The folks at PayPerPost (now known as IZEA) have finally revealed to the world what their top secret Argus project is. Let me tell you, it’s a dozy. IZEA is aiming to change the face of advertising by creating SocialSpark, what might be the world’s first social network designed to bring together advertisers and bloggers.

This release is big, really big. Bloggers in the network will be able to friend brands that they would like to get to know better (sort of like Facebook’s system but with fewer pokes), advertisers will have access to “face-based” hyper-targeted analytics about these bloggers to help them make wise media buys, and just for the IZEA critics in the audience there will be audited, in-post disclosures for all SocialSpark bloggers who choose to write sponsored posts.

I say choose to because the most important item to note about this platform is that it is completely decoupled from PayPerPost. Even if you never plan to write a sponsored post, you can still use SocialSpark to help you get access to advertisers who are looking to reach out to the blogosphere.

What do I think about this? Well, that’s an interesting discussion.

Democratizing Advertising

First let me make a little disclosure, I know one of the investors in PPP and have spoken to several members of the team — I do not, however, use any of their products. With that being said, it’s interesting to see what this announcement means for the direction of online advertising.

Up until this point, advertisers who have wanted to make media buys in the blogosphere have had two real options. They could either go through the huge networks like Federated Media, which would give them access to a lot of impressions over a very limited number of properties, or they could go through systems like PayPerPost which gave them access to the long tail but at the expense of being accused of polluting the editorial process. Not a great set of choices if you ask me.

SocialSpark represents a compelling compromise. By brokering the relationships but not dictating the conversation, it is opening up opportunities for bloggers who might not have the acumen or the time to build the type of contacts that they would need in order to monetize their work on their own. It’s also one step forward in the long process of democratizing the advertising process. Anything that brings us down that path is a boon for advertisers and publishers alike.

Disclosure

Most interestingly, IZEA has taken the final, decisive step towards combating the critics who say that their PayPerPost bloggers are ruining the editorial process by not disclosing. With SocialSpark, bloggers will now have to put disclosures inside of all of their sponsored posts in the form of a badge. These badges will be audited and tracked. Now there will be absolutely no question as to whether a post under IZEA’s umbrella was paid for. Will this sate the critics? We will have to wait and see, but I am not holding my breath.

The idea is not perfect. Regardless of their claims that SocialSpark is completely decoupled from PayPerPost, one has to assume that most of the initial users of the system will be PPP sponsored bloggers. As a result, it will be an uphill battle to try remove the stigma that the company has been battling its entire existence. More than that, it still hasn’t been proven that advertisers and small publishers have the type of language necessary to have meaningful interactions. Whether a social network can overcome the natural tensions between the groups, I am not sure.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Will SocialSpark change advertising as we know it? Maybe. First, they will need to get the blogosphere to accept what they are doing for what it is. Even if SocialSpark doesn’t spark a revolution, with a powerful analytics suite and plans for brokering a varied array of new ad units, IZEA is making a major play with this platform. What do you think? Does SocialSpark sound like something you would use?

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