5 Reasons Why I Love Tumblr

TumblrLet me give you a little history of my adventures in Social Media: first, there were AOL chat rooms, then came forums, and eventually, Friendster. This led to MySpace and Blogger, then came Facebook and Twitter. All of these social networks, these ways to connect with people and share what I had to share, but nothing ever felt quite right. I felt like I was experimenting with different cliques in high school, but didn’t seem to fit into any group the best. Sure I got along with them all, felt a connection to others in that group, but there was never a social network that really spoke to ME. Then, along came Tumblr, and I was swoon. Tumblr, for those of you who don’t know, is a blogging / micro-blogging platform that has everything I want in one place. It takes my favorite aspects of Twitter, Blogger and Facebook, and rolls them into one beautifully wrapped package. Here are a few reasons why I love Tumblr, though this list is certainly not exhaustive.

  • Customizable – Not only can you get some already beautiful templates on which to build your Tumblr page, there are dozens of free and paid ones out there put together by some very creative designers. It is easy to give your page some style and unique elements without much design know-how. What’s more is that you can even give your site a unique domain name with very little effort or cost. The directions for doing so are easy to access, and doing this can make your page feel like your own, and not just a subset of Tumblr.
  • Easy to Use – In fact, I don’t know how Tumblr could be any easier to use. Want to post a video? Great, just drop the embed URL into the “add a video” area, hit post and you’re done. Picture? Same thing. And if you actually want to write a blog post, it is easy as well, with both HTML capabilities as well as a WYSIWYG editor. You can also post any media from a variety of other means, including email (Tumblr will give you a unique email address where you can send any post and it will publish automatically), an iPhone application, AIM, and a handy-dandy “post to Tumblr” button for your browser’s toolbar. Seriously, it can’t be easier.
  • Connectivity – There was a conversation that took place in the office recently about how Twitter helps to connect people in ways that Facebook can’t. It allows you to meet new people and share your experiences with new friends, whereas Facebook is really only good for letting you stalk the people you already know, or those who you used to know and can now reconnect with. Tumblr is more like Twitter, though, but perhaps better at connecting you with people with similar interests. It is hard for Twitter users to be very “genre-specific” or even really connect with people with similar interests without searching for hashtags on Search.Twitter.com. I follow the type of people who generate the content I enjoy, with only a few exceptions of people who are boring or too noisy or too busy shilling their content from their other website (cough*cough*Pete Cashmore).
  • A Stream I Can Support – The Tumblr dashboard acts as a stream, and pulls in all the content of the people you follow. Only instead of 140 character snippets and links, there are pictures, quotes, videos and posts all in one place. What? I know. Like something someone else has posted? Just click one button and Tumblr will reblog it for you, dropping in the a link to the source. Really? Yes, really.
  • It’s Cool – I might get some negative comments about this, but whatever, I still think Tumblr is pretty cool. It seems like those who are Tumbling, at least the people I follow, have a great sense of aesthetic and function and are aggregating the kind of content that has some level of merit and, well, fun. It feels like a great relief to read a Tumblelog that really lets the author speak for himself, someone who isn’t putting out content just to make money off of crappy ads.

If you’re not Tumbling, maybe you should. But then again, I’m not going to try and convince you either way. If you are interested in creating and sharing worthwhile content to help grow yourself online with integrity, then Tumblr might be a good vessel. If you want to create linkbait for your business and sells space on your blog, then there are better platforms for it. But if you are already on Tumblr, then give me a follow and I will return the favor. You can check out my page here: jeremysgriffin.com.



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