American Express and Twitter are teaming up to offer their answer to Groupon. If you have an American express card, you can sync it to save money by using special hashtags.
AmEx is billing it as “Sync. Tweet. Save.”
“American Express is turning Twitter content into commerce by connecting cardmembers to merchants and delivering real world value to both,” American Express Vice Chairman Ed Gilligan said. “With the continued convergence of online and offline commerce, our closed loop continues to enable us to bring seamless, relevant ways to connect our cardmembers and merchants on the most powerful social and digital platforms.”
A video explains how the whole thing works:
You go to Amex’s website and sync your American Express card with your twitter account. AmEx will then issue special hashtags for certain companies, including Best Buy, McDonalds, Whole Foods and Zappos, among others. When you tweet them, you’ll get special savings credited to your statement. When you actually go into the stores to spend your money, the savings will be automatically shaved off the price you pay at the register. AmEx’s big selling point is that you don’t need coupons or promo codes.
“Every day, millions of people use Twitter to get special offers from the brands and retailers they care about,” Twitter’s president of global revenue Adam Bain said. “Now, American Express is making it even easier for people to act on those offers simply by sending Tweets with special offer hashtags from retailers. It’s exciting to see American Express build on Twitter in a way that benefits both consumers and retailers.”
This is a neat idea. American Express has had a reputation as a high-end credit card company (though they insist they issue charge cards, not credit cards0, and with their affluent customer base that has the disposable income to experiment with new technologies, combined with the ability to dispense with coupons, this operation might actually work. Even people who have a lot of money still like to save money. Ventures like this one also show that Twitter is a serious business that’s in for the long haul.
For some other Twitter-related posts, check out the Tworse Key that lets you tweet in Morse code, and an infographic that shows why your business must go social.
