American Express Partners with Twitter For Hashtag Purchases

Here's an interesting idea: buying things on Twitter. And not just on Twitter, but through Twitter -- as in, Twitter is the transactional medium. It sounds like a crazy, bold idea, and it is. But, that's not stopping American Express from giving it a whirl. As many major corporations look for ideal ways to utilize social media to better service and engage clients as well as potential clients, AMEX is taking its "Sync" program to the next level. AMEX was already fairly savvy with technology. It already utilizes Sync in order to link AMEX cards to Foursquare accounts, allowing cardholders to receive occasional discounts if checking in at a location and then making a purchase with their AMEX card that's connected.


But this new project is even simpler. If you follow AMEX Sync on Twitter and see a deal tweeted by that account that you'd like to buy, you can just tweet special #hashtags and look for a response from @AmexSync with the confirmation #hashtag. You'll need to Tweet the confirmation #hashtag within 15 minutes of the response from @AmexSync to confirm your purchase, and then your product will be delivered to your billing address on file. Boom -- just like that, an impulse buy on your AMEX. It's a brilliant way to get AMEX customers to shop for things they may otherwise never think to look for, and it's obviously an excellent way to get AMEX into the minds of spenders who may otherwise be content with their existing credit card.


Anyone tried it yet? AMEX had a pretty sweet gift card deal going on the first day, but it sure looked overwhelmed by the response.