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.

Food Network Star finale scores big for Scripps Network

This week it's all about media & technology on our weekly showcase of The Dachis Group's Social Business Index.

Our focus is on two well-known brands - a digital marketing and technology company and a media company known for its food and home renovation channels – as analyzed by Allison Squires of the Dachis Group.

We'll also take a glimpse at the top twenty brands on the Social Business Index, a real-time ranking of more than 30,000 global brands based on their performance in the social space, to see how the biggest brands in social are faring.

by Heather Taylor 26 July 2012 20:56pm 1 comment

Barclays: the disconnect between social and traditional CRM

According to a recent Forrester study, only about 37% of brands scored "good" or excellent in customer service reviews.

As customers move more and more online for their primary sources, some brands are struggling to create single-view profiles of their customers, and customer satisfaction is dropping.

Companies like Barclays may be a primary example of those who promote themselves as being digitally forward (especially as it moves into the mobile payment space), but are falling behind in their traditional forms of customer service.

by Heather Taylor 25 July 2012 20:48pm 4 comments

American Eagle: Bringing offline to online and vice versa

American Eagle (AE) was founded in 1977 and now has over 1,000 stores in the US, Canada, Asia and the Middle East. As more and more customers are moving online, AE has been adopted a strategy of bringing offline to online and vice versa.

When you have a store front, it's much easier to get your offline message out to the customers who love your product. They are already coming in to buy so you have a chance to integrate that experience with an online one or just make them aware you have one!

by Heather Taylor 24 July 2012 21:25pm 0 comments

Lack of social ROI measurement holding industry back

The world of social media is a ever changing landscape. In recognition of that, the Social Media Advertising Consortium (SMAC) was created in 2009 to educate member companies on issues and trends in social media. More recently, it has been striving to create standards in social media for the advertising industry.

We had the chance to talk to Nichole Goodyear, former CEO & Co-founder of Brickfish.com and Co-Executive Director of SMAC, about social media standards, how our ad spend needs to change and if Facebook advertising is really worth it.

by Heather Taylor 23 July 2012 18:59pm 6 comments

Digital dose: Marketers must test, test, test

Each week with Digital Dose, we will be talking to top marketers their top tips for their peers.

Today, we hear from Carter Refo, Account Executive at Yesmail Interactive, who stresses that marketers need to continue to test during all stages of a campaign.

by Heather Taylor 20 July 2012 20:47pm 0 comments

Not all multi-screen activities are created equal: Infographic

Multi-screen activities while watching TV are very common with many viewers also on their computers, tablets and mobiles.

According to the Econsultancy/ IAB report, The Multi-Screen Marketer, the way viewers engage with their other screens changes depending on what program they are watching.

We've broken down the percentage of commerce and non-commerce activities for seven major program areas as well as highlighted the top activities for specific programmes and put them in a handy infographic.

by Heather Taylor 19 July 2012 22:31pm 1 comment

SBI: Subway proves food porn is a winner

This week it's all about food and games on our weekly showcase of The Dachis Group's Social Business Index.

Our focus is on three well-known brands - the world's largest sandwich chain, a specialty grocery store, and the people behind Monopoly – as analyzed by Lauren Picarello of the Dachis Group team.

by Heather Taylor 19 July 2012 15:34pm 0 comments

Pricing Engine: making your ad spend more effective

One of the stumbling blocks of small to medium sized businesses, is their ability to manage their ad spend in the most efficient and effective way. They often don't have a large team or the budgets to do so and are looking to save time and money.

Pricing Engine is a new start up that recently launched into Beta as a tool to help marketers not only do digital advertising themselves, but to be more effective at it. It was created to help marketers know where they are, how they're doing compared to their peers, and what they should do to improve it.

I had a chance to talk to Jeremy Kagan, CEO of Pricing Engine, about his new product and how he envisions how it is going to change the way SMBs, consultants and B2B enterprise clients do business.

by Heather Taylor 18 July 2012 23:06pm 1 comment

SBI: Heineken riding high on the festival wave

With this week's snapshot of The Dachis Group's Social Business Index, we're showcasing three brands - a dutch beer favourite, the people behind Nutella, and a major credit card company – as analyzed by the Dachis Group team.

by Heather Taylor 12 July 2012 15:53pm 0 comments

Digital dose: Attribution must be tied to analytics

Each week with Digital Dose, we will be talking to top marketers their top tips for their peers.

Today, we highlight a tip from Jeremy Post, Search Marketing Lead at Modcloth, who details how attribution is an important part of an integrated marketing strategy as it shows where your performance lies.

by Heather Taylor 13 July 2012 20:23pm 0 comments