ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwire - Jul 30, 2012) - IZEA, Inc. (OTCQB: [ IZEA ]) (PINKSHEETS: [ IZEA ]), the world leader in social media sponsorship, announces continued growth within its North American client development, engineering and community support organizations.

"These latest hires are tremendous additions to Team IZEA," said Ryan Schram, Chief Marketing Officer, IZEA. "Today's announcement is yet-another stage of our strategic growth plan that was laid-out in late 2011. By increasing our staff in critical business areas, we'll be able to further meet the demand in the new marketplaces like San Francisco."

Jim Abel joins IZEA with nearly a decade of sales and marketing experience, most recently as an account executive at social gaming company RockYou. Previously, he was an account manager with the company and prior to that held sales positions of increasing responsibility at Professional Sports Publications, a publication and advertising support company for university and professional athletic teams. Jim is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and will be based in San Francisco.

Another new member to the client development team is Ryan Kruse, who joins IZEA's inside sales group in Orlando as an Account Director. A graduate of the University of Central Florida, Ryan is charged with building client relationship throughout the company's east region.

Dustin Mooney was promoted to full-time account coordinator, supporting the Client Development staff with new client proposals and account management. Dustin is based out of IZEA's downtown Orlando headquarters.

Leading IZEA's influencer ecosystem operation is Lynda Galea, who comes to the team with significant international experience in community management and influencer relations from her time at Nuffnang Australia. Also new to IZEA and reporting to Lynda are Jill Jones and Veronica Quinones, who will support influencer outreach.

As previously announced, Tom Geraghty joined the team as Senior Vice President of Products and Partnerships, leading product development, software engineering and strategy partnerships. Also joining software engineering is Philip Carter, a former member of the United States Air Force and a graduate of the University of Central Florida. He will support web development of IZEA flagship platforms, SocialSpark and Sponsored Tweets.

Kristen Parody comes to IZEA as marketing communications associate, supporting both the Community and Customer Service and Marketing departments. Kristen earned her master's degree from Full Sail University in Orlando and bachelor's degree from Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. She has previous experience working with online social communities like Yelp.

About IZEA
IZEA, Inc. is the world leader in social media sponsorship, operating multiple marketplaces including Staree, WeReward, SponsoredTweets and SocialSpark. IZEA connects advertisers with social media publishers, helping them monetize their social media presence. The company has completed over three million social media sponsorships for customers ranging from small local businesses to Fortune 50 organizations. For more information about IZEA, visit [ www.izea.com ].

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based largely on IZEA's expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond IZEA's control. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of, among other factors, competitive conditions in the social media sponsorship segment in which IZEA operates, failure to popularize one or more of the marketplace platforms of IZEA and general economic conditions that are less favorable than expected. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information contained in this respect will in fact occur. Please read the full statement and disclosures here: [ http://izea.com/safe-harbor-statement/ ].