Save Money by Sending a Tweet? Really?

By Ben Lies, MBA Class of 2012

American express has just launched a brand new program that they refer to as Sync, Tweet, Save. The way this program works is you sync your eligible American Express card to your twitter account, then tweet any specials that come across your twitter feed from American Express, partner retailers, or even friends, that have #Amex prefix in them and the special will automatically be loaded to your card and show up on your statement as a credit. (Check out the video below or visit the Sync American Express website for more details and to sign up.)

This really is an incredibly innovative and effective use of social media. By requiring that their customers tweet the special in order to obtain the discount American Express is getting exposure to an extended network of people that they may never have reached using traditional methods. According to Mediabistro in the first 48 hours of this program there were over 2000 tweets. This demonstrates the viral nature of this type of promotional program. As more and more people sign up and start tweeting the reach will grow exponentially with very little effort by American Express.

The other major benefactors of this program will be the partners of the program that include Best Buy, Dell, FedEx, H&M, McDonalds, TicketMaster, and Whole Foods. Anytime one of these businesses wants to announce a special they can just tweet it through this program and it will instantly reach thousands of people with very little effort. This program not only benefits American Express and the partner businesses but  the customers themselves also see a benefit in the form of discounts and convenience.  No longer do people have to clip or print out coupons or even show a digital coupon through their smart phones. All they have to do is Tweet. This really is a win-win for all parties that are involved.

This type of promotional program really shows how online and offline marketing and commerce are merging. As technology continues to improve and businesses come up with innovative new uses for social media and other technologies the lines between online and offline will continue to blur and we will inevitably we will drop the distinction between e-marketing and marketing.

Discussion Questions:

What do you think about losing the E from E-Marketing? Is it really inevitable? Are we becoming so integrated with technology that the line is no longer distinguishable?

Although not specifically addressed in this post the mobile web and mobile phones are no doubt an integral part of this program. Do you think that a program like this could survive without the use of a mobile platform? Would people be as likely to tweet if they had to do it from a laptop or PC?

Are there any other forms of media out there that would be as efficient as twitter is with this type of program? Why or why not?

Managing Your Social Media Ecosystem

By Bret Perkins, MBA Class of 2012

Welcome to Digital Burrito! Your source for all topics related to digital media marketing wrapped up into a convenient, easily digestible blog. Our first post will take a look at the proliferation of social media tools and platforms, and how corporations can effectively manage their social media ecosystem. The social media ecosystem is comprised of both internal and external social media, including platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as social monitoring tools from Radian6 and social CRM software from salesforce.com. The figure below shows a detailed, yet hardly comprehensive, look at some social media tools and platforms for different engagement arenas.