American Express is paving the way for creative social strategy in the financial services industry. Since 2009, the company has used social media to increase brand awareness and offer special incentives to its customers. See what methods the company has been employing over the last few years and gain new insights and ideas into marketing’s most direct connection to consumers all over the world.
Small Business Saturday
Small Business Saturday, a marketing campaign launched by American Express in 2010, urged consumers to shop local at small businesses during the holidays. The campaign used networks like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to incentivize consumers with check-in specials as well as share news and information about the program to both consumers and small business owners.
Above: a YouTube video from American Express promoting Small Business Saturday
A press release issued by American Express in late 2011 reported some positive results; the Small Business Saturday campaign played a huge part in growing the company’s social network and improving holiday shopping sales for small businesses. It encouraged roughly 103 million Americans to shop at independently-owned small businesses and resulted in a 23% increase in credit card transactions, and engaged more than 500,000 small business owners in the campaign.
Social E-commmerce
In 2012, American Express gave cardholders the option to sync their credit cards with Twitter to redeem special discounts using Twitter hashtags. The initiative paved the way for cardholders to purchase items directly through Twitter, a move that was launched last month. Using hashtags, cardholders can purchase items for sale including; AMEX gift cards, Amazon Kindles and Xbox controllers.
American Express is proving that social media is becoming an important way for financial services to creatively address the needs of their customers and improve user experience.
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