By Tasha Cunningham
Have you heard about Tumblr? This popular blogging platform boasts roughly 60 million users and has gotten the attention of major brands like Coca-Cola, Huffington Post, Comedy Central and National Public Radio (NPR). But for a business small business owner, the notion of adding yet another social engagement platform to your marketing mix may seem daunting.
Will creating a presence on a blogging platform like Tumblr result in more customers? Are you looking at using Tumblr to generate revenue or simply to engage and inform potential customers? BizBytes has compiled a quick overview of Tumblr to help you decide.
What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is essentially a blogging platform with a visual component that makes it easy to promote your products using pictures. It’s been around for about five years and is used by a number of major brands and organizations. Even President Obama has one.
Why Tumblr Makes Blogging Easier
If you’ve already got a blog on your website, you may not want to invest the time in starting another one on Tumblr. But chances are the blog on your website doesn’t get you exposure to the nearly 60 million users that are on Tumblr. One option may be to replace your current website blog with a
Tumblr, which could actually be easier for you to maintain. It user-friendly, customizable in minutes and comes with a mobile app that allows you to update your Tumblr on the fly. The platform also offers many free, ready-made themes that make your Tumblr look less like a blog and more like a sleek version of your website. You can also easily integrate it with Facebook and Twitter. Tumblr
also makes it easy to get your posts noticed using a system that tags and filters content by category.
Why Tumblr May Not be Right for Your Small Business
If you’re used to measuring your marketing success using analytics, Tumblr may not be right for you. Currently, there are no features on Tumblr that allow you to see how many people are interacting with your content using a dashboard. So it makes it hard to get accurate stats. Another drawback of
Tumblr is its limited comment functionality. Currently, you need a third-party app to comment on an individual post, which is not the case with platforms like Facebook.
How to Make the Most of Tumblr:
Use an engaging design. How you design your Tumblr is important. There are free template themes, but you can also customize the look. Check out these Tumblr pages to see how major brands do it.
Coca-Cola: http://coca-cola.tumblr.com/
President Obama: http://barackobama.tumblr.com/
Comedy Central: http://comedycentral.tumblr.com/
National Public Radio: http://npr.tumblr.com/
Get a custom URL. It’s important to create a custom URL for your Tumblr blog. URLs are usually formatted like this – yourbusinessname.tumblr.com.
Give your Tumblr a personality. If you create a Tumblr, let your followers and potential customers know who is in charge of it. Designate someone at your company to be the “curator”, the person responsible for posting content and maintaining the blog. It gives your Tumblr a personal touch
and gives customers direct access to your brand.
Are you using Tumblr in your small business? How has it helped you?
Want to learn more about blogging with Tumblr? Download the free BizBytes guide, Tumblr 101 for Small Business at www.BizBytes101.com.