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Sponsored Conversations: And the debate continues

Social Media 20 Apr 2009
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With all the chatter here, here and here about sponsored conversations, I felt that I should chime in.  First and foremost, Ted Murphy (CEO of IZEA) is a personal friend of mine and I was deeply humbled when he asked me to be on the Advisory Board of his company.  I believe in Ted, his vision and the IZEA business model.

To me, the issue is clear; and as Brogan so eloquently posts …”To me, it’s just ridiculously simple: disclose. Disclose. Disclose”

There is really nothing more to discuss.  From my perspective in working in the enterprise and having many conversations about this topic, disclosure and authenticity is imperative in every piece of “social” conversation, whether online or not. It’s in the DNA of our humanity to be real with people, no?

The future of sponsored conversations is clear in my head.  It’s going to explode; plain and simple.  I remember back in 2001 (I think) when Overture began selling pay-per-click search; and the community was in an uproar about the idea of manipulating the search engines.  Today, paid search is a multi-billion dollar industry and the early arguments are long forgotten.  Sponsored conversations are heading down the same road, with IZEA leading the way.

Did I mention that I am on the Advisory Board of IZEA?

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About the author

Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Senior Vice President of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital. He helps his clients transform their organizations to be more open, collaborative and socially proficient; with the end result of creating shared value with employees, partners and customers. Prior to Edelman, Michael worked for Intel and Hewlett Packard in various social media marketing roles. Opinions posted here are his own. Feel free to follow him on Twitter, subscribe to this blog or read some more of his content on Social Business News.

  • http://Website(optional) James

    i have been following this for quite some time. Payperpost was indeed a problem for brands, but Izea did a great job transforming it into a product that promotes disclosure and authenticity — great job Murphy. He listened to the community feedback, iterated the product and yet some people are still mad.

    I really don’t think it’s about “sponsored conversations” anymore. I think it maybe personal but that’s just my opinion. 

  • http://justthisguysopinion.blogspot.com/ Ray Hartjen

    Good post, and right on the money, Michael.  You ask, “It’s in the DNA of our humanity to be real with people, no?”  It might be in the DNA of (most) people.  But, often, it’s not in the DNA of people on the web :) .  Keep spreading the good word.

  • http://frogblog.biz Fred H Schlegel

    Since sooner or later folks have to eat, disclosure is the only option.  Truth is, while we had a short period of time when one could argue advertisers needed reporters more than reporters needed advertisers, there has always been a need for better disclosure – whether you own stocks, take advertising, pay-for-post or heck, eat.

  • http://hartofsuccess.com/ Stefanie Hartman

    Congratulations on being named to the advisory board. I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if sponsored conversations can duplicate paid search.

  • http://www.donatemate.com/ Yuval

    I agree, I find the concept of Sponsored Conversation as a natural evolutionary stage in the social net. It is here and it is here to stay.

    The issue as raised by Michael is disclosure, or the separation of content that is independent and content that is sponsored.

    If search engines have found a clear (and almost standard) way of letting us identify between the natural search and the paid search, the same should manifest in social content publications.

    However, the difference between search and published content is that search is almost completely automated while the content that is published required a human being. Search can run two separate algorithms simultaneously without (hopefully) one influencing the other. Can a human be expected to do the same?

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