• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 23, 2012

Amazingly, it came during the question and answer section that followed American Express social chief Shari Forman’s keynote. Not-so- amazingly, it came from Matt Smith. The reason that’s so funny, is Smith identified himself as being from “Capital One,” which some might think competes with American Express.

“Sit down,” hissed one of the attendees within earshot of me.

Smith’s question to Forman was whether American Express has detected any change in its cardmember’s “behavior” since it launched its “Link , Like, Love” campaign on social media platforms, including Facebook.

Good try on the intel-gathering, Matt, but Forman didn’t bite, and gave the best, intelligent-sounding side-stepping I’ve heard in a long time. And I’m a trade reporter.