Should You Be on Tumblr?
Combining the social sharing of Twitter and Facebook with a clean, easy-to-use blogging platform, Tumblr is quickly carving its own niche in the social media landscape, now with over 30 million blogs and more than 10 billion posts.
Tumblr users are drawn to the quick setup and simplicity, making it the perfect blog platform for those who want to get a blog up and running right now. Although it doesn’t have the power of WordPress, it’s also much easier to understand and use. You can literally launch a blog in under 5 minutes.
In addition to ergonomics, Tumblr blogs are augmented with social media features that encourages the redistribution of content. Users can “Follow” blogs that appear in their dashboard much like an RSS feed. They can then reblog these to their own Tumblr feed.
Interacting with fellow bloggers, by commenting or even simply “Liking” is a great way to expand your network, by getting your name across and drawing attention to your own “tumblelog”, especially if you are doing it strategically, and focusing your interaction to blogs that are similar or related to the product or service that you offer.
Another great way to get found on Tumblr is through tagging. Every post you tag goes into the general Tumblr archive for the tags you specify. If you post a photo of a Porsche and tag it with related words like “sports car” “luxury car and “classic automobiles,” your photo has a strong chance of appearing in those tag streams.
As always, remember to be truly social. Interact for real, and dont’ simply post canned slogans, taglines and links to your tumblelog or website. People will think you’re just spamming and unfollow, or worse report you to Tumblr admins.
Plus on your tumblelog, remember to keep things simple, short and visual. Tumblr fans tend to be younger and might be put off by things that are “corporate-looking”. Consider using large format photos and simple graphics and visuals.
