Tumblr as another business’ social media outlet: Yay or nay?

Tumblr is one of those things that you might be in the dark about. You don’t really know if it would be a waste of time for your business to pursue, or if it would be a great way to share more content on behalf of your products and services. Hopefully, we can shed some light on that for you.

Let’s start off by explaining what Tumblr is. Essentially, the Tumblr platform is very similar to that of a blogging platform. To break it down even further, it could be classified as a microblog, because sometimes your “blog” post may simply consist of posting a GIF of a cat (source: BuzzFeed). So people and businesses from all over the world can be involved in Tumblr and blog their little hearts away. And because it’s an amalgamation of all of these different posts from all kinds of different people and businesses, it is considered to be a social networking website, much like Facebook and Twitter. If you want to know some interesting statistics about Tumblr, have a look at this infographic by Mashable, because infographics are awesome.

Now that we have a basic understanding of what Tumblr’s place is in the world of blogging and social media, let’s get to the real reason we’re talking about Tumblr: is it right for your business?

To determine the answer to this question, you’re going to have to assess a few things. The first and most crucial deciding factor should be whether or not Tumblr can help you focus in on your target audience. In the infographic above, it states that 36% Tumblr users in 2011 were between the ages of 18 and 34. In 2014, users between the ages of 16 and 34 accounted for a massive 70% of their overall active traffic (source: GlobalWebIndex). Would your business benefit from getting exposure to a younger audience? If you are in the business of selling washing machines, then perhaps Tumblr isn’t right for you. But if you offer services in healthy outdoor living, for example, then Tumblr might be what you need to access a new world of advertising for your business.

Speaking of different products or services; is your product visual? Can you display your product in an appealing way so that your followers will want to go to your website and make a purchase? Are you willing to offer sales? Is your business small or large, and are you planning on expanding? You need to think about how Tumblr can assist you in your marketing efforts and if your efforts are more likely to be useful elsewhere in the marketing scheme. Like most other social media networks, Tumblr allows you to make a business specific account, complete with case study resources, marketing tools, and analytics, which is very handy for tracking and evaluating the costs & benefits for having an account.

There are copious advantages in having a Tumblr account for your business, but depending on the factors that we mentioned above, those advantages may be quite large or very small.