|
TARA E. HUNT |
|
Verdun, QC H4G 3M3 - Canada |
-
|
SUMMARY |
|
|
Tara Hunt, CEO of Buyosphere, was named as one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company Magazine and has spent her entire adult life online and the years pre-internet obsessed with technology.
In April 2009, she published a book with Random House called The Whuffie Factor/Power of Social Networking (paperback) that discussed how the social web has changed business forever. It is published in 8 languages and is an international bestseller. She spent 5 years as a professional public speaker, traveling worldwide to keynote on the topic of the social web. Today, Buyosphere, the company she cofounded in Montreal, is revolutionizing shopping online by connecting people searching for products with people who know how to find them. Buyosphere leverages Tara's knowledge of the social web to democratize e-commerce. |
|
-
|
WORK EXPERIENCE |
|
|
Buyosphere, Montreal, QC |
June 2011 - Present |
|
CEO (Customer Experience Officer) |
|
|
Buyosphere aims to be THE place that people will go to find products right for them. It is a Q&A platform for shopping.
I have been the CEO at the company full-time since January 2010, but we launched the product in June 2011. My duties include:
- |
|
|
Professional Public Speaker, Worldwide |
January 2006 - January 2010 |
|
Speaker |
|
|
I've spoken at well over 100 conferences worldwide and did so for a living for many years. I still do it occasionally in order to keep my company profile high.
- |
|
|
Intuit Inc., Mountain View, California |
February 2009 - June 2009 |
|
Marketing Manager, Intuit Partner Platform |
|
|
SKILLS USED: User Experience Design, online marketing, marketing strategy, management, product management, project management, brand development, market research, trend analysis, presentation development and delivery, web design.
- |
|
|
Citizen Agency LLC, San Francisco, California |
June 2006 - January 2009 |
|
Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder |
|
|
Citizen Agency is a boutique firm designed to help technology companies understand and serve their customer communities better. The community marketing techniques I developed for Riya.com left me with the reputation for being a strong online community marketer, so merely one month after we launched, I gained a full client roster. Two years later, and after many other successes with these techniques for other clients, Citizen Agency gained the reputation for bringing cost-effective, relationship building marketing and product development strategies to the wide roster of clients.
Some clients worked with: Slideshare.net, Ma.gnolia.com, Social Text, Facebook's F8 platform, Get Satisfaction, Songbird, Timbuk2, Scrapblog, Jajah, TripIt and Strands. - |
|
|
Riya.com, Redwood City, California |
August 2005 - June 2006 |
|
Online Marketing Director |
|
|
In six months pre-launch, and as the sole marketing person, my community outreach strategy raised enough awareness to land Riya as the 'sweetheart' of Web 2.0, appearing on over 500 blogs, in over 20 publications and gathering interest from all corners of the world. All of this was achieved pre-launch.
The first day Riya launched, there were over 1 million photos uploaded and nearly 20,000 sign-ups. - |
|
|
Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario |
April 2003 - August 2005 |
|
New Media Manager |
|
|
At HRPAO, I worked on a team to implement a massive new Content Management System, complete with over 2500 articles on Human Resources and an additional 1500 pages of other resources for the 15,000+ member organization in Ontario.
I also set up affiliate programs with organizations such as Monster.ca, Yahoo!HotJobs and various Canadian HR publications. SKILLS USED: Online marketing, new media management, digital marketing, brand development, strategic planning, budgeting, project management, search engine marketing, customer relationship management, market research, trend analysis, copywriting/editing, presentation development & delivery, web design, etc. - |
|
|
Rogue Strategies, Calgary, Alberta & Toronto, Ontario |
June 2002 - August 2006 |
|
President |
|
|
I set up Rogue Strategies to offer both on and offline marketing strategies to my small and medium business clients across Canada.
Rogue Strategies was the recipient of many awards for our campaigns, including merit for best gaming/promotion site for the Canadian Digital Marketing Awards and Applied Arts Magazine's 2003 Best Poster and Poster Series for my online/offline Joe Stiff's Spiked Root Beer campaign. The multiple clients served over the lifetime of Rogue Strategies reaped the benefits of low cost, high-impact online marketing strategies. - |
|
|
MGM Communications, Calgary, Alberta |
April 2001 - June 2002 |
|
Account Director |
|
|
I handled over 20 clients at any given time, both as a strategic planner and implementer on campaigns and launches. Often working in large agency/client teams, my role was to come up with the non-traditional tactics, including online, event and experiential elements. I also managed all other aspects of account direction, including client relations and project management.
SKILLS USED: Public relations, investor relations, online marketing, new media management, digital marketing, brand development, strategic planning, budgeting, project management, search engine marketing, market research, trend analysis, copywriting/editing, presentation development & delivery, web design. - |
|
|
MAXX Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, Alberta |
August 1999 - April 2001 |
|
Communications & New Media Manager |
|
|
SKILLS USED: Public relations, investor relations, online marketing, new media management, digital marketing, brand development, strategic planning, budgeting, project management, search engine marketing, market research, trend analysis, copywriting/editing, presentation development & delivery, web design.
- |
|
-
|
EDUCATION |
|||
|
University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, 1995 - 1999 |
|||
|
Bachelor of Arts in Communications & Culture, 3.92 Grade Point Average |
|
||
-
|
BOOKS |
|
|
The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business - Random House, May 2010. ISBN: 978-0-3074494-0-5
The Whuffie Factor: The Five Keys for Maxing Social Capital and Winning with Online Communities - Random House, April 2009. ISBN: 978-0-3074095-0-8 Rebooting America: Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age (contributor) - Personal Democracy Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-9817509-0-3 Women in Technology (contributor) - O'Reilly Media Inc. |
|
-
|
PUBLIC SPEAKING |
|
|
Presented at over 110 conferences over the past four years including: Fuel Conference, Thinking Digital, Web 2.0 Expo, ETech, SXSW Interactive, Gnomedex, Web Directions and SuperNova.
Presentations can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue List of speaking experience here: http://www.horsepigcow.com/public-speaking/ Represented by Leigh Bureau. |
|
-
|
EVENT PLANNING |
|
|
Organized over 50 events - including conferences, unconferences, educational seminars and meetups - ranging in size from 50 to 2,000 attendees.
|
|
-
|
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING |
|
|
TransitCampBayArea, BarCamp, WineCamp, Coworking, OpenMediaWeb.org, HeroCamp, Creative Commons, Microformats, OpenID, Net Squared, Sunlight Foundation, EFF, Craigslist Foundation
Volunteering: Freecycle - 2007 Net Squared - 2006/2007 Inspiration Festival - New York 2006 Sunnybrook Women's Hospital - 2005 Toronto International Film Festival - 2003/2004 |
|
-
|
AWARDS AND HONORS |
|
|
2011 - 25 Women-Led Startups to Watch
2009 - Most Influential Women in Technology (Fast Company) 2003 - Canadian Digital Marketing Awards: Certificate, Promotional/Gaming Site 2003 - Applied Arts Magazine: Best Poster & Best Poster Series |
|
-
|
ONLINE PRESENCE |
|
|
http://www.buyosphere.com
http://www.horsepigcow.com http://www.agingungracefully.net http://about.me/tarahunt |
|
-