Take a Tour of Tumblr

Find out what makes this lesser-known platform so enduring

While you don’t hear a lot about Tumblr, it’s among the most popular social platforms, with hundreds of millions of users worldwide. One reason is its unique combination of blogging and social networking. 

What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is a microblogging platform that allows users to post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos. It also includes social components, such as displaying con-tent in a feed and the ability to like. It’s this dual functionality that sets Tumblr apart.
Typically, Tumblr users either create orig-inal content or curate information by re-blogging others’ posts. The platform is known for being highly customizable, with controls that enable users to do things like change the background color and theme of their blogs.

A Brief History
The platform was started in 2007 by soft-ware consultant David Karp. At the time, it competed with longer-form blogging platforms like WordPress and Blogger. In 2013, Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo, a move that was considered risky by some. In the years that followed, Tumblr was acquired two more times and went through phases of surging popularity and relative obscurity (see sidebar). But its unique offering has brought it back into relevance, and Tumblr is among the most-used platforms in 2023.

Microblogging Characteristics
Put simply, microblogging is creating blog posts limited to no more than 1,000 words. Twitter, another microblogging platform, limits posts to just 280 characters, which is somewhere between 40 and 70 words. This type of expression is best for situations in which you want to use text as a vehicle to present other types of media such as videos, when you want to reach audiences on microblogging platforms, or when you’re not concerned about your posts being found by search engines.

Who Uses It
Typical Tumblr users are under age 35, from an urban area, and college educated. Countries with the top five highest usage are the U.S., India, the U.K., Brazil, and France.

Many celebrities and influencers use Tumblr or have used it in the past. However, the platform doesn’t have any verification system as do Twitter and Instagram, so be aware that if you find one of your favorite actors or musicians there, the account may not be genuine.

Advantages
Users commonly appreciate these Tumblr features:

• Easy to use – Users can create engaging posts quickly, with templates and automatic formatting.
• Light on text – Other elements such as images and videos are used more than text.
• Complementary – Individuals and businesses can easily con-vert content they’ve developed for other platforms to align with Tumblr’s format.
• Customizable – Users can take advantage of pre-made themes.
• Shareable – Valuable posts have the potential to quickly go viral.
• Flexible – Users can write posts when they have time and schedule when they appear, can have multiple blogs under one account, and can co-contribute to blogs with other authors.
• Analytical – Analytics tools enable users to see reactions to their posts.
• Feed-based system – Content is shown in a Facebook-like feed, so users can easily see the latest updates from their favor-ite bloggers.
• Evergreen – Content is based less on current news or events and more on stories that have lasting appeal.
• Searchable – Like other platforms, Tumblr uses hashtags to make it easy for users to find content on a particular topic.

Disadvantages
Like any platform, Tumblr has its disadvantages, including these:

• Lacking commenting feature – The platform doesn’t include a native comment feature, so users must install third-party systems to allow comments.
• Limited in communication style – Users who want to create longer text posts find the platform limiting, as it’s designed for briefer posts and more images, videos, and other content.
• Niche – Tumblr appeals to a smaller segment of internet users, so it may not be an ideal platform for those looking for a larger audience.

How to Use Tumblr
One of the first things to do when you start using Tumblr is to follow blogs you’re inter-ested in. You can find them by clicking suggestions from Tumblr or clicking Follow in posts that show up in your feed. If you like something you see, you can like it using the heart icon or easily reblog it and add your own comments to the post.

In addition to the Dashboard, where you’ll find your feed, you can explore other areas of the platform, including live streams, new postings from today, the TumblrMart gift section, messages, mentions, reblogs, and replies.

You can easily interact with other users by using various features on their profile. They include sending them a direct message (which you can make anonymous if you choose), chatting in real time, and giving them virtual gifts.

Creating your own posts is easy. From the Dashboard, just click the new post icon or choose from Text, Photo, Quote, Link, Chat, Audio, or Video. You will see a template to create your post and can combine formats within it. Add your content, create a title, add hashtags, and click Post.