Blogging has become an integral part of online marketing. A well-conceived business blog delivers information, opinions and entertainment to reach a specifically-targeted audience. Most all successful business blogs are built on commercial blogging software.
Tumblr is one of the prominent blogging platforms. Owned by Yahoo!, Tumblr has an estimated user base of around 50 million bloggers. Tumblr reportedly gets daily sign-ups of over 120,000 people and has recorded 74 percent annual growth.
Doubles as a social networking site
As a “micro-blogging” platform, Tumblr has one major advantage over other blogging platforms: It also acts as a social networking site. As the trend of engaging in social networking continues to grow at a rapid pace, Tumblr has emerged as a social media frontrunner for the young crowd between ages 13 and 25. Tumblr entices younger audiences because it is visual-centric and revels in off-beat humor.
The flexibility of being able to incorporate a range of content types, such as GIFs, memes, sound bites, videos, text and images, adds to Tumblr’s versatility and appeal. Tumblr’s multitude of youth-oriented features and flexibility provided through a ‘reblogging’ feature has helped it become the preferred social network of over 60 percent of the teenagers.
In fact, as a demographic, teenagers are influenced by social media to the point that real lives are effected. In San Diego, a 14-year-old killed himself because of an embarrassing video of himself that went viral last year. Obviously, no brand wants to have such a severe impact, but the implications are clear: Tumblr has the potential to be taken seriously, and for businesses and individuals alike, it can match the level of seriousness demanded by the context or situation.
Business Benefits
As an online marketing tool for businesses targeting younger customers, Tumblr can produce superior results. Brands on Tumblr reportedly experience higher revenue and growth by using their blogs to redirect traffic to their business websites. The Tumblr blog also helps improve search engine rankings through its natural-link building features. Tumblr also can serve as a feature-rich platform to provide responsive customer service, and helps businesses enhance their web presence and online visibility.
Businesses can monitor the reach/readership of posts from both a blogging and social media perspective using Tumblr analytics which make it easy to assess what posts are more popular and what content the blogger should focus on to get better results.
The Denny’s Example
An unlikely success story of marketing on Tumblr is Denny’s, the restaurant chain. Content from the Denny’s Diner blogging team features mouth-watering visuals of Denny’s food selections and mirrors the types visual humor favored by teenage bloggers on Tumblr.
Denny’s also crowd-sources visual content from its online fans. What many would consider sophomoric or “teenagerish” humor and an inclusive approach has helped Denny’s build a massive following on Tumblr. The business success can be seen in the increasing numbers of young people at local Denny’s restaurants, especially in evening hours. ,
The edited infographic below outlines the usefulness of Tumblr as a blogging platform, and how it can help achieve more organic traffic and increased sales through targeted and niche-based marketing.
