IZEA, the world’s largest social media marketing network, today unveiled SocialSpark(TM), a first-of-its-kind advertiser focused social network that re-invents the way online marketers identify and empower brand advocates, and the way bloggers monetize their content.
SocialSpark provides advertisers with a social media marketing hub to research and execute their marketing activities across niche blogs or large blog networks from a single dashboard. Advertisers can utilize the platform to effectively reach the highly fragmented longtail of the blogoshpere, tapping into IZEA’s growing network of more than 150,000 bloggers and over 16,000 advertisers.
“Just as Google unlocked tremendous direct marketing value with AdWords, SocialSpark offers the only comprehensive solution for targeting, transacting and tracking social media marketing across a vast network of publishers,” said Ted Murphy, founder of IZEA. “We have taken ‘word of mouth’ advertising – the kind that happens every day between people who share common interests – to a brand new level, and in a way that directly benefits both advertisers and bloggers.”
With SocialSpark, advertisers can access traffic and demographic data previously unavailable to them in the blogoshpere, while simultaneously bypassing the exorbitant research and cost customarily associated with such valuable targeting. Blogs are read by millions of readers who share common interests and brand passions, and empowering bloggers represents a huge value proposition to advertisers. SocialSpark is the first network where these groups can quickly, easily and cost-effectively find each other and create value while simultaneously protecting the integrity of blog content.
“Although there has been plenty of hype around social media, the traffic and click-throughs can be hit-or-miss without visibility and tracking,” added Michael Brito, Intel Social Media Marketing Manager. “With SocialSpark’s open analytics platform, advertisers can see the actual traffic and demographics of blogs they sponsor or a vertical network of blogs they sponsor. Combining that visibility with the astronomical 5-10 percent click-through-rate typical of sponsored posts, positions SocialSpark as the premier dashboard for social media marketing.”
Advertisers and bloggers can register for free at SocialSpark.com to create online, searchable public profiles. Advertisers are encouraged to provide information about their product or service, and bloggers can share information about themselves, their readers and their blog content. Registered users can search for complimentary matches, interact with each other, create networks, issue ratings, send messages, and ultimately capitalize on shared interests. Bloggers and advertisers can assess blog “influence” by tracking visits, pages views, and demographic information about their readership. Advertisers can monitor automated campaign CPC and CPM data as well as the buzz surrounding their brands across the blogosphere.
Along with the development of the marketplace, SocialSpark has created the gold-standard for social media marketing integrity and disclosure. With SocialSpark, there are no tone restrictions on sponsored posts; that is, payment is never conditioned on delivering a positive post or review. Likewise, all sponsored posts carry both human and machine-readable disclosure, via 100 percent in-post disclosure badges and 100 percent “no-follow” tags on any advertiser-requested links.
“SocialSpark’s disclosure requirements exceed the WOMMA-approved Code of Ethics for human disclosure and the Google-approved quality guidelines for machine disclosure,” said Murphy. “In fact, SocialSpark offers the industry’s only audit tool for advertisers needing to manage social marketing disclosure in accordance with corporate, government, industry or search engine disclosure guidelines.”
IZEA and SocialSpark can be found at ad:tech San Francisco April 15-16 at the Moscone Center in booth # 6163.
