Those evil geniuses over at American Express have dreamed up a way to not only hook in the social media crowd via Twitter, but to also get them to do some of their dirty work. The company announced a new program last night, where cardholders can sync up their accounts with Twitter and use hashtags to earn rewards.

The New York Times says the new plan allows any Amex card (except corporate cards, sorry!) to link up with a user’s Twitter account, through the company site. When you want to earn a certain reward, you send out a message with the appropriate hashtag attached to that deal. Sure, you can tweet anything you want, but at the same time, you’re still spreading Amex’s name for them. Convenient!

So for example, let’s say you’re at Big Box Store, which is fake so you’re not really there but let’s pretend. There’s an Amex deal where you can get a statement credit of $50 for spending $150 at the store. You tweet, “About to buy diapers ugh Mondays are the worst #AmexBigBox” and by the time you swipe your credit card at the store and spend that amount, bam! You earned the reward. And now all your followers know.

Amex will respond on Twitter to alert you when the offer has been activated, so you would have to know that before swiping in order to earn the savings or reward. Current retailers participating in the program include BestBuy, H&M, Dell, McDonald’s, 1-800-Flowers.com, Century 21 department store, the Cheesecake Factory, FedEx Office, Gulf, Seamless.com, Sports Authority, Ticketmaster, Virgin America and Zappos.com.

It’s a two-in-one, says Amex — rewarding card members while doing a bit of digital marketing as well. Crazy like a fox, Amex!

American Express Incentives to Push Deals on Twitter [New York Times]

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