1. A Tumblr guide
for brands
A brand’s guide to the popular social blogging platform
Authored by Bliss Hanlin and Jesse Coombe Revised June 2013
www.emoderation.com

2. A Tumblr guide for brands
Table of contents
What is Tumblr?..................................................................................................................................... 3
What makes Tumblr different?............................................................................................................. 4
Who’s tumbling?.................................................................................................................................... 5
What’s on Tumblr?................................................................................................................................. 6
Brands on Tumblr.................................................................................................................................. 6
Music...................................................................................................................................................... 6
Fashion................................................................................................................................................... 7
Celebrities.............................................................................................................................................. 8
Writers.................................................................................................................................................... 8
Getting started....................................................................................................................................... 9
The Dashboard...................................................................................................................................... 9
Themes................................................................................................................................................... 9
Best practices ..................................................................................................................................... 10
Accessibility......................................................................................................................................... 11
Challenges........................................................................................................................................... 12
Thoughts on Tumblr............................................................................................................................ 13
About eModeration............................................................................................................................. 14
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3. What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is a blogging platform with the addition of a range of
social networking features. You can easily publish text, photos,
quotes, links, chatlogs, audio, and video, and your followers
will see your content in their feed the instant that it’s published.
With a single click, your followers can “reblog” your post, further
publishing it to their own followers, while retaining links back to
the original source of the content.
Tumblr’s intention is to let you “effortlessly share anything.” Because Tumblr is designed with this
end goal in mind it’s easy to create a post, it’s easy to discover posts, and it’s easy to pass them on
to your friends. There’s terrific potential for your content to reach far beyond your direct followers.
Since launching in 2007, 112 million people have set up blogs on the platform, but the overall
number of users the site serves is closer to 300 million according to the company’s own stats.
That puts Tumblr behind titans like Facebook (1.11 billion), Twitter (500 million), and Google+ (500
million) in terms of population, but ahead of Instagram (100 million) and Pinterest (48 million).
Tumblr occupies an appealing middle ground between the largest mainstream social networks and
smaller niche sites. Its population is large enough for it to make sense for brands to invest their time
to create a presence, but small enough that it attracts tastemakers who use the platform because
they want to; not because they feel obliged to be there.
In May 2013 Yahoo agreed to buy Tumblr for $1.1billion. In a post announcing the acquisition, CEO
Marissa Mayer promised “not to screw it up”. Furthermore, Mayer assured users that Tumblr would
operate independently of Yahoo, with David Karp remaining as Tumblr’s CEO. Yahoo intends to
deploy its “personalisation technology” and search infrastructure to help users to discover new
bloggers and content.
A Tumblr guide for brands
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4. What makes Tumblr different?
You already have a presence on the other social networks –
what does Tumblr offer that they don’t?
Tumblr’s most appealing feature for brands is perhaps its
tagging system. When you post something on Tumblr you can
add tags describing its content, just as you would when posting
a traditional blog article. On your company website these tags
might be used for organisation; allowing readers to click on a
tag to find other posts that you’ve written on the same topic. On
Tumblr these tags are shared across the entire userbase. Your
posts about #fashion are collected with everyone else’s posts
about #fashion on a permanent dedicated #fashion tag page.
to take notice? Or is it that the team on social media channels
naturally have the mindset to respond quickly? Either way,
Twitter’s reputation as an effective issues resolution channel will
only increase its use.
At first glance it looks like a good way to distract people away
from your content, but think about it from the user’s perspective. Tumblr allows users to “track” tags
that they’re interested in, surfacing activity from that tag on their dashboard page.
With sites like Facebook and Twitter your posts can reach your existing followers and, if you’re lucky,
a few of their friends. Tumblr offers that too, but then adds this extra layer of reach where people who
have never encountered you or your posts can still discover them if your tags match their interests.
Target your audience precisely
You’re not screaming your message out into the world and just hoping the right people are in earshot.
You’re selecting the exact audience you want to target through your tags, and they self-select
themselves through tag tracking to see content like yours.
Tag tracking isn’t even limited to Tumblr members. Anyone can bookmark a tag page and see the
latest posts on a topic whenever they want.
Tumblr still goes one better by monitoring its tags and displaying the top 50 on its “Explore” page.
This helps users to find new tags to track, and it also celebrates the “Top Editor” of each tag. What
better way to demonstrate that you’re an authority on a given topic?
Another advantage Tumblr has over the other social networks
is the customisation that’s possible. You can download user-
created “themes” that significantly alter the look of your page,
or you can build your own for something truly unique. Even if
you’re not an HTML expert, plug-in developers like AddThis
offer easy to follow instructions for adding their features to your
Tumblr page.
A Tumblr guide for brands
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5. If Tumblr has one shortcoming, it’s in the lack of functionality for gathering feedback. While almost
every other social media platform makes it easy for others to respond to your content with text,
Tumblr almost arbitrarily puts obstacles in the way of text responses.
Every post you put up can easily be “liked” and “reblogged” by the people it reaches, but you can
only invite text comments if the title or body text of your post ends with a question mark. If you jump
through that hoop, the post editor will present a “Let people answer this” text box. Users can only
reply to your post if you have ticked this box, and Tumblr only allows you to use the “Let people
answer this” feature on two posts each day. If you’re a prolific poster, choose carefully!
This design choice was probably made to encourage the use of Tumblr as a visual platform. It’s
perhaps telling that even when you’ve used both of your answerable posts for the day, there is no
such limit on the number of times you can opt-in to allow “photo replies” to your posts.
Who’s tumbling?
More than half of Tumblr’s visitors are between
the ages of 18 and 34, with a slight majority (55%)
being female, according to stats from Quantcast.
A survey conducted by Posterous founder Garry
Tan indicates that Tumblr may be more popular
than Facebook among the 13-18 and 19-25 age
groups (see chart below). If your brand is trying
to reach teenagers and young adults, Tumblr could
well be the best place to do it!
Quantcast also cites that 45% of the site’s users are
college educated, which is slightly higher than the
internet average.
While 67% of Tumblr’s users are Caucasian,
representation of African, Asian, and Hispanic
ethnicities is above the internet average. Tumblr is
available in 12 languages to facilitate usage
worldwide.
13% of the site’s visits come from mobile devices,
with many coming through Tumblr’s highly rated
official apps for iOS and Android.
The presence of brands on Tumblr has steadily
increased since the site’s launch in 2007. Fortune 500
companies with an active presence on Tumblr include
General Electric, Pepsi, Intel, Coca-Cola, and Disney.
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Social media usage
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
13-18 19-25
Facebook Twitter Instagram Tumblr Snapchat

6. What’s on Tumblr?
As with most social networks, and arguably the internet as a whole, visual content is king. At the time
of writing, the most active tag on Tumblr is #Food. To demonstrate the prevalence of image-based
content over text, I had intended to tell you that I had to scroll through of the most recent posts
before finding one without a prominent image. After several minutes of holding the down key and
seeing nothing but photos and animated GIFs fly past, I’d be prepared to believe that there has never
been a text-based post submitted under #Food. Point being: if
you’re planning to use Tumblr, put away the thesaurus and start
building up an image collection.
One form of content that Tumblr has become the de facto home
for is the single topic blog. Single topic blogs post exclusively
about a very narrow subject and typically spring up in reaction to
a pop culture event or to support a meme.
Content is often sourced entirely from the community, with page
owners serving as curators. Well-known single topic blogs on
Tumblr include Dogshaming, McKayla Is Not Impressed, and,
naturally, Single Topic Blog Of Single Topic Blogs.
Brands on Tumblr
As Tumblr’s media evangelist Mark Coatney puts it, Tumblr is
“A network of interests rather than people who know each other. This gives
more flexibility and expression to your brand.”
Diana Hong, creative director at New York’s Create The Group, has salient advice:
“If a brand has an idea of what their voice is on Tumblr, then that works ... it’s
about creating a culture.”
The below is just a smattering of the brands currently participating on Tumblr.
Music
Rolling Stone magazine uses Tumblr to link to content on its website, sticking to a formula of posting
eye-catching photos with a couple of sentences of descriptive text. It has designed its Tumblr page
to allow space to advertise the latest issue of the magazine, and the magazine also brings in a feed
from its Twitter account.
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7. Meanwhile, Pitchfork uses its Tumblr page to curate content
from within Tumblr and from the wider web, linking to content on
YouTube, Vimeo, and Spotify almost as much as it links back to
pitchfork.com.
Spotify itself maintains a page full of embedded audio from
the Spotify service. Following one of its links will almost always
automatically open the Spotify desktop app.
Adweek’s profile on MTV’s adoption of Tumblr illuminates
some of the reasons a cultural media force would fit with a
microblogging platform. #MTV was already one of the more
popular Tumblr tags and the channel wanted to take part in
sharing its content.
MTV also wants to target the web culture and design
communities, which it thinks will mesh well with its image. The
Tumblr account is a way for MTV to showcase the talents of its
employees; many of the company’s staffers are contributors,
under the supervision of MTV’s social media manager Tom
Fishman. He says:
“We feel like MTV could be a really powerful curatorial force.”
Fashion
Fashion is huge on Tumblr, with everything from street-style blogs to brands represented. As fashion
is all about a point of view, it is no wonder that it should find a natural home on Tumblr.
According to Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp, 1 out of 10 in the top 1,000 of Tumblr blogs is
fashion-related. Tumblr posts that are fashion-related are reblogged on a much greater scale than a
typical Tumblr post, states Tumblr Fashion Director Rich Tong, suggesting that:
“There’s a huge capacity for fashion content to go viral on Tumblr.”
Elle has taken a very low maintenance approach to its Tumblr
page, simply reposting everything shared from its Instagram
account. It seems to work! Their posts pick up a lot of likes and
reblogs. Not, however, as many likes and reblogs as Vogue,
which posts photos at a rate of one or two per day, always
taking care to list the name of the photographer.
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8. DKNY PR Girl is up front about her usage of the platform,
stating as her tagline “When 140 characters aren’t enough.”
Clearly her presence on Tumblr isn’t merely an afterthought
though, as the page is very nicely presented with its own custom
theme.
Celebrities
They don’t come much bigger than the President of the United
States. Barack Obama has a Tumblr page, which posts a variety
of image and text-based content. Interestingly text posts,
typically pulling from Obama’s speeches, have seen a lot of
success on the platform in comparison with photos shared from
the account. It goes to show that not everyone on the internet is
too impatient to read. On Tumblr, Obama’s page has evidently
found its audience.
Actors, the next most powerful people on the planet, are also making their presence felt on Tumblr.
Entrepreneurial sorts like Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt appear to post about anything
but their acting. Instead they curate content from their fans, share things they enjoy, and promote
their websites HelloGiggles and hitRECord.org.
Musicians of all stature are present on Tumblr. Where else
would they be? Myspace? Beyoncé has perhaps brought the
most attention to Tumblr, choosing to announce the birth of her
daughter through the Hello Blu Ivy Carter page with the baby’s
first photos and a scanned in hand-written note.
Writers
Journalists were among the first to fully embrace Tumblr. Mark Coatney, former Senior Editor of
Newsweek, says of his ramp-up: “No one at Newsweek really knew what I was doing,” allowing
him the freedom to develop a cutting-edge style for Newsweek’s Tumblr that quickly developed a
following. Tumblr so appreciated Coatney’s efforts, they hired him as a Media Evangelist.
Publishers have also taken an interest in Tumblr. The site proudly shows off some of its members
who have been given book deals through Tumblr on a spotlight page. Publishers saw the success
of Tumblr blogs like Garfield Minus Garfield, Scanwiches, and Coloring For Grown-ups and saw
potential for people to enjoy their content in real physical books. Imagine that!
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9. Getting started
Registering for a Tumblr account is so easy that you could have your first post up within five minutes
of hitting Tumblr.com. However, it is worth taking some time to familiarise yourself with the site’s
feature set and culture.
The Dashboard
The dashboard is your home on Tumblr. Its
main feature is a feed that will contain any
posts made by accounts you follow, along
with notifications of everyone who follows
you or engages with your content.
The dashboard is also your launchpad
for creating posts. Though preparing a
post takes place in a WYSIWYG editing
interface based on the type of post you
have chosen, it all starts from the buttons
at the top of your dashboard.
Themes
A “theme” on Tumblr is the visual design
of your page. It gets a special term
because Tumblr themes can be shared
and installed. You don’t have to be a
programmer or graphic artist to make your
Tumblr page beautiful. If you do have the
skills, though, you can make something
unique to you or your brand.
With that said, there is a case to be
made for spending your time elsewhere.
Tumblr’s default theme is basic but
functional. It’s also entirely possible to
have a flourishing Tumblr page without your or your followers ever seeing it!
Like Facebook, most people will see your content without visiting the actual page, as your posts
will appear in their dashboard feed and tag pages. You’ll know you’ve made it when people start
bookmarking your actual page to see your content at the source.
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10. Best practices
Promoting fan art and user generated
content
Some brands like to curate fan art and
other submissions from their communities.
BBC America’s Doctor Who page
frequently shares content originally posted
by Tumblr’s many Whovians (it’s a word,
we checked).
Livetumblring
Speaking of Doctor Who, the page has
been recognised by the Shorty Awards
for pioneering “livetumblring” on the
platform. The page posts screenshots,
quotes, and live fan reactions during the
broadcast of new episodes to deliver a
second screen experience.
Links
If your intention is to drive traffic to a
website, remember to embed links in your content – particularly in images. When your content is
reblogged by other Tumblr users, your links will remain intact on their pages.
Repurposing content
While it could be argued that you get out as much as you put in, Tumblr can be a very low
maintenance platform. It’s entirely possible to repurpose content from your official website, or from
your other social presences, and still find that the people of Tumblr want to share it. The Economist
mostly posts covers and political cartoons from its magazine, generating a good amount of
engagement from content that already existed elsewhere.
Tagging
Tagging is the most important part to get right. As we’ve established, it’s likely that most of the
engagement you see on your posts will come from people who discovered your content through a
tag page.
There doesn’t appear to be a limit to the number of tags you can add to a post, and your content will
appear on every one of the tag pages, but there is some tagging etiquette that ought to be followed.
While it’s tempting to tag subjects that are tangentially related to what you’re posting about, followers
of the tag will be watching and they’ll let you know when they feel you’ve wasted their time.
It is also considered to be good Tumblr etiquette to be aware of content that can trigger negative
physical and emotional reactions. Animated GIFs are very popular on Tumblr, but in some rare
cases they can cause epileptic seizures. Similarly, some graphic images can serve as psychological
triggers for eating disorders, self-harm, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
A Tumblr guide for brands
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11. Accessibility
Feeds and subscriptions
Tumblr is good at spreading your content around within the platform, and your blog’s biggest fans
can bookmark your page just like any other site, but there are additional ways to get the message out
beyond Tumblr.
Every Tumblr blog automatically produces an RSS feed, which you can access by adding /rss
after your page’s URL. The default Tumblr theme also comes with an RSS button, but it’s worth
remembering to include one when you use custom themes.
You could also use your Tumblr page to create a mailing list and use newsletters to ensure your
customers see your content.
Comments
One way to sidestep Tumblr’s commenting limitations is to install a Disqus widget. Disqus also
makes it possible to moderate comments; a feature unfortunately lacking from Tumblr’s default
comment system.
Integration
Buttons for sharing your content on other
social platforms can easily be integrated
into your theme with tools like AddThis.
Your followers probably have at least one
more account with one of Tumblr’s rivals, so why not let them “Like” you there too?
Monitoring
Built-in analytics are lacking on Tumblr. Beyond a follower count and per-post engagement figures,
there isn’t much to be gleaned from Tumblr’s stated information.
Some third party providers can fill in the gap. Google Analytics can provide data on Tumblr once
the blog has been enabled for it. TumblrStats and Numblr offer limited information on your posting
habits, but can also be used to view publicly available information about any other Tumblr blog you
might be interested in.
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12. A Tumblr guide for brands
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Challenges
Memes
Memes are all over Tumblr, with many originating on the platform before being picked up elsewhere.
If you do it the right way, joining in on a meme with your followers can make your brand appear fun
and approachable, and can give your content some added viral potential.
The challenge is in getting involved early enough to appear to be part of the movement, before the
joke has got old. The eModeration blog has some tips and observations on the use of memes by
brands.
Reblogging
Reblogging others’ content will show your followers that you’re serious about being an active part of
Tumblr’s community. However, care needs to be taken when deciding what to reblog.
First, you want to consider whether the content your sharing fits the typical tone of your blog. Is there
any chance that it will disappoint or annoy your followers?
Secondly, you need to think about the original source of the content. You will probably have
discovered the content in isolation, as one of many individual posts scrolling down a tag page.
While that single post may be perfect to reblog for your followers, the original poster (whose link will
appear in your reblog) may be associated with practices and beliefs that you don’t wish to connect
with your brand. Check a few more of their posts before reblogging.
While it may sometimes be tempting to just copy a user’s image or quote and submit it as a new
post, this is understandably considered poor form on Tumblr. Reblogging and giving appropriate
attribution to content creators will keep everyone – including the lawyers – happy.

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Thoughts on Tumblr
Don’t just take our word for it! Here’s what some of the industry’s experts say about Tumblr.
On the Tumblr community:
“Tumblr is where I go to laugh, but it is also a fantastic place to learn: this is
where I first read about Trayvon Martin, for example. It often hosts some of
the most eloquent and nuanced conversations about society, from gender to
race to equality and social justice. It is a community that gives and shares and
supports its own – only last night, I witnessed people organise a whip-round for
a fellow Tumblr user who needed to get out of an abusive situation fast.
It can be a brilliant place, because it is a lot more than the sum of its parts: you
get out of it what you put in. Not many sites can give you all of that and a gif of
Chris Evans punching a bag in slo-mo. And for that reason, I’ll remain onboard.
No contest.”
Bim Adewunmi, The Guardian
On Tumblr’s popularity:
“Pop quiz: what is the favorite social networking site of Americans under age
25? If you guessed Facebook you are way behind the eight-ball, because
Tumblr now enjoys more regular visits from the youth of America.”
Adam Rifkin, TechCrunch
On Tumblr’s future:
“It will be interesting to see whether Tumblr tries to introduce more data on how
users interact with each other on its network — and whether that data follows in
the form of sites like Twitter and Facebook, or whether it can continue to grow
without that extra detail. If the latter is successful, it also throws into question
whether metrics like friend counts or follower numbers amount to much in the
longer term. And will Tumblr add more features to snare in more users? The
core of Tumblr’s “social” experience is how people consume and share content
based on their interests, rather than through a conversation with their social
circles. This has been one of Tumblr’s most distinctive traits, but it also leaves
a window open for features that the company might also try to introduce or
encourage more in the future.”
Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch

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About eModeration
eModeration is a social media management agency which delivers high-quality multi-lingual
community management and moderation services, social media consultancy, and crisis management
training and simulations. With offices in London, Los Angeles and New York, we work with some of
the world’s biggest brands across a wide range of industry sectors. These include: automotive, kids
and entertainment, FMCG, financial services, luxury brands, media, pharmaceutical, publishing, and
telecoms.
The agency works with leading global brands, including BBC Worldwide, HSBC, Mind Candy (Moshi
Monsters), MTV, Sony Mobile, ITV, Hyundai, Smirnoff, the LEGO Group, Sprint and The Economist.
It also works with a growing roster of agencies, including Starcom MediaVest Group, Wieden +
Kennedy, Ogilvy, Saatchi Saatchi, DDB Worldwide, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Publicis Groupe.
Committed to providing a safe and engaging social media experience for children and adults,
eModeration’s CEO Tamara Littleton has over 11 years’ experience of community and social media
management and moderation. She has also advised the UK government on guidelines for child
safety.
eModeration contributes to the development of social media expertise via its white papers, blogs,
sponsorships, and has a strong roster of returning clients who appreciate the quality of its services
and expertise in social media tools and trends.
Contact us
Talk to us today about how our social media expertise can help you brand.
Call Tamara Littleton on (+44) 0203 178 5051
Email info@emoderation.com