Heather Taylor

Heather is a writer and filmmaker who covers media and communications, tech, ecommerce and the arts and was listed by Brand Republic as one of the top 200 most influential bloggers in 2011. She is currently editorial director of Econsultancy in New York.

Prior to her move to Econsultancy, Heather was acting editor of About the BBC, the BBC corporate blog and website, and managed online corporate reputation for the BBC. Previous roles included social media manger for PayPal UK and social media/ PR manager for Groundswell award winner, giffgaff.

Heather speaks at events on social media, marketing, community and filmmaking - previous speaking engagements include talks at ComicCon, Reputation Online Live, Technology for Marketing and Advertising, PR Week, European Customer Experience World, Social Media in Business, Media Camp London, and Digital Surrey. She has also advised on social media strategy for a number of startups and charitable organizations.

Walgreens launches new Foursquare and Twitter campaign

Walgreens recently started a new social media campaign with New York-based startup, LocalResponse.

When someone checks into Foursquare and tweets about it, Walgreens tweets some of them back with an offer from Halls that can be redeemed in store if they like them on Facebook.

But is this automated campaign the right approach?

by Heather Taylor 08 February 2012 23:50pm 2 comments

Amazon wades into the US video streaming market

Amazon has announced a new partnership with Viacom which allows Amazon Prime members and Kindle Fire owners to stream unlimited television onto their devices.

Extending Amazon's partnership to include streaming puts them ahead of the race against Netflix and the new Verizon and Redbox partnership as the retail giant looks to capitalize on a market wanting more TV on demand.

by Heather Taylor 08 February 2012 18:34pm 1 comment

Path caught storing users' unencrypted data

Today developer Arun Thampi discovered his entire address book including full names, emails and phone numbers was being collected by the new social app, Path.

In trying to make things easy for users, Path uploads your address book to their servers so you can easily connect to your friends and family on its network.

The problem is Path doesn't tell you it's going to do it.

by Heather Taylor 08 February 2012 00:53am 0 comments

Experience an augmented Valentine's Day with Starbucks

Yesterday Starbucks launched their new Valentine's augmented reality (AR) cups. It's quite a clever way to get customers to not only drink their morning coffee but to buy one for a loved one.

All you need to do is download the app from Starbucks and you can "experience your valentine" as the heart on the side of the cup comes to life.

by Heather Taylor 07 February 2012 17:29pm 1 comment

The future of customer service and social media: infographic

According to Zendesk's new infographic, 62% of customers are looking for more support through social media. Compare that to research by MarketTools at the end of 2011 which shows only 23% of US companies provide customer service via Facebook and 12% provide support via Twitter.

This highlights the continued divide between what customers are expecting and companies are giving.

by Heather Taylor 06 February 2012 19:08pm 5 comments

Verizon and Redbox create new partnership to rival Netflix

Today Verizon and Coinstar's Redbox service have announced their joint venture combining streaming content with physical media rentals.

This new venture will launch the second half of 2012. Though you don't have to be on Verizon to use this product, this combined service will be marketed to Verizon's 109 million wireless and 9 million broadband customers as well as Redbox's 30 million rental customers.

That's what makes this partnership so powerful.

by Heather Taylor 06 February 2012 17:01pm 0 comments

Budweiser Super Bowl ad: something new or just another flash mob?

Yesterday, Budweiser released a video on YouTube of two amateur hockey teams surprised with pro treatment as screaming fans, cheerleaders and mascots attended their pick up game. This two minute spot is the extended version of their new ad premiering in Canada during the Super Bowl.

Compared to the other Super Bowl ad promos bouncing around the internet, this one seemingly created an emotional connection with consumers that the other more gimmicky and "clever" ads, aren't delivering. But is this just another tired use of flash mobs in advertising?

Budweiser's marketing manager, Ben Seaton, says no.

by Heather Taylor 03 February 2012 22:44pm 1 comment

Generation Y and Facebook: infographic

Facebook has moved beyond family and friends as shown by new research into the Facebook usage of 18-29 year olds.

After looking through four million Generation Y Facebook profiles on Identified.com's database, Millennial Branding came up with this handy infographic on how millennials use Facebook professionally.

by Heather Taylor 03 February 2012 18:17pm 0 comments

What we've been reading this week: US edition

These are some of the stories and links we’ve tweeted, posted, and passed around the office. Nothing's ever secret with us.

Now how about you? What was the most talked about video, article or spectacular blunder in your office this week?

by Heather Taylor 03 February 2012 20:53pm 1 comment

US job moves: Mercedes-Benz, Sony, Dow Jones, Apple, Dell

It's Friday and with that comes our coverage of the big moves, hires and fires in the US this week.

We've seen promotions from Mercedes-Benz and Sony, while News Corp. has poached a new CEO for Dow Jones and Apple and Dell are looking to expand their retail and software services with new prominent hires.

by Heather Taylor 03 February 2012 14:53pm 0 comments