• by Tanya Gazdik , March 7, 2012

American Express cardmembers can now sync their cards with Twitter and when they tweet using special hashtags, savings offers are loaded directly into their cards.

When cardmembers use their synced card for qualifying purchases online or in-store at participating merchants, the savings are automatically delivered via a statement credit within days.

National merchant partners so far include 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Best Buy, Century 21 Department Store, The Cheesecake Factory, Dell, FedEx Office, FTD, Gulf, H&M, McDonald’s, Seamless.com, Sports Authority, Ticketmaster, Virgin America, Whole Foods Market and Zappos.com.

In order to sync their cards, members go to https://sync.americanexpress.com/twitter and follow instructions. All of the current American Express special offers are highlighted as “favorites” on the @americanexpress Twitter page.

American Express will showcase the technology during JayZ’s concert at SXSW on March 12 at 8 p.m. EST. The Amex Sync Show will be broadcast live at youtube.com/americanexpress and will also be available on the VEVO mobile and tablet platform.

Local and visiting eligible cardmembers in Austin can take advantage of a special citywide offer and get $10 when they sync their Card, tweet the special offer #AmexAustin10 and use their synced card to spend in Austin during SXSW from March 9 to 13.

The experience is facilitated by American Express’ Smart Offer APIs, which also enables American Express to provide detailed reporting to merchants about the online and offline spend behavior of their customers.

The technology is beneficial to both cardmembers and merchants, said Ed Gilligan, vice chairman, American Express. “With the continued convergence of online and offline commerce, our closed loop continues to enable us to bring seamless, relevant ways to connect our card members and merchants on the most powerful social and digital platforms,” Gilligan said in a release.

American Express created @amexsync, an automated notification handle that is activated when someone sends a Tweet that includes one of the special offer hashtags. This handle detects whether a user is already synced and either confirms their offer enrollment or provides a link to first sync their American Express Card to enroll in the selected offer.

In addition, if an offer is no longer available, @amexsync will direct users to check out the Tweets @americanexpress has “favorited”  to find the latest offers. Questions or additional assistance will be provided by @askamex, the American Express customer service team on Twitter.