By Joshua Smith
Tumblr has been described as “the space in between Twitter and Facebook.” – Mark Coatney
According to the sites “About Tumblr” section, Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme's HTML. Mediaite.com posted a column by Anthony De Rosa who calls the combination of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr “The Holy Trinity of Social Media.”“There is a corner of the internet where actors, comedians, musicians, artists, writers, bloggers,directors, people from all walks of life are creating over 2 million posts per day, and are often meeting each other in person in over 50 different places around the world, from New York to London to Berlin to Tokyo. The place is Tumblr and it is quickly becoming the third member of the holy trinity of social media, along with Twitter and Facebook.”
Industries such as Rolling Stone, BlackBook Media Corporation, The Paris Review, The Huffington Post, Life Magazine and The New York Times have established a presence on Tumblr.
But what’s the hype? How can Tumblr help you connect with the audience “in between?”
Always, always, always do your research. Know who your target market is and where they participate online. Mr. Coatney has stated that U.S. Tumblr users tend to be younger – 56% of the services 25.2 million monthly visitors are under 34, and users skew slightly more male (52%). Knowing this and considering the growth of Tumblr, determine if it’s worth your time.
Social Media management is time consuming, especially if you target different groups on different sites. Some organizations have only a Facebook Fan Page. Some are just learning what a #hashtag means on Twitter. Others may struggle with Social Media overload as they desperately try to brand every corner of the internet.
Set measureable goals using Tumblr statistics. If you are not confident in your use of Tumblr you can always check the figures to see the impact your account has on the public. Adding the Tumblr Stat application to your site lets you analyze your blog posts for reposts, traffic and user information.
(applications instructions @ http://tumblring.net/track-tumblr-traffic-visitors/)
Other applications and site information to help you create your Tumblr account:
Automatic Twitter integration
Publish posts to Facebook
Community powered blogs
Own your work
Video posting
FeedBurner RSS support
No Ads or banners
+ dozens of third party apps
http://www.mediaite.com/online/tumblr-completes-the-holy-trinity-of-social-media/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/technology/02tumblr.html
