Tumblr: The Happy Medium of Social Blogging

Many people overlook the impact Tumblr has had on the social media landscape. The popular website is a go-to for amateur photographers, meme-generators, and celebrities looking to share their latest new stories. Tumblr has succeeded in its growth because it draws from Twitter’s instantaneous content sharing philosophy and WordPress’ intricate themed-based blogging system. Because of its simplicity and number of users, Tumblr has become one of the largest social media services today, and very recently it received $85 million worth of financial backing. In many ways, Tumblr is becoming an incredibly reliable social media marketing tool.

A War of the Apps

Tumblr has made it easy for users to access the interface with official apps available on virtually any smartphone or Android tablet. While the official apps work great, there are countless third party apps for smartphones, tablets, and desktops available through the Tumblr website.

While Twitter has an official integration app for the Apple iOS, a third party Android app must be downloaded for people who use other devices. WordPress has official apps for Apple, Android, and Blackberry; but lacks a lot of third party generated software.

Taking the Best of Twitter

Unlike Twitter, Tumblr has always been completely customizable to its users. Instead of having a short stream of consciousness, Tumblr users are free to post video, audio, photo, and text directly to their own customizable websites. These messages can easily be shared with other users and then sent as a message to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, meaning Tumblr can become a center stage hub within your social networking.

These innovative posting features are the reason why the International Business Times reported that Tumblr has grown 183 percent since May 2010 and has more unique visitors than Twitter and Wikipedia.

Taking the Best of WordPress

While WordPress may be the number one tool to use for a professional blog or website, Tumblr makes it easier for people to socialize with each other from within their platform. All of the  statistics, widgets, and themes on WordPress can take years to master and if you are no good at development you might not be able to get exactly what you want out of the CMS. Tumblr allows users to create a shorter, to the point message with its easily accessible interface as well as a range of advanced functions like a Tumblr music player.

Tumblr’s Future

Currently Tumblr are valued to be worth over $800 million, despite not having a proper business plan. Tumblr CEO David Karp says they are looking to organically place advertising throughout its network of blogs instead of bombarding people with banner ads, which will help them to further grow their user base.

Tumblr is a unique social network because it combines people’s needs to express themselves with the ease of use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The company will be an even bigger player in the social media landscape within the next year if you ask us, and i’ll bet anybody clued in to social networking outside of Facebook will raise their glass to that.