Florida Venture Blog by Dan Rua dan

No-BS Venture Thoughts for No-BS Entrepreneurs.

A running perspective on Florida's growing tech and venture community, with an occasional detour to the Southeast/national scene, venture capital FAQs and maybe a gadget or two....

By Dan Rua, Managing Partner of Inflexion Partners -- "Florida's Venture Fund".

That Just Happened -- SocialSpark that is...

"What does that do, does that blow your mind? That just happened!"
~ Ricky Bobby
That is IZEA's announcement today of SocialSpark.com (codenamed Argus) -- the future of online advertising. Ricky Bobby's quote to Jean Girard kept running through my head as I watched Ted and Pete demo the world's first advertiser social network, complete with first-of-its kind face-based analytics, advertiser-blogger friending and feedback, multi-dimensional social media advertising, and ROI-focused reporting and tracking.

I can't believe how much stuff is in SocialSpark. What I can believe is that the platform brings value to every publisher and every advertiser who cares about social media. Every blogger in the world can gain value from SocialSpark's face-based analytics, regardless of their plans around monetization. Every advertiser in the world can gain value from SocialSpark's blogger search and demographic-based targeting to kickstart and/or manage their social media relationships.

Imagine, as a blogger, being able to contact any brand of interest to share feedback and your interest in their products. Imagine, as an advertiser, being able to measure brand and direct marketing across multiple domains (e.g. not just Facebook, MySpace or others) with real-time reporting on current ROI and expected ROI as conversations builds across the net. There simply hasn't been anything like this, and I'm not even spilling the beans on RealRank and ROIRank -- measurements of true value and influence.

Shake-and-bake baby, shake-and-bake!

Related posts:
http://www.jimkukral.com/exclusive-first-look-at-socialspark-formerly-payperpost-a-social-network-for-advertisers-publishers/
http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2007/11/10/socialspark/
http://bloggertrail.com/blogging/exclusive-first-look-at-socialspark-formerly-payperpost-a-%E2%80%9Csocial-network%E2%80%9D-for-advertisers-publishers-8/
http://www.crashutah.com/blog/juanchito/2007/11/10/payperpost-izea-announces-socialspark/
http://www.imbloggingthat.com/?p=496
http://www.simplekindoflife.com/2007/11/10/postiecon-news-argus-socialspark-debut/
http://www.chatbugkaren.com/2007/11/10/socialspark/
http://www.scribbleonthewall.com/2007/11/10/if-youre-not-in-vegas/
http://bizmarktech.com/blog/2007/11/10/business-has-a-new-spark-with-socialspark/
http://www.gamblingtodayonline.com/liveblogging-announcement-of-socialspark-argus-at-postiecon/
http://www.googleisnotgod.com/2007/11/socialspark-will-crush-google-for-paid.html
http://brokenperfection.com/blog/?p=467
http://mashable.com/2007/11/10/izea-releases-socialspark/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/10/payperposts-latest-gimmick-socialspark/
http://andybeard.eu/2007/11/socialspark.html

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Comments (8)

Blogger Qian said...

This is certainly going to add an interesting dimension to the advertiser/blogger relationship. The face-based analytics sounds intriguing. Dan, is there a more detailed announcement or is that being saved for the actual launch?

12:50 PM  
Blogger Observer 75 said...

Man, the fact that you are quoting Ricky Bobby makes me <3 you so much more! You rule Dan!!!

10:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey dan,

do you think that map you made can zoom in on Tao this weekend, and see us on the upper deck?

Reis (from oregon)

1:36 PM  
Blogger VC Dan said...

qian: more detail coming this week, including private alpha keys for those signed up and accepted.

trevor: aw shucks...I'm sure that's just the Red Bull talking!

reis: hey! if u zoom, you can definitely see the Tao Beach pools (even Tao logo on pool bottom) -- the satellite pix were taken with a few less people around. I hope the rest of your night was fun. It was great meeting you and don't be a stranger -- blog comments welcome!

2:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Dan! It was nice meeting you over the weekend. I am remembering that I owe you an email, and came by specifically trying to find that addy, but was unsuccessful. I did post some thoughts over on the Izea blog in response to Ted's post there. Point being, when I get my bag (yeah the airline misplaced it) and find your card, I'll email you. Dang. I am so long winded. Sorry.

3:06 PM  
Blogger VC Dan said...

thanks Cass -- it was great meeting you as well. My daughter was born in RTP and I miss that Carolina twang!

My email is dan*at*inflexionvc[dot]com

3:14 PM  
Blogger Cotter said...

Dan-

like your blog - good stuff -

be interested in your take of the PPP beat down by Google? Seems to me that the secret beauty of PPP was the "hand-off" of page rank... which got squashed last week - or not?

thanks in advance

c

6:23 PM  
Blogger VC Dan said...

thanks for stopping by Cotter!

To be honest, it's unclear to me exactly what GOOG did and why. This is par for the course with those guys, from mysterious PageRank formulas to repeated industry FUD. It is clear to me that consumer generated advertising has steadily converted AdSense advertisers and publishers -- something GOOG will go to great lengths to stem.

I think if you read my past PPP-related posts (see http://www.floridaventureblog.com/labels/payperpost.html ) you'll see that PPP's marketing mix ROI has never hinged upon GOOG. It does, however, hinge upon quality posts for relevant audiences. Nothing about GOOG's move changes that.

I will note that PageRank had pretty solid brand equity for GOOG and their recent moves diluted that brand equity significantly. Many people are claiming PageRank means nothing, or at least less than it used to. That opens the door for a better ranking system, based upon real data, real traffic, real engagement and open formulas -- in other words, IZEA's RealRank (see http://community.izea.com/blog/2007/11/what-is-izea-re.html ).

IZEA couldn't have been handed a better springboard for industry-wide awareness and adoption of RealRank. I hope you'll check out RealRank and SocialSpark's face-based analytics for your blog -- the first analytics built from the ground up for bloggers.

1:24 AM  

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