When we first started using Tumblr in my former company about six years ago, we had challenges finding the real value for dealers. Sure, it was a quick and easy blogging platform that had a growing community and the potential for greatness, but the community within Tumblr seemed to be heading away from our clients’ target audience. It wasn’t the car buyers of the world that were Tumbling. It was the kids. Granted, today’s kids are tomorrow’s car buyers but it’s not like they would remember their Tumbl-buddy car dealer page years later, right?
It was a mistake. The thinking was wrong at the time. Thankfully, other issues popped up within the platform that made our decision to shy away from them a good one. The platform has major SEO issues (there are challenges on most themes with the simple act of putting a unique title tag on an image post, for example), Facebook doesn’t play well with it, and Google has ignored it completely until very recently.
Things are different. One might point to the purchase by Yahoo as the catalyst and that may be true, but it’s what Yahoo didn’t do, namely change the system, that has kept the community strong. On both search and social, Tumblr is finally starting to get respect and the focus by Yahoo on the content end of things points to a trend of increased importance for the community.
We have dozens of Tumblr accounts and hundreds of blogs. Heck, we even made the decision to build our own Tumblr page for the company. It’s currently focused strictly on cars themselves, but that’s fine. As long as it’s growing, we’re content with keeping strategy away and making content the important draw.
That’s important. Content and community are the strongest points for Tumblr. Think of them as somewhere between WordPress and Twitter in the content arena. More and shorter posts than standard blogs, fewer and longer posts than Twitter.
We’ve made a significant investment of time, energy, and even money to build a valid content network on Tumblr. Consistency is key – letting it sit dormant for any period of time can be detrimental. As we develop strategies to use Tumblr to help our clients, we’ll keep you informed. In the meantime, why don’t you go ahead and get your Tumblog going now.
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