Tumblr and How Businesses Use It to Reach Their Target Audience
Introduction
“Social media is changing the rules of the marketplace, just like the Internet did a decade ago” -ISM
We live in a society dominated by social interaction. The need for communication has expanded beyond envelopes and telephone wires and has penetrated our computer screens and our pockets. Social media has seen a sharp increase in use within the last five years, transforming this phenomenon from a novelty to a necessity. This necessity however, is no longer just a personal one, today more than ever, the business world is relying on forms of social media to reach their target audience. According to the Social Media Examiner’s 2013 findings, 86% of marketers reported social media use as being essential to their business. Another study concluded that 88% of marketers believe that the most effective way to reach their target audience is through social media. It is clear then, that the impact social media has on the business world is an important one; and as the use of social media increases, the need to understand how businesses utilize such tools will become equally as important. That is why this research study will take a look at a form of social media known as Tumblr, examine who, what, where, and when it was developed, in order to answer the question: how do businesses use Tumblr to reach their target audience?
What is Tumblr?
“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.” -Tumblr
Tumblr is a hybrid of content, the cross between a microblogging platform and a social networking website. A microblog is a condensed version of a traditional blog that allows users to exchange small elements of content. Tumblr allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. A social network is a platform through which people with shared interests, activities, and backgrounds can connect and build relationships. Tumblr allows users to connect and interact with other users through a variety of actions including: following (the ability to track another user’s blogging activity), favoriting (the ability to like content other user’s post), and reblogging (the ability to repost another user’s content to your own blog).
The History of Tumblr
“Tumblr will be a home to the most aspiring and talented creators all over the world” — David Karp Founder and CEO of Tumblr
Tumblr was founded in February of 2007 by David Karp, a software consultant from New York City. The development of Tumblr began in 2006 as a side project of David’s software consulting company, Davidville. During a two-week gap between contracts, David and one of his developers, Marco Arment, began working on their own version of a tumblelogging platform. The tumblelogs were the first of the microblogging platforms made popular by 17 year old Christian Neukirchan, in March of 2005. Karp desperately wanted to create his own blog without returning to what he called “the same old approach to blogging…just a page you could dump stuff on.” The result was successful, Tumblr gained over 75,000 followers within the first two weeks. By March of 2007, Tumblr users were making 10,000 posts per hour. In October 2007, in order to finance the rapid expansion, 25 per cent of the company was sold to Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, and betaworks head John Borthwick and Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick. Tumblr kept expanding, by 2010 the site was generating two billion monthly pageviews. By 2011, the site had expanded its user base by 900%. In October 2011, Tumblr made history as President Obama launched his 2012 re-election campaign on Tumblr. The President joined major media outlets such as Newsweek, the New York Times and the BBC have tumblrs, along with fashion brands such as Alexander McQueen and Oscar de la Renta, and high profile tech companies including IBM and Olympus. Finally, on June 20, 2013 Yahoo! acquired Tumblr for $ 1.1 billion dollars, where David Karp still remains the CEO today.
Why is Tumblr Popular?
“Blogging made easy” -Tumblr tagline at time of launch in 2007
The secret to Tumblr’s success, danah boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft believes is its ability to fulfill a much needed desire for creative minded people. While conducting her research on social networks, danah noticed a pattern. “I saw people who were frustrated with Facebook at not being able to express themselves. Tumblr became a powerful complement to Facebook. It didn’t require the heavy-handed ‘we must be friends’ that is so ingrained in Facebook.” Tumblr fulfilled the role for self-expression in the same way that Facebook fulfilled the role for identification and Twitter fulfilled the role for communication. Members use a free-form blogging platform to create a product that is unique. Users have complete creative control through the customization of their blog’s layout or theme and their interaction with seven different types of media (text, photos, quotes, links, dialogue, audio, video).
Why Businesses Use Tumblr
“Tumblr is the little blogging platform that could, it is a serious contender.” — Peak Reputation
The numbers do not lie, more businesses are turning to Tumblr as a way to market their brand. Here are a few reasons why:
- To reach a younger, educated demographic
Tumblr has an audience dominated by young, educated users. In fact of the 47.49 million current Tumblr users, 66% of visitors are under the age of 35 and 39% of users are under the age of 25. Of the 47.49 million Tumblr users, 65% have received a college education.
2. To expand their reach
Tumblr is comprised of 47.49 million users, that is 15% of all internet users. Tumblr is made up of 130.5 million blogs, that is 60.5 million more blogs than currently being hosted by Wordpress. The average Tumblr users spends 12 minutes on the site, that is 1.5 minutes longer than any other social media site. Tumblr ranks number 28 Comscore’s highest traffic site on the web listing and is the fifth most visited site throughout the U.S.
3. To demonstrate their creativity
Tumblr is a mix of Wordpress, Facebook, and Pinterest. The site combines the blogging functionality of Wordpress, with the social features (hashtagging, following, sharing, and liking) of Facebook, with the image management of Pinterest. 78% of Tumblr posts are photos or other images. The top ten tags used on Tumblr posts are lol, fashion, food, art, vintage, landscape, tattoos, black and white, makeup, and illustration.
4. To remain competitive
Of the top 100 brands, 31 actively utilize Tumblr as a marketing tool; 28 of those 31 brands are also on Instagram
What Tumblr Offers Businesses
“Hello, brands. Welcome to Tumblr. Your biggest fans are already here!” — Tumblr’s Business Page
Tumblr recognizes its own potential as a marketer’s dream. The site offers special accounts designed specifically to meet the marketing needs of businesses. These accounts are equipped with unique features to help businesses navigate the Tumblr world and to track the success and influences of their posts and activities over time. Business accounts have access to Tumblr’s premium analytics tool for brands. The analytics tool provides a complete look at the performance levels of a business’ posted content on Tumblr. The program captures every interaction on the network and breaks down engagement into paid and earned engagement categories. Business accounts also have access to Marketr, Tumblr’s official Sales and Brand Strategy team. Through a rigorous approval process, businesses can become members of Tumblr’s Preferred Data Partners program. Tumblr’s Preferred Data Partners gain direct access to Marketr giving an in-depth understanding of what’s happening across the network. Marketr provides analytics that can track engagement with content and compare content to that of competitors, follow the conversations happening in different communities, and identify the influencers and tastemakers a business needs to target and engage.
Tumblr also offers businesses the opportunity to reach their target audience through paid advertisements. There are three different kinds of sponsored posts that span across Tumblr’s web and mobile applications. Sponsored Posts are just like regular Tumblr posts, but are more visible and targetable based on gender, location, and interest. Sponsored video posts use detailed data analytics to target users and display video advertisements that play automatically and loop continuously. Radar Posts are strategically placed advertisements available in key locations within a user’s dashboard or homepage. Finally the trending blog option, earns a business a spot on Tumblr’s coveted trending blogs tab in order to increase a business’ number of followers.
Case Study: American Apparel
“There is no other platform like Tumblr where the users are as receptive and responsive to well designed imagery and photography — even if it’s brands who are producing it. It’s almost like a glossy fashion magazine, where the readers are looking for things they like, period. If the page is beautiful and creative, whether an editor or an advertiser produced it is irrelevant. That’s a high standard to live up to and we’re doing our best. It’s certainly more inspiring and fun than trying to post messages about a sale or a discount.” -Ryan Holiday, Director of Marketing American Apparel
American Apparel is an American clothing manufacturer, distributor, and retailer based in Los Angeles, California. The company targets young metropolitan adults ages 20 to 32 to purchase and represent their brand of modern clothing. American Apparel joined Tumblr in August of 2011 with the intention of engaging with their target demographic without restraining the brand’s unique fashion aesthetic or diluting its well established brand equity. To achieve this goal, American Apparel took several creative steps. To demonstrate brand fluidity, a custom Tumblr theme was created to coordinate with the style of their corporate site. To create and maintain engagement, American Apparel began to post a frequent stream of provocative content, including photos of products, models, advertisements, and inspiration. To increase user activity during advertising campaigns, the company purchased advertising as Sponsored Posts on both web and mobile versions of Tumblr. The results were impressive. According to official Tumblr Research Data, American Apparel’s Sponsored Posts earned an average 5x more interaction than non-sponsored content. The store saw an increase in followers not just on Tumblr, but on other social media platforms after joining Tumblr. Today their blog posts average around a thousand notes.
Conclusion
So, is Tumblr is a good match for your business?
We live in a world dominated by social interaction. As our need to communicate is translated across various forms of media, it will become increasingly important to understand and utilize this technology. We have seen a steady increase in the necessity of social media within a business setting in the last five years. Today 88% of marketers believe that the most effective way to reach their target audience is through social media. One of the most powerful and effective social media tools for businesses is Tumblr. Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website. The site’s young, educated demographic and creative blogging elements make it an ideal place for businesses to expand their reach to their target audience and compete directly with their competitors. By creating a business centered atmosphere that offers targeting and analytical tools for business accounts, Tumblr goes above and beyond to help businesses to communicate with their target audience. Countless companies, like American Apparel, have found success proving Tumblr to be a useful and essential marketing tool for any business.
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