Ben Barren

Ben Barren is founder of SocialDesk.com.au, which develops new types of performance social advertising and is an expert in tracking brands in social media. Ben has 20 years’ experience in new and social media with a focus on developing new advertising products.

Starting at DDB in new media development, in 1995 he went onto help establish the Carpoint service as a product planner at ninemsn. During the dot-crash period, he became a product manager at Sensis – developing display, rich media and targeting advertising across Yellowpages, Bigpond and AFL.com.au.

When blogging exploded, Ben founded Australia’s first significant blog search engine, Gnoos, which was listed #8 in BRW’s top 100 Web 2.0 Apps in Australia. He has become an expert in social media monitoring for brands wanting to know what is said about them on social networks.