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Tumblr: All the Cool Kids are Doing It

With the ability to click continuously in a cycle of reblog, like and repeat, Tumblr has the ability to spread interesting content like wildfire. It takes aspects from other websites and rolls it all into one mega-awesome, super addicting, I can’t go five minutes without checking it site. It has the regular blogging capabilities of Wordpress and Blogger, short and to the point updates like Twitter with a “Dashboard that is similar to the Facebook news feed. Except it’s more visual than Twitter, and what’s more, it’s inherently more social than Blogger or Wordpress.
 
The concept is simple enough—Tumblr is a microblogging platform: users post very short, to the point entries usually consisting of a photo, video, link, quote or audio clip, like a song.  Tumblr allows you to follow other users and have their blog posts show up on your Dashboard, where you can read, listen, watch, ‘like’ and or reblog as you desire. Catering to today’s members of society with attention spans that last all of five seconds, Tumblr is perfect. Tumblr’s search function allows you to find posts on any topic you can possibly conceive. Tumblr is a platform that much of gen Y has fallen in love with, because of how simple it is to view and share content on just about anything you can imagine.
 
I don’t really want to use the word “hip,” but in the world of social media, Tumblr’s like that cool kid in high school you wanted to hang out with that skipped class and smoked in the bathrooms. So basically, just get on the Tumblr train. Resistance is futile. Below are a few of my favorite ways Tumblr is being used.
 


Celebrity/Artist Tumblrs
From John Mayer to Aziz Ansari, celebrities are taking to Tumblr as another means of connecting with their fans. A personal favorite of mine is Donald Glover. The comedian/rapper’s Tumblr is a mix of art and men’s fashion photos, songs he’s currently digging and updates on his musical side-project Childish Gambino.



F***Yeah________ Tumblrs
A super-popular Tumblr URL is F***Yeah_________. Basically, you can put any word you can possibly think of in front of F*** Yeah and there is a Tumblr for that. This is one of my favorite things about Tumblr, because it is so easy to see content on just about any actor/band/favorite food/place/cultural movement/fictional 90s cartoon/extinct animal/Star Trek character/etc.



Brand Tumblrs
A number of brands have started using Tumblr to establish a voice and communicate with their audience with successful results. A brand that surprisingly has jumped on the Tumblr bandwagon is Huggies. They are using their Tumblr, Highchair Critics, as a fun and unique resource for new parents. My favorite part is their baby blogging personalities, with Tutu Couture covering fashion, Bash N. Poo music, Tattle Tot covering pop culture and Baby J. Nuborn keeping us up to date on baby current events.



Really Ridiculous and Random Tumblrs
This is hands-down my favorite part of Tumblr. Because of how simple the Tumblr platform is it opens up a world of possibilities for some of the most creative and completely random single-topic blogs. Some of these should get awards for most innovative use of Photoshop: there is Bread People, a Tumblr that combines two of mankind’s favorite things: celebrities and bread products. Bread People is home to great posts such as PumperNickelback and Toastface Killah. My personal favorite is This Is Why You’re Fat, a Tumblr that takes gluttony to the next, ridiculous, disgusting, and sometimes awesome level.

With Tumblr’s increasing popularity, it could definitely be to a brand’s advantage to utilize it as a resource, communicate with its audience and establish a very specific brand voice. It can be a very important tool in attracting the younger set, since it’s taking off for this next generation. Tumblr’s vast coverage of topics makes it the kind of platform that any brand can and should use to reach an exceedingly plugged in generation of consumers.