American Express is once again catching onto the social-networking phenomena by teaming up with micro-blogging website Twitter. Customers with American Express (News - Alert) consumer or business card accounts will be able to access exclusive discounts and deals from more than a dozen retailers. All they have to do is to sign up for the service at "sync.americanexpress.com/twitter" and then sync their credit card with Twitter (News - Alert) by entering their names, card numbers, and email addresses.

The partnership will further empower consumers, as they will be able to take advantage of special discounts just by tweeting. So how does the entire process work? It is quite simple actually, as AmEx cardholders will be able to avail themselves of these discounts by mentioning offers by #hashtag or search terms. Then, when the purchase is made, the deal savings will be automatically credited to that shopper's American Express card statement within one to three business days. This also translates into a more streamlined and intuitive process, as one won’t be redirected to a merchant’s website and will be able to take advantage of the offer on Twitter itself.

“American Express is turning Twitter content into commerce by connecting card members to merchants and delivering real world value to both," American Express Vice Chairman Ed Gilligan said.

Currently, 16 retailers have signed up for this unique service and some of them include: Best Buy, Dell (News - Alert), McDonald's, Ticketmaster, and even Whole Foods Market. The retailers are not paying any fee for signing up.

This is not the first time AmEx and Twitter have collaborated, as earlier Twitter had unveiled a special service, exclusive only to advertisers who accepted or used American Express cards. With the new collaboration, American Express hopes to draw in more customers, since the service is exclusive to American Express card holder (currently AmEx has 97 million card holders). Twitter also benefits from the partnership, as it helps them to create a solid moneymaking business model that rests solely on advertising and promotions.