In less than 60 seconds, Sawyer Business School student Megan Tranfaglia successfully pitched a product and took home $500.

Tranfaglia was among 13 Business School students who participated in the Center for Entrepreneurship’s Twitch Competition. Using Twitter, the contestants had 140 characters and one minute to creatively pitch, or twitch, the Chevy Volt as a great product.

Businesses are increasingly using emerging technologies like Twitter to market their products. If used effectively, Twitter can help businesses to promote their brands, interact with customers, and track what people are saying about their services.

Theresa Malionek, director of Marketing & Communications at Sawyer Business School; Catherine McCabe, associate professor and chair of the Department of Marketing; and Christine Adams, office coordinator of the Department of Marketing, judged the entries. The tweets were rated based on their creativity; number of characters; and use of hashtags, links, and capital letters.

Tranfaglia’s winning tweet was clever and effective: “Push my button. Drive me wild. No need to stop for 300+ miles. Plug me in & do it again #ChevyVOLT #ItSellsItself bit.ly/pT8922.”

Second-place winner Peter Duni received $200 for tweeting about Chevy Volt’s environmental appeal. “Chevy Volt. Gas and Electricity in harmony. SAVING the environment one road trip at a time http://bit.ly/eJKDqg #investinthefuture.”

With 24 characters to spare, Josh Saphier placed third and won $100. He pitched the Chevy Volt as the perfect road trip vehicle and linked to an interactive blog run by Chevy owners.

Other students found creative ways to incorporate Twitter’s trending topics like #longerthankimksmarriage and #JoePaternosCoachingCareer. Using popular hashtags, the students increased their tweets’ visibility.

When it came to adding links, the students looked for interactive ways to engage the audience. They linked to various YouTube videos, blogs, and other multimedia websites. In fact, no two links were the same.

Professor George Moker, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship; Odie Fakhouri, office coordinator of the Management & Entrepreneurship Department; and the Sawyer Ambassadors organized the competition as part of the first National Entrepreneurship Month.

“This month, we celebrate the remarkable and everyday successes of our entrepreneurs and innovators, and we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that our economy remains the engine and the envy of the world,” President Barack Obama said when he formally declared November National Entrepreneurship Month.

To see all of the Twitch entries, follow Suffolk’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (@SUCenter4ENT) on Twitter.