When Twitter first arrived in 2006, thousands of consumers began tweeting about their favorite products at their own accord. Fast forward six years to today and of the millions of people on twitter, a recent announcement by American Express will not only make it possible – but will encourage – many of them to get paid for the 140 characters they post.
American Express announced Tuesday a new social media campaign that provides cardholders with the opportunity to earn discounts for their future purchasers. According to an article by Digital Trends, the new program allows AmEx card members to sync their credit cards with their Twitter accounts and use hashtags to earn savings with their favorite retailers.
So, how does this work?
According to the official AmEx “Tweet your way to savings” webpage, the savings will be represented in a “cash back” type of offer, in much of the same way online shoppers enter in discount codes for savings at checkout. Their example (shown to the left) highlights a Whole Foods Market discount: “Tweet #AmexWholeFoods, get $20 back 1x on next $75+ in store purch w/synced Amex Card!”
If you visit American Express’ twitter page, you will find a list of other retailers who have already offered significant savings through the program. Among the list of 15 retailers is Best Buy, Cheesecake Factory, Zappos and McDonalds.
The launch of this program is a great reminder for all of us to be continuously thinking of new ways to get people talking about our brands. In a world full of clutter, it is important to make your company stand out, whether through a social media campaign, an innovative grassroots marketing effort or mobile app, every awareness avenue is important and shouldn’t be overlooked.
How do new ideas evolve at your company? Do you hold weekly brainstorm meetings? Do you encourage creativity with your surroundings?
Henri Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage.” We couldn’t agree more. It is easy to sit idly by and jump on the bandwagon after seeing a concept successfully work time and time again. It is much harder to be a creative leader, to be the first one to try a new idea, because with that comes risk. However, being a creative leader is a risk worth taking.