Club Carlson started running an interesting (and from what I’m guessing, first of its kind) Twitter promotion at 12:00 PM ET yesterday, May 13 and ends today, May 14 at 11:59 AM ET.

In the #HashtagHotel promo, Club Carlson gave away 1,000 bonus Gold Points to the first 15,000 people who connected using Twitter and followed @ClubCarlson and filled out a sign-up form.

This offer was the pre-cursor to the main element of the promo, the 24 Hour Twitter Party.

During the party lots of prizes are to be given out including Gold Points, elite status, noise cancelling headphones and more. There are also be travel experts joining in to share some tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your travels.

I didn’t know what to expect or how they would be giving away the prizes but being the Twitter lover that I am, I had to check it out. I tried to tweet here and there which wasn’t so simple since I was at work.

Around 3:00, I had a short break so I decided to once again join in on the Twitter party. I ended up getting involved in a conversation about Eastern Europe and shared my thoughts on traveling around the region. I had to get back to work a half hour later and ended up being 5 minutes late since I was having such a good time and didn’t want to stop chatting!

Fast forward a little over an hour later. I leave work and open up the Twitter app while walking to my car and see that I have lots of notifications.

I click on the notifications tab and expect to see tweets about the Europe conversation (there were a few) but I mainly saw congratulations from fellow #HashtagHotel participants.

I wasn’t sure what I was being congratulated for until I scrolled a bit further down in the tab.

This is what I saw:

First thoughts were SWEET!

Although 10,000 Gold Points might not sound like a huge bounty, it can get you 1-2 nights at select Club Carlson properties. (Kim and I each used 9,000 points to book 2 nights at the Park Inn Dallas-Love Field.  I’d value 10,000 Gold Points in the $100+ range.)

Later on I noticed that I also had a direct message from @ClubCarlson:

Hi! You’re a potential winner! Email xxxxxxx within 48 hours for prize claim instructions. Thanks!

I sent in the e-mail when I got home and am now waiting for a response on how to make being a potential winner into being a definite winner. I assume sending off the e-mail within the 48 hour window did just that!

This is one of the reasons why I LOVE Twitter.

Companies are relying on Twitter more and more these days to connect with customers.

Twitter has been a great tool to use for a variety of reasons. I’ve had customer service issues resolved thanks to @AmericanAir, @DeltaAssist and @ClubCarlson as well as (I’m guessing) others that I’ve left out. You can also follow current events and strike up great conversations in topics you enjoy with Twitter chats.

What are your thoughts on Twitter? Do you like it, rarely use it or maybe just not understand it?

Oh, I almost forgot- there is still a few hours left to join in and try to win a prize in the 24 Hour Twitter Party. Head over to Twitter and tweet using hashtag #HashtagHotelPromo