Digital Breaking News: Twitter Releases “@Earlybird” Advertiser Channel

July 7, 2010 – Twitter today announced the release of a new advertising channel: the Early Bird Twitter feed. This Twitter account is owned and operated exclusively by Twitter, and will be used to promote deals and discounts which are exclusive to Twitter users. As of 2pm PST on July 7th, 2010, the @earlybird account on Twitter had over 16,000 followers, with approximately a thousand more following every hour.

For Twitter, this gives the site a real means of advertising income, without having to deviate from their community culture. The plan for Twitter to begin offering sponsored tweets was first announced April 13th, 2010, at AdAge Digital, when the site founders, taking a cue from sponsored search, promised to only place sponsored tweets at the top of Twitter search result pages. However, the model was experimental, and still being tested to be sure the tweets “resonated” with the audience. Now, Twitter has a dedicated advertising feed, one where users are given incentive to join through deals and discounts. Since following @earlybird is entirely voluntary, Twitter is able to keep their users happy, and avoid any model which could be considered invasive advertising.

For advertisers, this now provides a new opportunity to introduce their brand to new customers. Deals and discounts are proven incentives for users to sign up to receive advertiser offers. In a recent eMarketer study, 37% of users who “Liked” a brand on Facebook, did so because they were incentivized with coupons or exclusive discounts. Deal based sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial also command huge mailing lists of subscribers who receive daily offers via email. The promise of financial incentives has proven very attractive for the online audience, inciting thousands of people to sign up to receive regular communications featuring a variety of advertiser offers. The @earlybird stream on Twitter is very likely to command a similarly extensive following of highly responsive users.

While Twitter has not been a significant part of Integrated Media Solutions campaigns to date, this new advertising opportunity may prove to be an option for clients in future. This will be a national advertising opportunity, with over 100,000 “followers”. Recommendations will be made based on pricing and campaign goals, in keeping with IMS’ practice of media portfolio management

More information on Early Bird from Twitter can be found at:

http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics/topics/111-features/articles/208505-what-is-earlybird

Jillian Tate
Director, Digital Strategy
jtate@imediasolutions.com
@jilliantate

Regardless, I did a little research, and found one great article that proved we were in the right. The violator was using the client’s brand to confuse consumers into buying a competing product. Clear trademark infringement. I just wasn’t sure how much bandwidth Twitter dedicated to these issues.

I was very pleasantly surprised. I received an auto-response confirming Twitter’s policies on infringement, which includes a crackdown on cyber-squatting. Then I got an email from Twitter’s support, within three hours, to confirm that they had disabled the violating account. Case closed.

I’m very impressed with Twitter’s support levels on this subject. I have several clients with well known brands that are leveraged by competitors – especially competitors with MLM marketing schemes. It’s hard to stamp out that kind of low-level violation, when it’s small time individuals. But Twitter has evidently brought in the support to keep on top of it. Maybe this is part of their long term business strategy to keep advertisers happy??

Here’s why: A year ago, I would never have even included microblogging (Twitter) as a major social media category. I either counted it as a social network, or as a blog site, depending on the client & their objectives. Now, I count microblogging as its own category – and explain that it also includes sites like Tumblr. Twitter is the site within the channel, not a social media channel it itself.
That’s how I explain it to my clients, and then I tell them what the best practices are…and whether its even a relevant channel to their marketing.

To even ask the question, is this all there is? is to forget the very nature of the Internet. There are constant shifts happening, and there is always a game changer. To plan only for Facebook and Twitter because that’s all a client is familiar with, is irresponsible to the client. Now, on the other hand, to only use Facebook and Twitter in a social media plan because they have the biggest audiences, and therefore have adequate reach to your target where other social media sites may not…that’s a different story.