What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is a blogging and social platform that hosts more than 133 million blogs and 58 billion posts, and is among the top 15 websites in the United States. The Tumblr website states that “Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post texts, photos, quotes, links, music, videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme’s HTML.”
With user numbers and popularity on the rise, it could be a perfect marketing tool for your business.
How to get started?
Signing up is easy. They declare on their website that it takes one minute to do so. First head to www.tumblr.com where you will be asked to enter your email, a password and select a username. Note: Try to get an exact match for your business name or brand or of your primary website URL. Another option would be to use your Twitter name, but only do this if your business is currently established on Twitter.
Also, consider using your business logo as your avatar, or the same image that you use on the rest of your business social pages.
Now it’s time to design:
First impressions matters, especially on the internet, as ironic as that sounds. To build a solid business presence on Tumblr, use a catchy theme for your page. You may choose one that is similar to your business or brand’s colors, or something that is catchy for your audience. There are a ton of free and paid themes available to choose from. Take the time and browse the available themes and then select one that fits your business and install it in seconds.
Many themes also allow you to customize them how you like. This gives you the freedom to give your page a unique look that is relevant to your business. Compared to the rest of the social networks out there, Tumblr is much more customizable and doesn’t require any serious programming skills.
Spend some time setting up your page, and getting familiar with the options that are available. Once you feel comfortable with your page, start to engage!
Engaging, Interacting and Sharing:
You will spend the majority of your time posting content but it’s also important to interact with users. Start by searching for a blog that you feel is relevant to your business and click the follow button so you can receive their posts in your feed. You should continue to do this, and build up a feed that you enjoy following as a business. Interact with their posts and use the reblogging feature to share the content that you feel is informative.
What you post, interact with, or reblog within Tumblr will define you as a user and as a business on Tumblr. Remember the image you want to project and build your engagement, and publishing around that. Choose your content wisely. As a business, it is important to work on humanizing your image, that way you can establish trust and customer loyalty, and after that potentially close sales.
Pictures Say a Thousand Words:
It won’t take you long to notice, but images dominate the Tumblr landscape. In fact, half of all posts on Tumblr are image-based. With that being the case, there is a great opportunity for your business!
Photo ideas: Photos of your products and/or services. Photos of your business, cool things that you are doing and/or unique aspects of your business. Images of your employees having fun and working hard. Before and after photos are really effective.
Be creative when it comes to images, especially in an image-driven environment like Tumblr.
Tags Help You Get Found:
What are tags?
Tags make it easier for readers to find posts about a specific topic on your blog. Example: If you have a baking business and you posted an image of cupcakes, then tag that image “cupcakes”.
How do I tag my posts?
It’s easy to add tags in the last field of the form when you’re adding a post. Once you start typing, it will auto populate words, click and choose the one you would like to use.
Make sure your tags are relevant to what you are posting, or to your business, that way your content will actually be discovered. Don’t go crazy with the tags, but it is safe to use between 7-12 on Tumblr. Anything over that and you’ll start to look like spam.
Don’t Be a Stranger, Stay Active:
Like most social media sites, if you want to be involved, then you need to put in the time and effort. It’s important to maintain consistency on Tumblr. Unlike Facebook, Tumblr post frequency is much higher. Try to publish/reblog one to five times a day. That means you have the opportunity to post a lot more content, but as a business, make sure your content is valuable and/or entertaining.
Tumblr’s popularity is growing quickly and businesses that get involved now, rather than later, have an advantage over the rest. If your business is currently on Tumblr, share it in the comments!
