A beginner's guide to Tumblr, as presented to the Lake Area Webmaster's Meetup group because Rick Harris asked me to and I'm a sucker.

1. Tumblr?
I barely know her!
Jack Shedd
@etchalon

2. Hi.I’m Jack. I make things. Mostly websites.
Sometimes bad jokes.

4. ✓ Founded in 2007
✓ Web, mobile, social, desktop
✓ HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Java, Go, PHP, Ruby, Objective-C
✓ 4 Developers + 3 Designers + 1 Project Manager + Mary Alice
✓ All sorts of random clients…
- but young adult publishers seem to like us a whole lot

5. “Go where your audience is.”
– Some guy who works in (probably) marketing

6. – One of our clients, at some point last year
“Can you guys build a Tumblr theme?”

7. “Absolutely!”
– Jack, in response to previously mentioned client

8. “…what the hell is Tumblr?”
– Jack, after previously mentioned client had hung up

10. Tumblr is a community of people sharing things
that other people might like so that those people
can also share it to other people who might like it
so that those people can also share it to other
people who might like it so that those people can
also share it to other people who might like it so
that those people can also share it to other people
who might like it so that those people can also
share it to other people who might like it so that
those people can also share it to other people who
might like it so that those people can also share it
to other people who might like it…

11. But it’s not blogging.

12. They share images.
They share videos.
They share songs.
They share quotes.
They share stories.
They share links.

13. But it’s not blogging.
*of course it’s blogging says the “i love debating semantics” neck beard
*no one loves you neck beard dude

14. 175
Million +
Tumblr Blogs
270
Million +
Monthly Uniques
80
Billion +
posts
*based on estimates and blog posts and guesswork
*either way it’s lots and lots and lots of people and its growing

15. ✓ Original content and found content are equal
✓ Authors and curators are equal
✓ Long form content is rare
✓ Images are more common than text
✓ The audience is younger and slightly more female
✓ 50% of all users are reading it via their phones (or tablets or whatever)

16. Marissa.Laughably stereotypical Tumblr user
*Producer at Mess, not stock photography model
*Agreed to be in this deck
*Apparently uses public transportation

17. “What the fuck is RSS?”
– Marissa, paraphrased

18. The almighty dashboard.
An infinite scroll wonderland of stuff to look at it.

19. Your goal should be to get on their dashboard.
*neck beard dude probably just said “obviously!”
*you’re gonna die alone neck beard dude

20. Themes
They’re just HTML, CSS and Javascript.
And a proprietary template language
And one of the worst development workflows ever devised by man or beast
Including punch cards

21. Most people just use a pre-made theme.
There are even “premium” themes you can pay for.

22. We build our own.
*statistical fact, bitches

28. We’ve even made a few of our themes available
for other people to install.

29. “Do I need a custom theme?”
– Person who might not need a custom theme

30. A custom theme usually takes us about two weeks,
and costs the client between $10k and $20k.
Occasionally, themes break and have to be fixed.
This is because Tumblr changes things on us.
*both design and development, assuming we’re not doing crazy animation or anything weird

31. ✓ …are about branding, experience and promotion.
✓ …are how new followers will first experience your Tumblr.
- …but once they start following you, they’ll just use their dashboard.
✓ …allow you to feature non-Tumblr content.
✓ …allow you to augment the Tumblr experience with interactive features.
Custom themes…

32. “Probably.”
– Jack

33. “But content matters more.”
– Jack

34. Your goal should be to get on their dashboard.
*an idea so nice i said it twice

35. Pause for technical demo and walk through.
*or I can skip it and we can talk content

36. Content
Creating things that people will share.

37. Consider the dashboard.
Remember this slide?

38. Your theme is nowhere to be seen.
It’s just your content.

39. They’re gonna scroll right past it.
Unless it’s funny, or meaningful, or interesting.

40. And that’s assuming your content is even on
their dashboard in the first place.

41. ✓ Users only see content from Tumblr’s they follow…
✓ …but that content can include things someone they follow reblog’d
✓ …or it can include “Sponsored Posts”

42. Sponsored Posts are an easy solution.
You spend money, and you get people on
Tumblr to see whatever it is you want
them to see.

43. There are plenty of other places online
where you can spend money on the
privilege of being ignored.
*i don’t hold banner ads in particularly high regard but at least you know exactly what you’re getting

44. People may or may not find you.
But you can definitely find them.

45. Find your community on Tumblr.
And join in.

46. Don’t sell all the time. Make things people will like
whether they like your product or not.
*unless people really like your product

49. Don’t just talk about your thing. Talk about things
and about doing things. and mention your thing in
the same conversation with other people’s thing.

51. TL;DR
Conclusions for people who were playing Threes.
*i forgive you. that game is really addictive.