Tara Hunt
Encyclopedia
Tara Hunt is an author, speaker and startup founder, known for her work in marketing and community-building, as well as for her book, The Whuffie Factor.
. In 2002, she founded a small marketing brand called "Rogue Strategies." She moved, along with her business, to Toronto, Ontario before moving to San Francisco in 2005.
Hunt was hired by the San Francisco based visual search engine Riya 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.
Hunt was one of the lead bloggers on the popular Canadian online portal One Degree.
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.
describing it as "a clear, enthusiastic guide to community building online." An Arizona Daily Star
reviewer wrote "Tara Hunt's eminently readable book does a terrific job of explaining this slightly counterintuitive notion, which might be expressed as 'the more you give, the more you can get.'" To promote the book, she traveled across the United States on a "Whuffaoke" tour, driving an RV containing a karaoke
lounge. The tour ended in Montreal, Quebec where Hunt now resides. Crown published the paperback edition in May 2010 under the revised title "The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business".
Whuffie
is a term which is described in the book The Whuffie Factor, written by Tara Hunt. In the book, she ponders about how individuals and companies can increase their Whuffie. Whuffie is a general measurement of a person’s or a company’s overall reputation - including it’s influence, network-capital, talent, resources and achievements. Whuffie can be increased or reduced by various positive and negative contributions to social media. To increase Whuffie, a person or a company should win the confidence of its customers and fellow humans. The basis for Whuffie is trust - the Whuffie-gathering player can’t buy people's appreciation and trust, but have to earn it!
Whuffie gives companies, or individuals, with much financial resources less direct influence and forces them to become more competitive since monetary accumulation and Whuffie-accumulation are two different currencies and money can’t buy Whuffie. Instead, everybody have the same conditions to collect Whuffie. However, Whuffie is not something one can store as easily as real money - to be rich in Whuffie, one must be active and constantly maintain a good reputation, be active in online communities and provide a rich network and so on.
The monetary economy is needed for everyday consumption, however it doesn’t earn much use in the social media. Instead Whuffie is playing a huge part there! The market economy can’t usually generate Whuffie, but Whuffie can in turn generate money. This works through online businesses where the enterpriser has to work strategically to be Whuffie-rich and thus gain trust and a good reputation. This leads to an influx of consumers. A high social capital, that means the sum of the confidence that individuals in a group or a society has for a company or a person, will lead to more customers - which means that a company sells more.
If a company is working to increase their Whuffie-capital it enjoys a number of advantages – they gain a long-term and loyal relationship with the customers which can assure the future of the company. The Whuffie building is also a small cash cost, however the result generate results fairly quickly while it’s also is creating a more positive picture of the company, a picture that is spread through different consumers on different parts of the internet.
If one has a large integrated network it is possible to reach a lot of people. If the same also have a lot of Whuffie, it means that the people reached is influenced in a larger part since Whuffie, among other things, includes trust.
Whuffie may also be very important for nonprofit organizations, since it can generate a lot of attention and interest at a low cost!
Five keys to build up Whuffie
In her book, Tara Hunt presents five key principles which different actors can use to increase their Whuffie, namely by:
1.Reverse the megaphone: instead of trying to get customers to listen to the company, the company needs to listen to the customers and ask themselves exactly what customers want or need?
2. Become part of the community and realize that customer awareness is a keyword - find the target group and interact with them. Leave the office and become a part of the society!
3. Create amazing customer experiences: it is not enough to create a product that works - customers have to love it!
4. Embrace the chaos: communities are created by humans, and humans are unpredictable.
5. Find the higher purpose: What can the company give to the society and continue to be profitable?
Examples of how a company increases its Whuffie
An example of a company increasing their Whuffie according to the five points above are the BUBS’ product “Raspberry licorice skull”. They wanted an easy way to reach out to their customers and at the same time market themselves at a large social forum, they used Facebook
to make this happen! With the Facebook page for the “Raspberry licorice skull” BUBS opened up a forum for discussion of the product (item 1, 2 and 4) and they could also add pictures and comments on how the production of their product went on. (Paragraph 3) The updated their fan page often and earned many so-called "likes". This means that if you "like" the product at their Facebook page you will automatically get updated about what is going on around the product. With this BUBS have succeeded in creating something customers want to buy and still continue to be profitable (paragraph 5).
BUBS chose to use Facebook, because it is a huge forum for discussion and generates a rapid spread to many people. At the same time they create a solid relationship with its customers, meet their needs and prevent that a bad reputation arises about the company. Various candy retailers also saw that the “Raspberry licorice skull” got many "likes" and thus chose to include them in their candy supply. This resulted in an increased production of the ““Raspberry licorice skull“ for BUBS.
Social Forums are today a widely used and accepted way for businesses to increase their Whuffie!
Biography
Hunt obtained a degree in Communications and Cultural Studies at the University of CalgaryUniversity of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
. In 2002, she founded a small marketing brand called "Rogue Strategies." She moved, along with her business, to Toronto, Ontario before moving to San Francisco in 2005.
Hunt was hired by the San Francisco based visual search engine Riya 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
The Cluetrain Manifesto
The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organized and put forward as a manifesto, or call to action, for all businesses operating within what is suggested to be a newly-connected marketplace....
left off, changing the focus from company to consumer marketing to consumer-to-consumer marketing.
Hunt was one of the lead bloggers on the popular Canadian online portal One Degree.
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.
The Whuffie Factor
The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business was published by Crown Business in April 2009. The book received positive reviews, with CNNMoney.comCNNMoney.com
CNNMoney.com is the world's largest business website. The site is the online home of Fortune and Money, and serves as CNN.com's exclusive business site. The site, edited by Chris Peacock, together with the three titles, is part of the Fortune|Money Group, and attracts more than 10.8 million unique...
describing it as "a clear, enthusiastic guide to community building online." An Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star
The Arizona Daily Star is the major morning daily newspaper that serves Tucson and surrounding districts of southern Arizona in the United States. The paper was purchased by Pulitzer in 1971; Lee Enterprises bought Pulitzer in 2005....
reviewer wrote "Tara Hunt's eminently readable book does a terrific job of explaining this slightly counterintuitive notion, which might be expressed as 'the more you give, the more you can get.'" To promote the book, she traveled across the United States on a "Whuffaoke" tour, driving an RV containing a karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
lounge. The tour ended in Montreal, Quebec where Hunt now resides. Crown published the paperback edition in May 2010 under the revised title "The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business".
Whuffie
Whuffie
Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow's science fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. This book describes a post-scarcity economy: All the necessities of life are free for the taking...
is a term which is described in the book The Whuffie Factor, written by Tara Hunt. In the book, she ponders about how individuals and companies can increase their Whuffie. Whuffie is a general measurement of a person’s or a company’s overall reputation - including it’s influence, network-capital, talent, resources and achievements. Whuffie can be increased or reduced by various positive and negative contributions to social media. To increase Whuffie, a person or a company should win the confidence of its customers and fellow humans. The basis for Whuffie is trust - the Whuffie-gathering player can’t buy people's appreciation and trust, but have to earn it!
Whuffie gives companies, or individuals, with much financial resources less direct influence and forces them to become more competitive since monetary accumulation and Whuffie-accumulation are two different currencies and money can’t buy Whuffie. Instead, everybody have the same conditions to collect Whuffie. However, Whuffie is not something one can store as easily as real money - to be rich in Whuffie, one must be active and constantly maintain a good reputation, be active in online communities and provide a rich network and so on.
The monetary economy is needed for everyday consumption, however it doesn’t earn much use in the social media. Instead Whuffie is playing a huge part there! The market economy can’t usually generate Whuffie, but Whuffie can in turn generate money. This works through online businesses where the enterpriser has to work strategically to be Whuffie-rich and thus gain trust and a good reputation. This leads to an influx of consumers. A high social capital, that means the sum of the confidence that individuals in a group or a society has for a company or a person, will lead to more customers - which means that a company sells more.
If a company is working to increase their Whuffie-capital it enjoys a number of advantages – they gain a long-term and loyal relationship with the customers which can assure the future of the company. The Whuffie building is also a small cash cost, however the result generate results fairly quickly while it’s also is creating a more positive picture of the company, a picture that is spread through different consumers on different parts of the internet.
If one has a large integrated network it is possible to reach a lot of people. If the same also have a lot of Whuffie, it means that the people reached is influenced in a larger part since Whuffie, among other things, includes trust.
Whuffie may also be very important for nonprofit organizations, since it can generate a lot of attention and interest at a low cost!
Five keys to build up Whuffie
In her book, Tara Hunt presents five key principles which different actors can use to increase their Whuffie, namely by:
1.Reverse the megaphone: instead of trying to get customers to listen to the company, the company needs to listen to the customers and ask themselves exactly what customers want or need?
2. Become part of the community and realize that customer awareness is a keyword - find the target group and interact with them. Leave the office and become a part of the society!
3. Create amazing customer experiences: it is not enough to create a product that works - customers have to love it!
4. Embrace the chaos: communities are created by humans, and humans are unpredictable.
5. Find the higher purpose: What can the company give to the society and continue to be profitable?
Examples of how a company increases its Whuffie
An example of a company increasing their Whuffie according to the five points above are the BUBS’ product “Raspberry licorice skull”. They wanted an easy way to reach out to their customers and at the same time market themselves at a large social forum, they used Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
to make this happen! With the Facebook page for the “Raspberry licorice skull” BUBS opened up a forum for discussion of the product (item 1, 2 and 4) and they could also add pictures and comments on how the production of their product went on. (Paragraph 3) The updated their fan page often and earned many so-called "likes". This means that if you "like" the product at their Facebook page you will automatically get updated about what is going on around the product. With this BUBS have succeeded in creating something customers want to buy and still continue to be profitable (paragraph 5).
BUBS chose to use Facebook, because it is a huge forum for discussion and generates a rapid spread to many people. At the same time they create a solid relationship with its customers, meet their needs and prevent that a bad reputation arises about the company. Various candy retailers also saw that the “Raspberry licorice skull” got many "likes" and thus chose to include them in their candy supply. This resulted in an increased production of the ““Raspberry licorice skull“ for BUBS.
Social Forums are today a widely used and accepted way for businesses to increase their Whuffie!