Stumbling Through A Lesson In Tumblr
SITE REVIEW: Tumblr is the “next big thing†in microblogging and social media, according to Drew Davis of Tipping Point Labs in Newton. You can now follow the Worcester Business Journal on Tumblr by visiting wbjournal.tumblr.com.
When Lady Gaga’s doing it, you know it must be hip.
And just what is Lady Gaga doing, you ask? Well, the international pop star with the wacky sense of style is just the latest person, but perhaps one of the most notable, to take to the micro-blogging site called Tumblr.
Yes, I know. It’s another thing you have to sign up for.
I too am finding myself weary of staying on top of each and every next big thing. Yesterday it was Tumblr (we’re already behind the times!) and today it’s Google +, a new social networking site that is either brilliant or disastrous, depending on which review you read.
But the truth is you can’t really afford to ignore any new social media tool when you’re the Digital Diva, so I decided to find an expert to help me understand why I should be like Lady Gaga and jump on the Tumblr bandwagon.
Hit Parade
I luckily ran into a Tumblr expert (if you can be an expert in such a thing) at a recent industry conference I attended. Andrew Davis, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Tipping Point Labs in Newton, was sent to knock over the apple carts of us publishing types. You know the drill — tell us how boring we all are and how we need to throw out everything we know and start over. Later in the day he attended a smaller workshop where the topic of Tumblr came up. While the leader of the session was at a loss to explain exactly what the purpose of Tumbler is, Davis boomed from the back of the room that the micro-blogging site is in fact “the next big thing.”
I thought that was a bold claim, so I followed up with Davis to find out why he said that.
And that’s where Lady Gaga comes in. You see, Davis has studied every new digital technology out there, from Flickr to YouTube to Facebook. And he’s analyzed how these “digital channels,” as he calls them, evolve, developing a seven-phases life cycle: experiment, adopt, gestate, escalate, monetize, consolidate and maintain.
A site like Facebook, which is fully evolved, is in the maintain phase. But a site like Tumblr, which was launched in 2007, has just reached the escalate phase, thanks to the big-time endorsement from a celebrity like Lady Gaga. A similar escalation happened with Twitter back in 2009, when actor Ashton Kutcher embraced Twitter and began a race with CNN to see who could reach 1 million followers first (Kutcher won).
Lady Gaga’s embrace of Tumblr, which happened June 27, is seen by Davis and others who follow these kinds of things as a similar sea change that will spur it along the life cycle of development.
Souped-Up Statuses
So enough about life cycles and celebrity endorsements. What exactly is Tumblr? Well, it’s basically Twitter on steroids. And if you ask Davis, it’s way cooler.
“[Tumblr] essentially works like as status update, but it gives you a lot more context,” he said, explaining that every post can be classified based on the content. While with Twitter every post of 140 characters basically looks the same, a post on Tumblr can be formatted differently depending on the media (text, audio, image, quote, etc.).
Now it’s important to note that Davis hasn’t abandoned Twitter for Tumblr. He uses both, but for different things. Twitter, because of the speed of posting, moves much faster and is where he goes to find out what people are talking about right this minute. But he describes Tumblr as “a little bit more of a deeply engaged environment” where he spends more time investigating the posted content. In other words, Twitter is like sitting on a crowded bus and listening in on conversations, while Tumblr is like hanging out at a college symposium.
And now is a great time to start experimenting with Tumblr, according to Davis. Because it’s just at the beginning of the escalation phase, the field is less crowded and there’s a lot less noise. And Tumblr may be a great place for a business person to dip his or her toe in the blogging waters because posting on the site is fairly quick and easy.
“It’s a great place to find inspiration and not feel like you have to write 800 words,” he said, adding that a business executive could start an account and simply post a quote of the day or a statistic that’s interesting.
“If you start today by looking for those people who are like minded, you’ll find some value,” he said. And who knows, you might find that you have a thing or two in common with Lady Gaga.
Got news for our Digital Diva column?
E-mail Christina H. Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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