More brands are taking advantage of the short form, viral power of the microblogging site Twitter. This holiday season several brands are hoping to extend their reach with the addition of the social sharing feature.

Microsoft is promoting the launch of its new line Windows Server 2008 R2 with a haiku competition, R2Haiku. The brand is amplifying its messaging by broadcasting submissions and making itself more accessible to its target audience.

The company’s main customer base is that of IT professionals who generally ask for and listen to advice from one another. With its new server, Microsoft feels the product is good enough that customers will broadcast its key selling point to one another.

“We wanted a low-barrier campaign to drive engagements,” he said. “They look to their peers while making tech decisions,” said Sudhir Diddee, senior marketing manager and IT pro audience lead for the U.S. at Microsoft.

The campaign site, built by Microsoft digital agency Fuel Industries allows participants to enter their own haiku and while also seeing a feed of posted haiku float by. Participants may view the most popular haiku or search through all of them and vote for their favourites.

Submissions will be broadcast to the submitters network once entered on the campaign website, allowing customers to do the selling on social networks - not brands.

With over 300 haiku submissions received within the first five days of Microsoft’s R2Haiku competition only the top entries will make the selection round made by Microsoft. Winners will receive a Sony Entertainment System with and Xbox Elite.