Dublin Web Summit – Tweeted Highlights

The Dublin Web Summit which took place on Friday last in Ballsbridge was one of the better conferences I’ve attended in the past few years. A fast-paced programme resulted in an amount of information and opinion imparted by an excellent line up of Irish and international speakers.

Facebook's Rick Kelley talking about social connections at Dublin Web Summit

Someone commented early in the day that you could not possibly say anything meaningful in a one hundred and forty character tweet. I beg to differ and here is a snapshot of some of the insightful / questioning tweets from throughout the day. There was probably a dozen or so people tweeting from the event and with many others interacting online, in the end there was close on 1,000 tweets from people using the #dws hash tag.

I’ve selected the tweets that got the most re-tweets, or that I particularly liked. For context on some of the names referred to check out the speaker list. I was tweeting on the day using my alter-ego at @fbd_ie.

On social media:

• Anton Savage says “social media overtakes porn… shame the national papers went for that angle” – @tweetminster:
• Cochrane says “social media isn’t just ‘we need Twitter’ or ‘we need Facebook’ that fails as a strategy” –@tweetminster:
• You remember 90% of what you read, hear and interact, hence the importance of social networking, Niels Thogersen – @ianmcleary
• @RishiSaha “you have to look at success in a different way, be comfortable with success being purely digital” – @tweetminster
• Listen to the conversation even if you’re not going to tweet yourself – @dermotcasey:
• Why social media? EU parliament is “a distant institution using it to show there are humans behind the Brussels machine” – fbd_ie
• British guys saying email remains most powerful campaign tool – everyone has it. Social media part of wider communications strategy. – NoreenBowden

On changing communications models:

• “Relate and engage. Don’t try and control” says @davidcochrane –  @dermotcasey:
• “None of this works in theory but it works in practice” says @marklittlenews quoting Jimbo Wales – @dermotcasey
• Are traditional brand values being replaced by brand personalities? – @fbd_ie
• As brands become more personable, audiences become more forgiving to their mistakes – nick from profero – @dscanlon
• Brands are socialised on the Internet, not broadcast. – Nick Blunden. True. – @fbd_ie
• Nardelli “people say they’re scared of losing control of the message, but do they really believe they control it now?”- @tweetminster

On traditional media:

• Julian March, Sky News “we can go places the BBC can’t go… it’s partly to do with our attitude to risk” – @tweetminster
• Jimmy Leach, Indy – “Everyone saying journalists are the trusted brand. When did we start trusting journalists?” – @NoreenBowden
• Clark “The economic model for journalism may be declining but the need for journalism is not” – @tweetminster
• “Mobilisation againt Jean Sarkozy appt or Polanski, was massive on Twitter…after 4 days old media was forced to follow” @tweetminster – Semar_paris
• @marklittlenews talks about knowing more about Iran protests via twitter than journalists on the ground. His twitter tipping point – dermotcasey.
• Julian March, Sky “advertisers are interested in big numbers, not smaller audiences that are hugely engaged” – @tweetminster
• Ian Douglas (Telegraph): it’s a great time for journalism. Papers may go under, but media groups are OK – @stctweets
• Biggest twitter followers are people you either love or hate. Big personalities rule. – a dilemma for blogging journalists – Iain Dale – NoreenBowden

On politics:

• AudioBoo: Blogger @iaindale on new media & cross party consensus http://boo.fm/b73240 – @tweetminster:
• A list of 90+ local Irish politicians on Twitter http://bit.ly/2u3DEL @lexia @mickfealty (@paddycosgrave) – @dublinwebsummit
• Thorgersen “social networks can engage citizens for active democracy on a daily basis, not just campaigns” – @tweetminster
• Cochrane says politicians don’t want to engage here as they’ll have to answer questions. Contrast with UK <sounds true –  @NoreenBowden
• Disciplines and responsibilities of government make it hard to use social media. Human is fine, but people need action.- @stctweets
• Estonia : they’re crowdsourcing laws. Wonder what that would do to NAMA 🙂 –  @dermotcasey
• “Obama example is tired [social media impact] the political success was face to face coffee mornings” – @Hammersley
• Hammersley again: if government REALLY used social media, it couldn’t function – too many mad people! – @stctweets
• More Hammersley: social media emerged from a North Californian mindset. The world isn’t all like that. – stctweets
• Hammersley: Social media tools are value neutral. Useful for dictators and extremists too. Don’t expect them to bring democracy. – stctweets
• Iain Dale skeptical of twitter as political tool -but for breaking news “a fantastic thing”. Huge media instutions brought to book – NoreenBowden

On Eamon Ryan:

• Eamon Ryan “..to save the planet from catastrophic climate change..have to use..Internet..as a comms mechanism” – @tweetminster
• Quantum leaps in efficiency using comms & networking technologies to prevent climate change is reason Min. for Comms is here! – @fbd_ie
• If we reduced Ryan’s remarks to 10 seconds, what would most people remember? “wibbly wobbly wonder” gets my vote – @dscanlon
• AudioBoo: Irish Minister Eamon Ryan on telcos & clim change http://is.gd/4I33Q – @Tweetminster

On Facebook:

• Rick Kelley of Facebook attributes the international growth of Facebook to their crowdsource translation model – @localization
• Average of 2 visits per day and 50% return daily Facebook – dermotcasey
• How engaged are users. Average of 25 minutes per day on Facebook – dermotcasey
• Facebook larger in Europe than in the US. 96M in Europe – dermotcasey
• Rick’s mom joined Facebook in 2009. Powerful message. 1.1m Irish people were on FB last month. 65% of online users.- fbd_ie

On Google:

• 50% of people don’t know first few links in Google are paid ads. 50% of people think top link (an ad) is best company – @dermotcasey
• Anthony Quigley Digital Marketing Institute talking SEO. No one in Ireland using Yahoo or Bing. Focus on Google – @dermotcasey
• http://twitpic.com/nj4f3 – Google’s roadmap for survival of the fastest (Ronan Harris) – @tweetminster
• Ronan Harris, Google sales manager: Adoption cycle for new media: technology-content-users-advertising – stctweets
• Ronan Harris, Dir online sales NEu, Google “we’re seeing 2 revolutions, in tech and advertising” – tweetminster
• Google heatmap shows where people look – ads at RHS of screen mostly ignored. Can be niche business – dermotcasey
• Google forcing people to be very specific in what they search. Get the keywords right “digital marketing course” or “online marketing” – dermotcasey
• Mapping for Google switched on in May – changes the results for seaches important to remember this happening all the time – dermotcasey

On Twitter:

• March “90% of Twitter activity is retweets…our job on all new media is to filter that out” – @tweetminster
• Chances of being retweeted rise dramatically (3x) if a link included. –  @stctweets
• Twitter Ethics… Simple… Am I being polite. – @darraghdoyle –  markisgo
• Have twitter landing page linked from the Web Link on Twitter – great idea from @krishnade – dermotcasey
• Twitter: “just becuase you can, doesn’t mean you should” (use for your business). What a sensible woman Krishna De is. – localization
• Understand what you want before using twitter – dermotcasey
• Have noticed at conferences in last 2 weeks it is no longer rude to Twitter or take pics while talking on stage. – NiallHarbison

Best of the Rest:

• Harris “3m people in the uk purchased something online on Xmas day 2008” – @tweetminster
• Jim Miley: Myhome.ie were partly responsible for driving change towards Web in Ireland –@dscanlon
• Mobile & smartphones current turning point – @dermotcasey
• We are in disruptive stage. Big opportunities for new small players to break through. Good question from @dermotcasey – @fbd_ie
• Rishi Saha “only 3.1% of YouTube vids get more than 1000 views” – @tweetminster:
• Evian internet-only advertising: 58 million views. Brand preference +9%. Bit scary. Very successful. http://tiny.cc/O7Tq4 – @stctweets
• Which button would you press: “Donate” or “Donate now”? Obama switched to the latter and saw the difference – @stctweets
• 5 users find 85% of problems on your website – Paddy Cosgrave. Lots of practical, easy to use info in this talk. – @NoreenBowden
• All panelists: websites should cut the crap. Keep it simple! Give clients what they want and need. –  @stctweets

I really enjoyed pulling these insights together so I hope you’ve enjoyed themhere too. If I’ve got any of the attributions incorrect please let me know.