News Recap: Twitter Teams Up With AmEx to Help SMBs

As part of a new partnership with American Express, Twitter announced this week that it will now use its ability to draw attention to certain topics to help advertise local businesses. Basically, this means that in addition to the “promoted tweets” seen by users, now ads from small businesses will also appear in their feeds. This allows merchants that have a partnership with American Express to use Twitter’s advertising tools to reach consumers in new ways.

Here is how some publications broke down the new changes for Twitter advertising:

“For Twitter users, this news means more ads from smaller stores, brands and chains, which will accompany the now-familiar Promoted Tweets” (TechCrunch)

“If the small business decides to promote tweets, Twitter will monitor the brand’s engagement with customers and will automatically promote its most engaging tweets” (International Business Times)

“It’s no surprise American Express stepped in to help promote the new option to small businesses. The company has launched Twitter-based promotions in the past, and it has been aggressively pursuing partnerships with other social networks as well.” (Mashable)

“Our mission is to be everywhere our Cardmembers and merchants are,” says Berland. “To engage with them, service them, deliver unique value that’s shareable and create seamless digital experiences that surprise and delight.” (Mashable)

Here’s how the Twitterverse reacted:

“Inspiring to see how #AMEX cooperates with Twitter and Foursquare // #BestPractises #SMWF @omid from #4square” (@UXtf)

“THIS is how you use Twitter as a brand @openforum RT 1st 10K Amex merchants who register for #TwitterSmallBiz ads get $100 in ads…. Bravo.” (@tkennon)

“Return of investment of a Tweet? The Social Credit Card: AmEx Syncs With Twitter To Turn #Hashtags Into Savings, via @wilbertbaan” (@idelange)

“My new Amex is sync’d, tweet’d and loaded. Whoever came up with this Twitter campaign idea deserves a raise @AmericanExpress @OPENForum” (@laraashmore)

Whether or not the program proves a success, praise must be given to American Express and Twitter for finding a whole new way to leverage social media. With the addition of AmEx’s muscle, Twitter’s long road to monetization finally starts to make a little more sense. The plus of having Amex card holders be able to sync their cards and Twitter accounts to find coupons for local businesses is also an interesting way to combine social and commerce. While the point of Twitter remains the fast distribution of information, being able to use its powers for advertising and promoting local businesses could be a game changer in local digital commerce.

Isa Jones is an intern at Street Fight.