What Is Tumblr and How To Use It For Business

Tumblr is considered one of the most underrated little-hyped social media platforms. Despite being underrated, it still shares fair popularity and a user-friendly platform with loyal Tumblr users. 

Suppose you are a business owner or a budding entrepreneur considering adding Tumblr to your roster of social media platforms to promote your brand. 

In that case, this article will tell you what Tumblr is and everything you need to know when using Tumblr for business. 

Ready?

What is Tumblr: Overview, Features and Functionality

Tumblr is famous as a blogging platform, but as innovation has integrated over the years, it has added some features and is now like Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress all in one. 

It’s a blogging platform and microblogging tool that caters to short posts with images, audio, video, text posts, GIFs, reactions, etc. Posts aren’t as long as other established blogging platforms but are not as short as Twitter.

Tumblr was launched in 2007 but was bought by Yahoo in 2013. After that, Verizon Media bought Yahoo in 2017 and became its owner. Lastly, in 2019, Tumblr was sold to Automattic and has become the owner since then. According to Statista, it had over 300 million visitors monthly in 2022. 

If you are an avid user of social media, for sure you will love Tumblr because, unlike other platforms, Tumblr would let out your creative and personality side by letting you customize your profile. 

This is also good for business page benefits if you use Tumblr for your business. Tumblr allows users to customize their header image and Tumblr page by changing themes, layouts, fonts, colors, etc. 

Tumblr is also a free platform where you can sign in for free, create a Tumblr account, and then start doing what the Tumblr community does: create posts, create Tumblr blogs, and share them with your other social media platforms. 

Other social media sites linked with Tumblr are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. 

Most of the young people using the Tumblr platforms are Millenial and Gen Z, which is why it can be an excellent platform for your business. If your content is good, it can become one of the trending topics on Tumblr. This can only happen if other users like, reblog, or send your content to other users and can even reach other websites.

Also, you can generate ads on Tumblr by signing up for a Tumblr account with online advertising networks. Sponsored posts mean that you will put ads on your content and posts, and the ad payment depends on the amount of traffic and number of users who click the ad.

What Types of Businesses Can Benefit From Tumblr and How

Most Tumblr users just use the platform to post microblogs, artworks, memes, poems, etc. But its overall capabilities can be used for business. 

Tumblr’s full features can make it an attractive platform for e-commerce businesses. If you are an e-commerce store owner, you can maximize the features of Tumblr, which customizes your business Tumblr page and emphasizes your brand by creating creative content. 

With these, other Tumblr users can like, reblog, and share your business on the platform. They can also send it to their other social media platform by copying the link, embedding it, or directly sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest.

The platform is suitable for businesses different business industries, including:

• Graphic artists and designers;
• Fashion and clothing brands;
• Technology products and gadgets;
• Media and publications;
• Food and beverages;
• Entertainment and gaming industry, and many more. 

You can use Tumblr to promote your business and, at the same time, leverage its social network capabilities to reach the target audience.

How To Set Up a Tumblr Account for Your Business

A Tumblr business account is essential for your target audience to get to know you and your brand.

Your business Tumblr account should be created by following these easy steps:

• Go to Tumblr and click sign up.
• Enter your business email.
• Create a password and a professional username for your account.
• Select five posts with similar interests to your business.
• Verify your account through the activation link provided by Tumblr support.
• And you’re done!

You can now start connecting with other users and target audiences by creating posts or re-blogging content related to your business or niche. 

The posts you would see in your Tumblr dashboard are the trending posts from the categories you picked in the account setup process.

Creating and Customizing Your Tumblr Blog

Creating your brand’s unique style is essential for brand awareness; you need to capture your audience’s interest right away. 

To customize your Tumblr, here’s what you need to do:

• Among the dropdown list of Account, you can find “Settings” and click it.
• Click Dashboard to customize the appearance.
• You can see options like Color Pallete, Interface, Text Editor, Sound, and Preferences. 
• Customize your page based on your desire.

Here’s what you need to do to change your blog’sblog’s appearance: 

• Go to Settings and click “Blogs” at the screen’s lower right. It has your username in it.
• This will lead you to the blog settings page. 
• From there, click “edit appearance.” 
• Toggle “Enable custom theme” to choose your own theme.
• Click “edit theme,” and you can customize your whole blog appearance from header images and themes, avatar, title font, color, background color, etc.
• When you’re ready, you need to save the result.

If you want to use premium themes, you will need to purchase them.

Customizing your theme is very important for brand awareness. It also gives you the advantage of seeing your website’s appearance on your computer or mobile devices. 

Content Strategy for Tumblr: How To Proceed

Using Tumblr for business would work well, especially if you target young audiences. Audiences in the millennial and Gen Z age bracket are easy to engage with, regardless of gender.  

Consistency is one of the keys to creating brand awareness on Tumblr; also, unlike other social media platforms where you promote your business in a professional or formal tone, Tumblr users would most likely interact if your content tone is humorous and creative yet professional. 

Creating a blog calendar or content calendar for scheduled posting is a good strategy for keeping the content flow and audience reach consistent.

Creating Engaging Tumblr Posts and Using Tumblr’s Multimedia Capabilities

Start creating your own posts after identifying your target market and strategies. Each user of Tumblr gets their own “Tumblelog” – short-form blogs that contain content, media, text posts, videos, etc. These contents are your choices in creating an engaging post to attract your audience. 

The number one key to developing a sense of brand awareness in Tumblr is consistency and quality content. Quality and engaging content will most likely attract an audience within the same niche. You need to take advantage of Tumblr’s user-friendly interface and develop techniques for what you should post. 

For example, you can start with a text post that consists of the story of how you started your business. Then, you can share inspirational quotes that motivate you, share tips, images from your journey in business, your brand image, etc. 

You can experiment with as many as you want but still stick to your brand quality.

Never post indecent posts or even like or associate your account with bad quotes, hate speech, bullying, bashing, canceling, etc. Attract your audience by bringing a positive aura to your blog, such as supporting mental health awareness, anti-racism communities, goodwill communities, etc.

Hashtags and Tags for Discoverability and Reach

Hashtags and tags are essential in creating content. Hashtags segment posts and contents and put them in an algorithm with similar content. 

Short-form blogs and short-form content are very in-demand in the social media world, so you need to use hashtags, especially if your content is short. They help you explain the context further, which is usually noticed in media content like videos, photos, etc.

You can use popular hashtags for your content to be more visible. You can also use SEO tools or search for hashtags and their search volume, but of course, if you have a business, you can create your own branded hashtags. 

The consistency of using them will eventually pay off if you gain a number of followers as time goes by. 

Tips For Engaging with the Tumblr Community

The Tumblr community is vast, and you can have an advantage in finding the right people by engaging on posts that are similar to your brand or niche. 

One of the best tips to ensure an engagement with this huge community is not to always act like a brand. Create a personality and trademark with branded hashtags or hashtags relating to you and your brand, memes associated with what is trending, and then also associating your brand mildly. Just because it’s a business account doesn’t mean you need to promote your brand 24/7. 

Remember, audiences on Tumblr are relatively young, so you will need to ride on their trend and likeness. You don’t have to encourage users to use your brand or avail of your service all the time. Be more relaxed and explore more ways to engage.

How To Build a Following on Tumblr

Most Tumblr users are millennials and Gen Z, particularly in the 18-35 age bracket. The audience is relatively young, and they are the ones who are always on track with trends, etc. 

The key to building the number of your followers on Tumblr is creating creative, relatable, helpful, and entertaining content. Attract your audience first with a creative throw like associating your brand with memes or starting with pure story-telling of your starting journey. 

Also, do not forget always to include the community of small business owners, suppose you are one. Always be genuine and creative with engagements with your audience; in that way, you can gain more followers.

Cross-promotion and Integration with Other Social Media Platforms

Cross-promotion on Tumblr can help you create brand awareness, gain followers, and reach potential customers. With Tumblr, you can initially share your content with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit. 
But you can also copy the link of your post and create content on your other social media platforms and then include the link. Cross-promotion is really a helpful method to grow your audience across various social networking sites.