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Update: ExecTweets is not the only thing Twitter is advertising. You can also see other ads for things like TwitterVision, Tweetie, etc. in the little box that previously only advertised Twitter services. Everything still looks to be at least Twitter-related at this point. And from the sound of it, they're not making a money off of it.

Original Article: John Battelle and Federated Media has partnered with Microsoft to launch ExecTweets, a conversational marketing tool for businesses looking to sponsor a "topic-focused social media experience" with Twitter.

ExecTweets describes itself as a resource to help users find and follow the top business executives on Twitter. It'll help you find people like Mark Zuckerberg, Jad Adelson, Craig Newmark, Don Dodge, Jonathan Schwartz, etc.

It's not just people from the tech industry though. "In this case, we're filtering for business-related content from senior execs in various industries, like retail, healthcare, government, and more, and we've created a platform for community conversation, voting, input, and recommendations," explains Battelle.

The service comes recommended from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone himself (though that might be because Twitter is getting some revenue out of it featuring it on their home page). "Twitter is contacted regularly by brands interested in sponsoring innovative experiences based on topics of interest," he says. "However, our focused commitment to Twitter itself means we don't have much time or resources to build these interesting topical experiences. It turns out the folks over at Federated Media have both the resources and the expertise."

Battelle says that ExecTweets in its current state is only a first effort. They are already working on the next version.

Naturally, I'm going to have to mention that there's another great tool for finding Twitterer's of interest - Twellow from WebProNews. If you're interested in more than just what top executives have to say, but other people in your industry as well, Twellow would be a great place to find people.