Twitter has been experimenting with many revenue generating schemes to cash in on its revolutionary microblogging concept. In the process, it launched @earlybird to generate revenue from advertiser's best deals and offers. It has been hoping that these early birds could lay the golden eggs with the "day's magical deals". But with the impending launch of Promoted Account, these early birds are now being sent instead to their early graves.
Dick Costolo (Twitter's COO) discussed about Promoted Account during his appearance at the Mixx advertising conference in New York. It was during his presentation that he also said that Twitter will phase out @earlybird deals feed.
It is actually quite logical to do so. @earlybird may have gained more than 230,000 followers but it isn't mainstream yet. In fact, it will be difficult to make it mainstream because people have different biases as to where they shop and who they trust. And besides, the Twitterverse has so many marketers and advertisers that what users see most often (what is subconsciously visible) is what will most likely influence their buying decisions.
With Promoted Accounts, Twitter is planning to sell another important real estate - The "Who to Follow" location. In the same way that Twitter has been selling sponsored keywords through Promoted Tweets, trending topic space through Promoted Trends (Twitter calls it an extension of Promoted Tweets), it will try to make money from a prime area right on top of Twitter's side bar. It is actually a very visible spot with the right "adverts".
Promoted Account isn't advertising per se. It is a follow recommendation. But it is more in tune with the context of Twitter's revenue generating platform. It is in essence a reflection of how other industry giants like Facebook, Google and Apple are trending towards the higher revenue potential and viability of display advertising. With Twitter as a vortex for mobile social networking, Promoted Account is a step in the right direction.
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