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Twitter to Launch 'Promoted Accounts,' Kill Earlybird Deal Feed

 & Chloe Albanesius Executive Editor, News

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Twitter on Tuesday outlined a new element to its advertising platform, an effort known as Promoted Accounts that will let companies pay to be included in Twitter's "Who to Follow" lists.

The micro-blogging service also said it will phase out its @earlybird deal feed in favor of its promoted products platform.

Promoted Accounts builds on the company's existing Promoted Tweets platform, which it introduced in April. With the new addition, companies could pay to be included in the "Who to Follow" suggestion lists Twitter displays to its users. Like Promoted Tweets, Twitter would serve up relevant Promoted Accounts based on your Twitter activity and preferences.

Twitter did not have specific information about when Promoted Accounts would be rolling out.

Twitter chief operating officer Dick Costolo discussed Promoted Accounts during a Tuesday appearance at the Mixx advertising conference in New York. During his presentation, he also said Twitter would be phasing out its @earlybird deals feed, as first reported by All Things D's Peter Kafka.

A Twitter spokeswoman confirmed its demise.

"We've always said we'd experiment and move quickly. Twitter's @earlybird account will no longer be tweeting offers," she said via e-mail. "We're taking the learnings from @earlybird, including feedback from users and businesses, and investing that knowledge into our Promoted Products platform to help businesses grow their audience and provide great offers and information to users."

At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Jason Goldman, vice president of product at Twitter, said that EarlyBird and related programs were all part of the same advertising category.

"With all of our efforts, with Earlybird and with Promoted Trends, the advertising is the content. It has that engagement, the mental model for what we're doing on the site," Goldman said.

Twitter announced the ad-supported @EarlyBird Twitter feed in July. It was intended to highlight "special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events" from advertisers. A week later, it launched its first deal in conjunction with Disney - a special deal on tickets for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Earlier this week, the program offered 25 percent off Moxsie apparel.

Twitter has been experimenting with a number of advertising options since the launch of Promoted Tweets in April. That offering inserts advertisers' tweets into search results. It launched with partners like Best Buy and Starbucks, so if a user searched for either company via Twitter's search functionality, Twitter would display tweets from Best Buy or Starbucks at the top of the results page.

In June, Twitter added Promoted Tweets to its list of trending topics. The bottom of the list - which features the most talked-about topics on the site at any given moment - included a link to an advertiser's product - an upcoming movie or product release, for example.

A recent report in The Wall Street Journal suggested that Twitter is now fetching more than $100,000 for these Promoted Tweets.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:48am Pacific with a comment from Jason Goldman, vice president of product at Twitter.

About Our Expert

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Executive Editor, News

My Experience

I started out covering tech policy in DC for The National Journal, where my beat included state-level tech news and all the congressional hearings and FCC meetings I could handle. I later covered Wall Street trading tech before switching gears to consumer tech. I now lead PCMag's news coverage.

My Areas of Expertise

Getting my start in DC means I still have a soft spot for tech policy; Congressional hearings can sometimes be as entertaining as a Bravo reality show, for better or worse. But PCMag is all about the technology we use every day, as well as keeping an eye out for the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead (or flop on arrival). I've covered the rise of social media, the iOS vs. Android wars, the cord-cutting revolution that's now left us with hefty streaming bills, and the effort to stuff artificial intelligence into every product you could imagine. This job has taken me to CES in Vegas (one too many times), IFA in Berlin, and MWC in Barcelona. I also drove a Tesla 1,000 miles out west as part of our Best Mobile Networks project. Of late, my focus is on our hard-working team of reporters at PCMag, guiding and editing their robust coverage.

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