Huge Savings (Including Starwood) With American Express Link, Like, Love Facebook Promotion

I have to admit, I’m a little bit skeptical of all the companies rushing to cash in on social media. My eyebrows are raised mostly because a majority of companies don’t think out long term strategies and simply encourage people to “like” them to boost their number of followers or fans. I mean, how many times in the past month have we seen individuals hotels handing out points to anyone in the world for “liking” them and then shutting down the promos in an unprofessional fashion when they realize it got out of control? (Ah hem, I’m talking about you Westin Charlotte and Sheraton Madison!)

Anyway, American Express has actually been one of the companies I respect when it comes to social media campaigns. As a cardholder, I’ve seen them get into social media early and I think their promotions and content are well executed.

However, I was still a little skeptical when I heard this week that American Express and Facebook were teaming up to provide cardholder discounts for things people “like”. However, I wanted to test it out for this blog post and I have to say I am now pretty excited about the discounts and rebates I am going to earn for the spend I was already going to have.

For example, I will get $40 back when I spend at least $100 at Westin Hotels by August 31 (which I was going to do anyway). The best part is that the statement credit posts automatically, so theres nothing extra I need to do. I’ll also get $40 statement credit when I spend $100 at Sheraton, which is perfect because I’m putting some family members up at the Sheraton Brooklyn soon (which was only $129 on Starpicks!), so that further decreases my cost.

Sheraton $40 statement credit offer..score!

There are also discounts with Whole Foods, Lord & Taylor and a bunch of other retailers, so in all I’m pretty impressed, especially since the program is so new. I don’t mind sharing my personal information if it means cash in my pocket!

To sign up, see the promotion details here and then like/linstall the app and link your card. Once linked it will load your offers.

I know it seems crazy give so much personal information to advertisers, but in my opinion, the real, cash savings are worth it for me. I completely understand why people wouldn’t be comfortable with this promotion, but for me money talks! What are your thoughts? Will you Link, Like, Love American Express in order to get these pretty significant statement credits?

For sample T&C, here are the details on the Westin rebate