Why Your Business Needs a Tumblr Account

Many small business owners and online marketers overlook Tumblr. I personally had heard of Tumblr several times, but keeping up with what felt like 9000 other social media profiles seemed challenging enough, so I never really took the time to delve too deeply into the platform. After being issued a challenge by a co-worker to dive in, I fell in love with the Tumblr spirit. Tumblr has a great platform with friendly, accepting, and information-loving users. And as they say, “It's better late than never.”

Why Should Small Business Owners Care?

• Brand awareness and marketing are made simple
• Tumblr can drive traffic to your site
• Utilizing Tumblr is a great way to target the younger generations
• Easy way to gain more exposure online
• Quick way to gain do-followed links and improve online rankings

What is Tumblr?

Tumblr is a very easy to use micro-blogging site. It is essentially a cross between Facebook and WordPress, with a setup and layout similar to Pinterest. There are over 180 million blogs (known as tumblrogs) run through the platform, which makes it the largest blogging platform on the web.

Why is Tumblr Different?

The big difference between Tumblr and WordPress is the highly social and interactive environment that exists only on Tumblr. Users are able to quickly discover new content through hash-tags, easily like and share content, and follow other Tumblr blogs they're interested in. WordPress is great, and has many great features, but the social aspect on Tumblr is unmatched.

If you are comparing Tumblr to Facebook, you'll find that hashtags are actually useable, and searchable, whereas on Facebook they are less relevant. The content you post onto your Tumblr page can easily be discovered by someone searching for the tags you entered with your content. This makes it easy for someone to come across your content months later just by searching for those terms.

There is also a different audience on Tumblr than on Facebook, which means more eyes to see your posts and more people to convert to Brand Followers. This is true with WordPress as well.

Why Should I Care About Another Platform?

With over 300 million unique monthly visitors, which is just about 15% of all internet traffic, Tumblr is a great place to spread your content. In 2013 Yahoo bought Tumblr for 1.1 billion dollars, which was the largest internet purchase since YouTube was bought by Google. Tumblr is also ranked as the 23rd highest traffic site on the internet. Big numbers means big opportunity.

Added Bonus: If you are a small company and haven't set up your website yet, there is even the option of just forgoing your own hosting and website and just using Tumblr as your company website. You can easily attach it to a domain name you already own as well. Obviously, this isn’t meant to be a long term solution, but it’s a great way to start building an audience early.

Why Haven't I Heard of Tumblr Until Now?

Perhaps you are just not hip, or perhaps you're just too old. The majority of Tumblr users are under the age of 25, and about 54% of them being women. If any portion of your demographic falls into this category, it's simply a must for you to check into the platform.

A lot of the major brands have already joined the Tumblr and started using it for their marketing efforts. Coca Cola, Target, Disney, and Calvin Klein are just a few of the top players. And let's face it, if Coca Cola's Marketing is doing something, you should be too.

How Does This Help With Marketing and SEO?

Tumblr also allows do-followed links. Most social platforms have done away with do-followed linking, but not Tumblr. The sharing feature in Tumblr is called “re-blogging” and each time your content is re-blogged, you gain a new do-followed backlink. With the active community in Tumblr it's easier for your content to go viral, and you quickly expand your online audience.

As always, in a post-Panda world, make sure you're careful with your anchor text usage, as you wouldn't want a piece to go viral with exact-match anchor text.

What Should I Post to Tumblr?

The key to a successful Tumblr is to stick to the message of your brand. Each post should fit in-line with the company message you want to portray. If your company is all about peace, love, and happiness, then everything you post should stick within that realm.

Tumblr loves a good success story, funny memes, photos, quotes, GIFS, etc. Anything creative, funny, visual, or emotional is likely to do well on Tumblr. As with other platforms, unique content is king. Creating shareable content will do you well. Stick with content that will resonate with your audiences and invoke emotions or thoughts in viewers.

The key to online marketing is to Be Everywhere! If you aren't on Tumblr yet, now is the time to join.

I look forward to seeing your company vision posted soon.