Is Tumblr Right for Your School?
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#MCS10 Marketing, Content & Social Strategy Wendy Darling Emory University Is Tumblr Right for Your School?
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Tumblr: a land of memes, cat GIFs, self-indulgent ramblings and…high-quality curated content? Yes, indeed! With mainstream media as well as respected institutions such as museums and national non-profits now on board, Tumblr has become home to an increasingly sophisticated mix of content. Because of the way Tumblr works and its audience, often the unique, hard-to-find, original source material – archival documents, historic photos, artwork – rises to the top and becomes the most shared, with the most loyal fan-base. With this in mind, how can universities and colleges leverage their content – especially original, unique, highly visual or historic content – to their advantage on Tumblr? Based on four years experience curating the highly successful Art Deco Architecture blog (decoarchitecture.tumblr.com), Darling will outline the basics of Tumblr, showcase various colleges and universities who are doing Tumblr right, and how to judge whether the micro-blogging site can be a good fit for an institution’s marketing efforts.
Transcript of Is Tumblr Right for Your School?
#MCS10Marketing, Content & Social Strategy
Wendy DarlingEmory University
Is Tumblr Rightfor Your School?
Tumblr
Tumblr: a land of memes, cat GIFs, self-indulgent ramblings and…high-quality curated content?
Yes, indeed!
Tumblr
By the Numbers:
• Founded in 2007
• Acquired by Yahoo in 2013
• Hosts over 201.3 million blogs (as of Sept. 1, 2014)
• More than 13 billion global page views in April 2013
• Over 85 million posts created on the site each day (as of Sept. 1, 2014)
• Most popular with teen & college-age user segments; half visitor base is under 25
Tumblr
Features:
• Publishing platform & aggregate reader
• Dashboard
• Reblogging & liking
• Custom domain names
• Question, Ask & Submit features
• Posting Queue
• Tags
• HTML editing
Tumblr
Tumblr Blog Types:
• Single-topic
• Text blogs or articles
• GIFs & Memes
• Selfies
• Inspirational Quotes
• “Ask”
• “Confession”
• Random / Reblogging
Tumblr
Benefits:
• Easy to use from browsing & posting perspective
• Plays well with others – Twitter, RSS, etc.
• Wide variety of templates & options
• Fun to explore
• Community & reciprocation
My Blog
Overview:
• Art Deco architecture, civil engineering, interior design, plus related history & culture around the world
• Begun Oct. 2010
• As of Oct. 17, 2014:
• 8,213 Posts
• 24,544 Followers
• 1,919 Facebook fans
• 660 Twitter followers
decoarchitecture.tumblr.com
My Blog
Traffic:
• Past 12 months:125,928 Pageviews, 55,899 Sessions
• Not much, but many views are solely through Tumblr dashboard – which isn’t measured by Google Analytics
• Main referrals:Google, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter
decoarchitecture.tumblr.com
My Blog
All-Time Hits*
• Foyer, Empire State Building, NYC, New York
• Elevator, Chrysler Building, NYC, New York
• Helsinki Train Station, Helsinki, Finland
• Whitehouse Diner, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey
* By pageviews
decoarchitecture.tumblr.com
The Vision
Existing Models:
• Many great, single-focus Tumblrs
• Great quality content from:
• National media
• Museums & libraries
• Non-profits
• Dedicated amateurs
The Vision
National MediaMuseums & LibrariesNon-Profits
• NPRnpr.tumblr.com
• NY Times: Lively Morguelivelymorgue.tumblr.com
• National Archives:Today’s Documenttodaysdocument.tumblr.com
• Atlanta History Centeratlantahistorycenter.tumblr.com
• AAMC: Research Means Hopemedresearch.tumblr.com
The Vision
Dedicated Amateurs
• The Nifty Fiftiestheniftyfifties.tumblr.com
• Design Is Finewww.design-is-fine.org
• Valentino Vampvalentinovamp.com
• My Vintage Voguemyvintagevogue.tumblr.com
• Modernism In Metrolandmodernism-in-metroland.tumblr.com
• Archi/Mapsarchimaps.tumblr.com
• Architecture of Doomarchitectureofdoom.tumblr.com
The Reality
So I looked at higher ed and what I mostly found …
• Waste of time
• Crickets No audience
• Nothing anybody would want to share… and no one does
• Navel-gazing, inward-looking
• Viewbook in blog format
• Reproduction of Instagram (or Instagram feed itself)
• Not taking advantage of institutional resources like archives, museums, cool science images, etc.
The Reality
Doing it right (1 of 2)
• Use specialist archives
• Books• Papers• Photos• Objects
• Use general archives
• Yearbooks• Vintage magazine articles• Photos
• Location-specific
• Neighborhood• Town /city• State
The Reality
Doing it right (2 of 2)
• Tie to current events / pop culture hooks
• TV & movies• Books• Political issues• Objects
• Science
• “Sexy” or “cool” science –especially images
• Geekery• Hot topics• “Science for Science’s Sake”
• Offer what only YOU can offer!
The Reality
Examples (1 of 2)
• University of Chicago Magazineuchicagomag.tumblr.com
• Colophon (UC San Diego)ucsdspecialcollections.tumblr.com
• University of California Researchucresearch.tumblr.com
The Reality
Examples (2 of 2)
• School of Visual Arts (NYC)
schoolofvisualarts.tumblr.com
• Our RISD (RI School of Design)our.risd.edu
• MCAD Comic Art (Minneapolis)mcad-comicart.tumblr.com
• MCAD Graphic Design (Minneapolis)mcad-gd.tumblr.com
How To
#1 Choose a Focus
Does your dept., school, college, university have something unique or just awesome to offer, that would work on Tumblr?
What are your strengths?
Be specific, not generic.
If you don’t have something that could work on Tumblr, then don’t set up a Tumblr.
How To
#2 Curating Content
Get a feel for what content does the best.
If something does well – lots of Favorites and Shares - look for more of the same, if not the same topic, then the same quality.
And always ask yourself “Would somebody want to share this?”
How To
#3 Tumblr Tools Queue
• Space out posts over time• “Set it and forget it”
Tags
• Enables others to find your content
• Provides more context• Links your content to similar
content
Twitter-PostingLink accounts, tweets post when Tumblr does
RSSFeed can power Facebook, show up on a web site, etc.
How To
#4 Best Practices
Credit, credit, credit
Name source, link to source, link photo to source, promote source
Identify
Buildings, people, art, etc. should not be posted unlabeled. Helps retain context.
Be egalitarian
Promote other Tumblrs and blogs
Be generous with crediting
How To
#5 Audience Growth Social Media
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest lead people to Tumblr.
Using Tags
Study the tags and pick (appropriate) ones that are hot. Similar to keywords in search research.
Connect with Influencers
Get featured by Tumblr (Explore), influencial bloggers in your genre.
…And lastly, post something so awesome it goes viral. You can’t make it happen, but if it does…
Takeaways
#1 – Think of The WorldFurther the mission beyond just reaching students, alumni & locals – share the resources of your institution. Think of your audience as The World
#2 Think: NicheUnless you have a HUGE campus or it’s INCREDIBLY interesting, avoid campus photos, sports teams, photos of people, or general stuff. Do stuff that’s very specifically celebrating something, like architecture or women’s history or maps or student design. Think: niche.
#3 – Weigh ContentLearn to judge content via some quick criteria: Is it unique? Is it cool? Is it startling? Memorable? Would people care beyond this campus?
Q&
AQuestions?
Contact
Wendy DarlingWoodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University
[email protected] | @wcdarling
wdarling.tumblr.com | decoarchitecture.tumblr.com
www.about.me/wdarling
My Poster SessionToday: 3:45-5:00 pm
Grand Ballroom
“Using Storify for Professional Show & Tell”
Related Presentation“Make That Tumblr Tumble”http://www.slideshare.net/wdarling/using-storify-for-professional-show-tell (Search Slideshare.net for “Tumblr Tumble”)
