Day 2 of the Web Summit got off to a super start to the morning thanks to Vivienne Barry, Chief Inspector of Dublin Bus, who made sure I got to the Web Summit on time. Incidentally Dublin Bus have laid on some extra shuttle buses that will drop you to the front door of the RDS. The drivers are super helpful and couldn’t do enough. They are great Ireland brand ambassadors and did a great job helping out visiting business people.
Meanwhile we wondered if Day 1’s lineup could be topped. Today’s line up was spectacular including speakers from Weebly, Facebook and Pinterest. David Rusenko from Weebly who spoke about Weebly’s super new Carbon system and App integration . WordPress had better watch out as we can see Weebly easily outstripping WordPress in terms of performance and ease of use. They are determined to build a one stop easy-to-use system with a focus on busy entrepreneurs and startups. He also had some words of inspiration when he spoke about the “long and lonely journey” of a startup. He says “it takes about 5/6 years really” and “I wrote my first line of code in 2006 which is a long time ago now.” Weebly has grown with “30 million entrepreneurs online now” and a “user base of 200 million.” A long time advocate of WordPress, it’s starting to look shabby when compared to Weebly’s super new intuitive interface.
David from @Weebly and Mollie from @criteo talk about #mobilecommerce being equal to having a shop in your pocket. Weebly now has 30 million #entrepreneurs on board
Posted by The Small Business Fairy Digital Marketing on Wednesday, 4 November 2015
Other speakers included Facebook’s Head of AdTech, Dave Jakubowski. In fairness his Irish roots shone through and he didn’t try to sell us anything, instead opting to practice what he preaches and add value to the audience experience. His focus was on user data consumption and the importance of mobile in marketing. He also spoke about the fact that “consumers cross everything.” He gave a very insightful presentation, referring to the #FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) factor which drives huge volumes of data that then needs to be analysed so that brands can try and truly understand the consumer.
Dave Jakubowski – head of #Adtech @facebook talks about consumers that cross everything #mobile #FOMO #WebSummit pic.twitter.com/SrydaPqR07
— Small Business Fairy (@sbfcentral) November 4, 2015
Nicola Mendelsohn, (Facebook’s most powerful person outside the US) focused on video being the next stage of social media evolution. She also confirmed that mobile “isn’t happening, it’s happened”. Facebook were slow to adapt to the technology but the phenomenal growth of mobile has meant that they had to re-focus with ¾ of all Facebook revenue now coming from mobile. She also spoke about the new Facebook for Work system that looks set to take on LinkedIn. Facebook are being aggressive about the marketing the system, having signed up RBS who have committed to getting “30,000 people onboard and aiming for 100,000 at the end of the year.” Watch this space and watch out LinkedIn. 
Tim Kendall from Pinterest enthralled us with his story as to how Pinterest grew completely on a (WOM) word of mouth basis. The company’s new mission is to “do for discovery, what Google did for search.” It’s all about bringing the consumer on a voyage of discovery. “They’re using the platform to self educate and learn.” The company’s biggest challenge is educating users as to how it works and what it could do for them.
Great talk monetising #socialmedia – @Pinterest trying to do for discovery what @google did for search – Tim Kendall pic.twitter.com/223m0ujU5I — Small Business Fairy (@sbfcentral) November 4, 2015
A nice new phrase was being bandied about called #BrandCommerce. This is essentially the conglomeration of previously separate marketing functions. Rather than the old system of looking at each department separately, it encompasses a holistic view of social media, campaign management, content management, sales, retaining customers etc. The catch-all phrase was coined by brand master Stephen Moy of Isobar.
Agile #entrepreneurs and #startups can disrupt larger #brands – Han Wen @clarins group #WebSummit #brandcommerce pic.twitter.com/y8AQHpF6Ew — Small Business Fairy (@sbfcentral) November 4, 2015
Meanwhile on the same stage Han Wen from the super brand Clarins Group spoke about the difficulty of marketing heritage brands. She said “Mom and Pop setups who are agile are able to disrupt the larger brands in the space faster. As we deal with traditional brands and all the factors that make that brand successful, we need to convince the stakeholders that innovation is needed …(in areas of digital marketing).” She continued “this is very difficult and you might get it through this year but we then have to go back next year and convince them that more innovation is needed, that we cannot stand still.” She concluded that this space is perfect for startups and smaller businesses with good products and smart branding.
Our favourite quote of the day: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke
