Focus on Facebook: Interview with Kevin Barenblat of Context Optional
by Nicole Landguth
Category: Best Practices, Digital Influence, Digital Reputation, Influencers, Measurement
As part of our Focus on Facebook series, we interviewed several Facebook experts and asked them the same four questions. Check back next week for more interviews and Facebook conversations.
The first interview comes from a conversation with Kevin Barenblat of Context Optional, a leading provider of Facebook solutions including branded applications, brandpage design, and social media advertising optimization. Context Optional’s clients include Microsoft, Timberland, Travel Channel, and McDonald’s.
1. Facebook is all about connecting with friends. What should a brand do to ensure their personality and story comes through in their Facebook presence?
The best Facebook marketing strategy is to tie into those same conversations people are having with their friends. A few best practices for the brand to keep in mind:
Appeal - is the presence engaging? Entertaining? Helpful? Self-expressive?
Simple - is the desired action clear?
Social - is the application better with friends?
Addictive - Why would I come back?
Conversational - fostering communication?
Targeted - engaging the right audience?
Continuous - ongoing value and community?
Advocacy - building brand affinity and enabling advocacy?
2. In your experience, what has been the biggest hurdle for brands to successfully use Facebook? How can smart brands overcome this hurdle?
Most brands tend to want their presence to be all about them - as if Facebook were no different from a billboard or television ad. Smart brands overcome this temptation and instead focus on users - providing them something useful that can tie into how they use Facebook to share with friends.
Take the Kidnap application we built for Travel Channel. The experience of kidnapping friends to an exotic local is a social game that is barely branded - the brand only comes into play when a user visits TravelChannel.com to find an answer to escape. The result? 9 million users, 3 million monthly active.
3. How do you think brands can best measure their success on Facebook?
Successful brands establish success metrics prior to beginning any campaign. We measure everything from brand lift, engagement time, number of monthly active users or brand fans, sweepstake entries, web traffic generated, video views, and coupons redeemed - it really depends on the brand campaign goals.
4. Imagine you’re the marcom representing a high-end coffee/tea/beverage brand sold across country in most super markets. How do you convince the CEO that your brand should be on Facebook?
Their brand *is* on Facebook, they’re just not part of the conversation. Someone has already created a brand Page for them, and users are fanning their Page and leaving comments. Ignoring what users are saying is really at their peril. Participating helps engage those advocates so enamored with the brand that they’ve already identified themselves to their friends as a fan of the brand. Why ignore your best customers?
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April 10th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I like question #4. Some companies don’t understand how important that interaction is for their customers and their company.
Great point.
Can’t wait for next weeks post.
April 13th, 2009 at 9:17 am
[...] interviewed several Facebook experts and asked them the same four questions. Check out our previous interview with Kevin Barenblat of Context Optional and stay tuned this week for more interviews and materials [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 9:53 am
[...] Facebook experts and asked them the same four questions. Check out our previous interviews with Kevin Barenblat of Context Optional and Mike Hoefflinger of [...]
July 21st, 2009 at 7:38 pm
[...] Full article This entry was written by Kevin Barenblat, posted on April 10, 2009 at 5:35 pm, filed under Press. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « Retail TouchPoints: New iPhone Apps Providing Retailers With New Ways To Connect with Consumers [...]
February 25th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Is a good article about facebook marketing. It is important for a company to launch also on facebook.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Thanks for good article. Facebook good brand
February 26th, 2010 at 2:30 am
The problem with the facebook marketing is, facebook is screwing things now. They thinks facebook is for making friends and sharing information between them, not for advertising or marketing. If a person want to advertise or market anything, he need to use facebook ads..
February 26th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Facebook make me divorce…!
February 26th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I think a lot of corporate entities need to show their personality in order to make online connections.
February 26th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Great article. Facebook must be one of the best marketing tools these days.
February 26th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Hi..blog walking
thank you
February 27th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Nice blog, great article. Thanks.
February 27th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I love facebook. Have been using it since it came out and I am not sure what I would do without it. I just hope it lasts, not like myspace.
February 27th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Facebook is indispensable for me. I’ve had great success by really digging into this platform and making friends and interacting with them; for me it’s the only way. I don’t get loads and loads of traffic using this method but I get quality, laser-targeted traffic.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:57 pm
good article, not just useful 4 facebook, but also other social websites, regardless of language and country
March 7th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
This is a really great article, and really applicable right now.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Having an account on Facebook is well worth the effort. Joining all those social media web sites available these days can really help your internet marketing if used properly.
March 9th, 2010 at 12:18 am
I am receiving hundreds of unique visitors a day just from meeting new people on Facebook. I totally agree with the Facebook marketing strategy.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:30 am
I’m very new to facebook, but i have to say it has become an important part of my life of late because my sister and my best friend have moved to australia for work, with facebook I can talk to them every day. It makes the distance a little more bearable.
March 15th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
With Facebook I started out making and adding friends but like many others I found it was a great way to network my site. It’s just the reality; when something great comes along people end up taking advantage of the opportunity to make it profitable for themselves, and that’s what I did.
April 11th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
With Facebook, daily participation is required if you really want to reap the full benefits (which by the way, are potentially huge), making it the perfect fit for someone running just a few blogs as opposed to someone running hundreds of blogs a day. I haven’t personally, but I know a few people who have made a ton of money promoting their blogs on FB.
August 6th, 2010 at 12:29 am
Good post. I agree that we need to be part of the conversations, especially if we want to promote change.