earning opportunities in the Chicago area are pretty limited.  Therefore, the real attraction of this deal is the ability to gain a “quick and easy” hit of 1000 miles.

In addition, by turning yourself into a free advertising vehicle for BCKSTGR, you can earn another quick 150 miles by “Liking, Tweeting and Posting” of your love of your newly discovered Pointing vehicle.

As you can see, there is the ability to earn points on a daily basis by following a “wash, rinse, repeat” approach to a couple of these offers.  Of course, by taking such action you do run the risk of sparking an “Anti-Farmville-like” backlash among your Facebook friends.

This opportunity has proved to be very popular among the Pointing community. As a result, there have been widespread reports of error messages (e.g., “Your MileagePlus Number and PIN are incorrect”) and site crashes.  For example, I attempted to register three times late last night before my details were accepted.

Nevertheless, miles earned through this program post immediately in BCKSTGR and appear within an hour or so in your MileagePlus account.  This adds to the “instant gratification appeal” of the offer (if you can get your registration accepted). Now that some time has passed, hopefully these glitches have been sorted out.  BCKSTGR, in fact, is now reporting on its Facebook page that their systems have speeded up.

Tip of the hat to Just Another Points Traveler who was one of the first travel bloggers to write about this opportunity.