I had the pleasure of connecting with Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA, the sponsored conversations company, last week. We talked via ooVoo, a video chat software, for an episode of Social Media Explorer TV.

Talking Sponsored Conversations With IZEA’s Ted Murphy from Jason Falls on Vimeo.

Sponsored conversations touches on some controversy because the purists in social media believe that advertising and marketers have no place in the social media space. Social media as a gathering place for people emerged largely because people grew tired of thousands of marketing messages per day being thrown at them from all directions. The online space offers technology that allows people to manage their media environment and avoid interruption-type advertising if they want. So, those true to The Cluetrain Manifesto-esque principals of social media say ads don’t belong and what IZEA is doing is antithetical to what social media is about.