Tara Hunt (born July 15, 1973 in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) is an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, speaker and startup founder. She has been called a "pioneer in online marketing and one of the most respected authorities on online communities".

Biography

Hunt obtained a degree in Communications and Cultural Studies at the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

. In 2002, she founded a small marketing brand called "Rogue Strategies." She moved, along with her business, to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

before moving to San Francisco in 2005. She co-founded Citizen Agency in San Francisco, a now-defunct community marketing consulting firm. Hunt was hired by the San Francisco-based visual search engine

Riya Riya is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Riya, Japanese singer * Riya Bamniyal, Indian actress * Riya Deepsi, Indian actress and model *Riya Sen Riya Sen (born Riya Dev Varma; 24 January 1981) is an Indian actress and mo ...

to lead their marketing efforts. In June 2006, Hunt coined a movement of "post-cluetrain" marketing called ''Pinko Marketing''. Pinko Marketing picked up where The Cluetrain Manifesto left off, changing the focus from company to consumer marketing to consumer-to-consumer marketing. She was named one of the most influential women in tech by Fast Company in 2009, as she is an early leader of "user generated conferences" such as

BarCamp BarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences primarily focused on technology and the web. They are open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early st ...

and is considered to be one of the founders of the co-working movement. Hunt was one of the lead bloggers on the popular Canadian online portal One Degree. She wrote "The Whuffie Factor", published in April 2009. The title of the book refers to the reputation-based currency of

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born 17 July 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of th ...

's science-fiction novel, 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom'. Along with the humorous metaphor implied by the title, the book gives practical guidance for online and social media marketing. The Whuffie Factor has been translated into French and Portuguese. In May 2010, it was reprinted in paperback in May 2010 with the title ''The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business ''. Hunt speaks at a variety of conferences and events such as SXSW Interactive (2008, 2009, 2011), the MESH conference (2006) and TEDxConcordia (2011). In 2010, along with Co-Founders Jerome Paradis and Cassandra Girard, Hunt launched Buyosphere, formerly known as Shwowp, a social site which lets users organize and share buying trends with others. Tara is currently Principal and Founder of Truly Inc., hosts a podcast called Anatomy of a Strategy and runs a YouTube video series called ''Truly Social with Tara.''

Published works

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Tara 1973 births Living people Canadian technology writers University of Calgary alumni Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian bloggers Writers from Montreal Writers from Saskatoon Canadian women bloggers Women technology writers

Biography

Published works

See also

References

Further reading

External links