So, some of you may have noticed that our lovely little blog is hosted by Tumblr, whereas others may be thinking, “Isn’t that what I drink The Macallan out of?” Tumblr is a platform for tumblelogs (also sometimes called microblogs), which are basically just shorter-form blogs. Tumblr was founded in 2007, and we have been using it for FWD Thinking since May 2008. As far as we know, we’re the only PR agency that hosts its blog on the platform, as it seems that Tumblr has gotten a bad rap as “not good for business.”
In the span of its short life, Tumblr has become known as the territory of urban hipsters who post photos of themselves every Wednesday and create themed blogs that eventually get book deals. But what it comes down to is that it’s just a platform. There are actually a wide variety of bloggers on Tumblr, and not all of them are wearing skinny jeans. I’m a huge Tumblr evangelist, because its one of the most forward-thinking, innovative blog platforms out there, and it just keeps evolving.
Plus, Tumblr is ahead of the curve in two developing Web trends — brevity and sociability. Especially due to the popularity of Twitter, people are moving away from long-form blogs and instead sharing briefer updates through microblogging or lifestreaming. I think people often become overwhelmed with the thought and the time it takes to write a long blog post, so they don’t post at all rather than posting shorter updates throughout the day or week.
In addition, almost every Web service these days is introducing a social aspect, whether it’s sharing, following or liking. I believe Tumblr was the first blogging platform to allow you to “follow” other bloggers and easily repost (“reblog”) their content, but Blogger implemented following capabilities soon after. There’s even a new tumblelog competitor on the scene called Posterous, but I remain devoted to the original.
I hope the misconception that Tumblr is not appropriate for hosting business blogs will soon change — and I think it will, now that companies like Newsweek, BlackBook and the Travel Channel are jumping on board. If you know of any other corporate Tumblrs, please let us know in the comments. Who knows, maybe they’ll inspire you to start your own!
—Alyssa
