Recently, Twitter has been experimenting with all sorts of strategies to monetize their network. It started with promoted tweets, followed by promoted trends and now it seems like Twitter is getting into the shopping deals business by offering early bird discounts. The @EarlyBird account was setup just a few days ago and has not seen any activity yet. However, it is not too hard to guess that Twitter will use the account to advertise shopping deals to millions of users who decide to follow the account.

It is a really good strategy given the fact that it will not be in users face like an annoying banner or pop-up ad. However, it is also  important  that Twitter uses a good strategical placement to highlight the account so users can know about it. Companies would love the extra marketing channel and users won’t mind it since it would be totally opt-in. While it won’t be a Woot or Groupon killer, this latest effort by Twitter should work well since it would be more useful and relevant to users than either of the previous methods.  A good example of this strategy in action is Dell. Using its various accounts on Twitter to publish deals, Dell has generated $6.5 Million in revenue from users who were directed to Dell’s website through these Twitter accounts.

What do you think about the chances of @EarlyBird being a successful monetization strategy? Would you follow the account?