Mainstream on Social Media: A Tipping Point for Tumblr

    imageIn the second half of 2008, Twitter turned over social media: now, microblogging (simply “twitter”) is simple, interesting, and fashionable.

    Celebrities, corporations, the media, and regular users have turned to Twitter as a new way to receive and disseminate information. Until 2009, the use of Twitter was an important factor in promoting websites or companies on social media. Almost everyone twittered.

    If '08 and '09 are the era of Twitter's takeoff, then '10 and '11 can be known as years of success for Tumblr, as it shows the same signs of becoming very popular.

    Tumblr seems to be approaching a critical point, after which he will begin to have wild popularity and become mainstream ...

    This is what the main Tumblr interface looks like now:

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    The peak of July, 1.5 billion page views - is likely to be beaten in August, and then in September, and in the foreseeable future, Tumblr should keep pace.

    But will he maintain the same active growth?

    Road to 1.5 billion views ...

    Launched in March 2007 by David Karp, and lead developer Marco Arment, Tumblr went a long way. Less than a year ago, the Tumblr project was accused of "squandering" $ 10 million of capital investments, and gave little hope for positive results.

    But something happened in early 2010 ...

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    Over the past 6 months, Tumblr has doubled the number of page views.

    Tumblr is a social media news site: more content than is possible on Twitter but less than on a regular blog. No matter how complicated and thorny the Tumblr path was, people begin to notice it. Quote from the New York Times: “Tumblr is a new competitor to Twitter and Facebook.”

    What makes Tumblr unlike the others?

    AOL blog about Tumblr:

    - “For those who are looking for new ways of expressing their thoughts and interests, as well as disseminating social materials, Tumblr is an ideal choice among blog platforms.”

    Sitepoint asks :

    “Is Tumblr the new Twitter?”

    NetworkWorld comments :

    “At times, I began to feel that Tumblr is what Facebook should be: easy to use, easily customizable, and rich in features, with no word limit for posts, and much less stringent restrictions on photo size. "

    This is the key to the success of Tumblr. AOL called it a blogging platform, Sitepoint compared it to Twitter, and NetworkWorld, in turn, to Facebook.

    Many use Tumblr as a simple alternative to Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, as well as other blog services.

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    Tumblr is convenient and has many integration options that allow you not to spend too much time on blogging.

    For some, Tumblr has become an alternative to Twitter, but without an absolute 140 character limit. Unlike Twitter, videos and images can be placed directly on the pages of the service, and not a link.

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    Others use it as a community: the site is similar to Vox and Ning (social blog hosting). Although the aspect of certain communities on Tumblr is not so developed, the participants are still extremely active and loyal to each other.

    Perhaps the biggest difference between Tumblr and other social sites is the “reblogging” tool (note “repost”). Like Facebook, you can take the content of the post that you find on Tumblr and instantly post it to your own blog - with just a couple of clicks of the mouse.

    Is this a blog? Microblogging Social network?

    It is the lack of identities that make Tumblr unique.

    Who is using tumblr?

    Key Media Using Tumblr
    • Newsweek
    • The Atlantic
    • Life
    • Huffington post
    • The new yorker
    • Elle
    • Village voice
    • NYTimes (coming soon)


    Companies starting to use Tumblr (now mainly small and medium-sized enterprises are represented, but corporations will soon settle on Tumblr, as it was on Twitter)
    • The auto insiders
    • Sencha
    • HR Violations
    • TK Carsites
    • Smarter cities
    • Chemical free skinny
    • Your Nutritionista
    • From dimes to dollars


    To summarize

    Over the years, Wordpress has been a favorite social blogging platform for many users. Its blogging features, an abundance of themes and plugins made it a natural choice for those who want to spread messages, express thoughts and ideas, and just share their personal photos or videos on the pages of their blog. But Tumblr is not a bad alternative, because he can offer all this. And even more.

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    Over the past few months, many of those who have the good sense of using traffic generators such as Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon have now turned to Tumblr as their preferred content platform. Over the past 30 days, various blog posts on Tumblr,Digg homepage 53 times, adding 1.4 million unique visitors to Tumblr .

    Conclusion

    The initial question is “Will Tumblr support the same rapid growth?” still in the air.

    Integration of components with other sites makes content distribution easier and more affordable on sites outside of Tumblr. When registering, you are offered the tumblr.com subdomain, or free hosting - this gives an advantage that not all social sites can offer.

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    In the end, it seems that Tumblr will be profitable. Like many of its competitors, there is still no clear methodology for making profit from it.

    Many are already calling Tumblr "the next big thing." If this does not happen, it can sink into the abyss, as quickly as the growth of its popularity in recent times.

    ***

    Free translation of material on focus.com .

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