Deeper Dive: Tumbling in on Tumblr
Part Two

What are you posting on Tumblr?

NBC News uses its Tumblr to provide a glimpse behind-the-scenes.  Tumblr is often used to augment traditional online news coverage.

On Tumblr, content is king. It’s important to include both original and reblogged media in your content plan.

Vary the types of posts as much as possible and do not simply link to your primary website. Tumblr is a different medium and should be treated different. Users on Tumblr primarily tend to stay on the platform.

While it’s a good idea to cross-promote and provide links to stories on your main site, it’s also important to create and structure content specific for Tumblr.

Many reporters use the site as a sort of reporters notebook and include many of the notes, photos and extra information that may not make it to the final story but can give readers a more complete view of the situation. One way to think of Tumblr is as a place to create and store a personal record of issues and events.

Consider all the elements of each story and other social networks when posting on Tumbr. Posts can include images used in stories, embedded YouTube videos and additional footage, screenshots, snippets of conversation from your other social media properties and open-ended questions.

Tumblr has no character limit, but shorter posts are preferred to longer. Consider Tumblr to be the midpoint between Twitter and a full-length blog post or news story.

There should also be a significant amount of content reposted from your community. Between 40 and 60 percent of your content can be reposts. This content can also be queued and scheduled in large chunks, either over regular intervals or at a specific time, to make posting easier. Factor this into planned social media work on your website, Facebook and Twitter, too.

How to integrate Tumblr into your online presence

Just like with your other social media accounts, cross promoting and publicizing the site are important ways grow your following. Make sure a Tumblr link and logos are placed in visible locations on your main website page, other social platforms, email signatures and printed promotional material. Through feeds and widgets, Tumblogs can also be fed into blogs and websites as extra content.

Using custom code, Facebook “Like” and Twitter “Tweet This” buttons can be added to individual Tumblr posts. This increases the likelihood of content being shared over multiple networks.

The content from your Tumblr feed can be fed directly to Facebook and Twitter by enabling them under under the Services tab in the Customize screen. Tumblr’s formatting transfers to both sites and Facebook will pull images from Tumblr posts, unlike Twitter. But keep in mind, you may want customize material for Tumblr specifically, rather than auto-populating it from your other social media outlets.

       

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