In part of its ever-growing effort to monetize tweets, Twitter recently launched a new ecommerce account – @earlybird Exclusive Offers, which partners with businesses to retweet advanced promotions created for the social platform. The initial buzz was strong, but in its first week of release, it seems @earlybird hasn’t caught the worm.
The @earlybird service is designed to partner with businesses as well as online discount providers, such as Groupon, to offer daily, limited-time specials to online followers. All evidence pointed to the fact that @earlybird was a prime promotional platform for advertisers – the account has jumped to more than 50,000 followers in the short time since its creation, and major corporations, including Disney, have partnered with @earlyBird.
The first promotion was offered to followers last Tuesday – two for one tickets to Disney’s upcoming film, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. While the basis of @earlybird’s appeal is that it promises advertisers their deals will be retweeted across the site, the tens of thousands of users following @earlybird have retweeted Disney’s offer less than 200 times in more than 48 hours. Plus, at press time Disney clearly has two-for-one tickets left, even though they were hoping for fast sell-outs, made evident by the company’s “Gem ’em while they last!” tweet.
Notably, Disney recently seemed to have better luck promoting its Toy Story 3 on Facebook, with millions of users “liking” the film, and fans continuing to post on the movie’s wall nearly a month after its release.
Still, it may be too soon for marketers to turn their backs on @earlybird. Twitter’s product manager for Twitter, Shiva Rajaraman, told the Wall Street Journal that there has been a “positive” reaction to the Disney ad. It’s true – some of the real-time responses to the offer for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice are from fans who tout the film and the deal. While Rajaraman declined to give the newspaper any stats on how frequently followers have clicked @earlybird’s promoted tweets, he says the initial value is clear because “the ads invite conversation.”
Whether @earlybird proves to be a bust or a gem, the account is just one of many moves toward a paid search model for Twitter, and marketers are advised to follow the site’s progress – especially as the social network becomes a powerful search tool for consumers. Earlier this month, Twitter reported its search volume hit 800 million queries a day.
