Tumblr is an important platform of social media marketing with over 345 million users. To begin with Tumblr marketing, it is important to understand all the relevant factors such as how to make your business reach the audience of Tumblr, how to make contribution to its community and how to properly use it for business benefits. So let us begin:
Basics of Tumblr:
Since the inception of Tumblr in 2007, this platform has become the host of over 430 million blogs. It is not just the place for sharing GIFs, life updates and memes but much more than that. It is possible to share videos and photo sets and write long blog posts on Tumblr. On signing up to Tumblr account, all the users are prompted for creating a blog. A primary blog is must have for all the users and secondary blogs creation is also possible. The primary blogs could be used as the personal one while the secondary blogs could be used for promoting other field of interests like painting, photography etc.
Also Read : How To Increase Followers On Tumblr?
Dashboard of Tumblr:
- Search bar
- Explore button- to find trending posts
- Messages button-for instant chat
- Inbox button- used for private messages
- New post button- for creating a photo, a text, link, quote, video, chat or audio post
- Activity tab-for notifications like reblogs or likes
Tumblr posting:
Blog posts could be done in 7 forms:
- Quotes: for sharing the quote from a book or a celebrity
- Text: Both short or long text posts could be created as per the requirement
- Chats: this option is meant for conversation sharing. Chat posts could also be shared with title. A text box is there under the title box that takes care of chat formatting so that it appears like an instant conversation or message.
- Videos: this option allows embedding other websites videos, like YouTube. You can also upload your own video with this option.
- Links: sharing a link becomes possible with this option. After pasting the link, a preview will appear that includes title, image and one more box below. The title and image that you see in this preview could be edited as well if desired.
- Photos: there is option to upload individual or sets of images. Tumblr comes with the option arrange these images in any desired manner.
- Audio: in general, music posts are shared in this section of Tumblr. However, audio posts are also recorded and shared by some users on their blogs.
Once a post is created, it could be shared right away. However, other posting options are also available such as saving the post like a draft, scheduling it to share later, posting it in the queue or posting it privately so that the access remains with the admin only.
Queue of Tumblr is similar to posts scheduling for later with the only difference that decision of when it will be posted is made by Tumblr. For the purpose of keeping an active blog, queue option serves to be the best since it allows regular posting even when enough time is not there for every day posting. You can make the setting so that a particular number of posts in queue are posted automatically by Tumblr in some particular timeframe.
Terminology of Tumblr:
- Notes: When your post is liked or rebloged by someone, it is termed as notes. The display of number of notes for a post is available under it. Thousands of notes are often seen for popular posts that are making way across this platform for years.
- Reblogging: reblogging on Tumblr is similar to Twitter retweets. A post could be reblogged as it is or your own images or comments could also be included in it. Reblogging is typically the way in which a post is responded by the users. This is done by users even more than there self posts creation.
- Asks: users are allowed to establish communication with one another by several Tumblr features and Asks is one such feature. An Ask box is there with each blog with which users are allowed to send comments or questions. The question of a person could be responded publicly or privately.
- Submit: asks system does not allow sending links and photos so submission of these is possible with the help of Submit button.
- Hashtags: Tumblr Hashtags are also similar to the other sites of social media with certain differences. For example, you can add as long hashtags as required and spaces could also be included in them. On Tumblr also, hashtags are written under a post and could be used for post organization as well.
How Tumblr could be used for business?
- As a website:
For the purpose of blog customization on Tumblr, unlike the other sites of social media like Twitter or Facebook, several options are available. The only thing that can limit your page usage is the web design knowledge that you have. The easy customization of Tumblr allows business owners to use it like their website. Both free as well as paid themes are available and if required, own theme creation is also possible. URLs could be purchased by users and could be redirected to their Tumblr blog. Most of the business owners follow this practice so that they need not invest much effort and time in full site development and can quickly launch the site. It is very easy for customizing the site. The site could be developed and launched within the duration of a week and content sharing is also done easily with the help of social media built in functionality.
The vibrant craft and DIY community of Tumblr has served helpful for most of the business owners since they were able to post the functions for community as both promotional posts and blog tutorials.
Also Read : Social Media Marketing And Strategy- The Secret Behind Success!
Tumblr advertisement:
Marketers can use the platform for advertisement in several ways:
- Sponsored video posts: These posts appear in the dashboard between the other posts. They include loop and auto play videos in place of GIFs or photos.
- Sponsored posts: The behavior and appearance of these posts is similar to the regular posts of Tumblr so it is possible for the users to reblog or like them. However, for having a look at these posts, it is not important for a person to follow you. These posts are also placed on the dashboards of users in between the posts coming from other blogs in their list of favorites. It is possible to target them on the basis of location, gender and interests.
- Sponsored day: advertisers are allowed by this option to take over dashboards of other users for the duration of 24 hours. An ad is displayed on dashboard of Tumblr just above first post. With this, the users are allowed to click through the page that if filled with brand curated content and posts.
Tumblr advertising can therefore serve to be extremely helpful and could be used in the desired manner for optimal benefits.
Come across the topics that are trending:
On the platforms of social media, the page of trending topics always contains plenty of ideas. The blogs, posts and topics that are most popular are showcased in trending page of Tumblr. To take advantage of this option, one can notice the activities of best performers of this platform to look for the ways in which his business can get benefits from these topics. However, it is important to ensure their relevance with your brand.
Cater to the community of Tumblr:
The users of Tumblr are extremely community oriented. For marketing to this community, just the use of proper hashtags or sharing of relevant posts is not enough. It is important to admire it and become its part in the way making sense for the brand. So before the fall of your posts in void of Tumblr, take care of the following vital points regarding community of Tumblr:
- Most of the users on Tumblr are young: This is the best news for you in case you are searching for ways of marketing to the young people since this will help you to easily reach the millennial. This also means that most of the content that is shared on Tumblr is sarcastic and humorous. This must be kept in mind at the time of making strategy as to market to the audience.
- The community of Tumblr is extremely helpful: Tumblr could be considered as a safe platform for bloggers where they are able to share the things that could not be shared on the other networks. It is possible to find the people which whom users can relate themselves and if they want choose, it is possible to stay anonymous as well. Tumblr community also support awareness towards mental health and therefore it is common to find posts sharing inspirational messages and hotlines at the platform. On account of this network’s supportive nature, real relationships have also been established amongst the users.
For getting success in Tumblr marketing, the best possible method is to understand the overall community and work in the niche in which your brand finds the best fit. However, do not restrict yourself as a brand but be a personality that is genuine as well as reliable as this factor helps a lot in getting the desired respect from Tumblr community.