This guest post was written by Stefanie Burger
By now you must have caught on to the fact that we are indeed living amidst a fully fledged technological super boom. With new trinkets and toys being introduced every day, our resources for business are unlimited and now include social media! How often do you hear someone say, “I don’t know how” in reference to social media, or even better, how often do you say it? If this is you then Tumblr is the platform that will welcome you with open arms.
What is it? Tumblr is a blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger but with a cleaner user interface and broader understanding of the variations in client skill level. This blog-building site in particular specializes in short-form blogs that allow users to post mixed media like photos and videos in addition to the typical blog text. The purpose of this idea is to share postings with blog followers who can in turn share the parent post with their own followers on various social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The Tumblr platform is easy to use, easy to customize and even easier to manage which makes it blogger friendly at every skill level.
Any new or emerging social media trend can help create power in your organization’s online outreach, but the tangible results depend on how you successfully utilize the trend as a tool. Here are five simple tips and tricks to using Tumblr as a business resource.
- Don’t be afraid of “re-blogging”—much like the concept of re-tweeting on Twitter, re-blogging is a way to start an interaction with your followers and allows them to see content from the blogs you follow. Re-blogging is an interaction that can potentially attract new followers and start a form of two way information exchange.
- Be creative with your tags. Tumblr has a unique search feature that allows readers the chance to narrow their searches according to interests. If you are a running shoe company posting content about a new shoe called “the cloud,” you could use the tags “fitness,” “running,” “cloud,” “ tennis shoe,” “treadmill,” “lose weight,” etc. BE CREATIVE– Your tags don’t need to be generic and with each view comes a potential follower and/or potential consumer.
- Don’t be too serious. Tumblr is a fun social network with a large portion of their users being under 30. Posting relevant, interesting and even humorous content will keep your readers enthralled and coming back. Find the happy medium and create a good fit for your blogging goals.
- Consider using giveaways and contests to spark conversations. Require followers to take action in order to be entered for a prize. Action could include writing a post on their blog about you and creating tags or posting a photo with your product, etc. This sparks conversation and also brings in potential followers.
- Lastly, link your postings to your other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, this will reach a demographic that may or may not be present on Tumblr already.
Use these tips as a foundation for your new blogging adventure and always remember to keep your content current and relevant to your business, brand or product. Good luck and happy blogging!
Photo Credit: Glenn Batuyong