No matter what you’ve heard otherwise, Tumblr is still very much a vital social media platform, and also one that doesn’t really have an equivalent elsewhere in the social media space.
Sure, you can share other people’s posts on Twitter, and Instagram, like Tumblr, is a visual-heavy platform, but Tumblr carved out its own little niche years ago and it still has a very strong following to this day.
But how to get noticed on Tumblr is another topic entirely. After all, with that strong following comes a whole lot of competition from other content creators and also many users who prefer just to repost content from other people.
Even so, there are many benefits to gaining a substantial Tumblr audience, especially if you work in a creative field. Many photographers, models, and visual artists got their start by posting on Tumblr, and especially these days, getting just about any kind of online attention can help promote your career.
We’ve put together some simple and straightforward tips that you can use to boost your numbers on Tumblr and cultivate a sense of community around your work and your social media presence in general.
If you’re looking to get noticed on Tumblr, then we assume you’re hoping to post some original content. After all, simply reposting other people’s work can definitely help you get followers, but it will extremely difficult to monetize that following at any point in the future.
However, if you do plan on posting original content, we recommend against posting only original content on your Tumblr blog.
For one, you would need to post quite a lot for your profile to look anything other than barren. Also, most Tumblr users are accustomed to seeing a variety of content in each archive.
If this was Instagram, posting only your own work would be not only accepted but expected. Tumblr is a different story.
You should absolutely share content from other users, as long as it adheres to the aesthetic you’re trying to create on your blog.
With each post, no matter where it’s coming from, ask yourself whether it aligns with your brand. Does it have a similar tone to your other content? Does it feel close to your original content as well?
If you need to get some ideas for how to portray a consistent aesthetic with a Tumblr blog, you’re in luck.
Some of the most well-known users on the site have succeeded partially because they know exactly how to share content that fits into the same category or that feels the same way to visitors.
Go on a quick Tumblr safari and take a look at some other popular blogs. If you check out the archive of each blog, you’ll quickly get a sense of things like color palette, variety of content, and the type of content being shared most often.
A Tumblr feature that has been ubiquitous on Tumblr for many years is the Q&A functionality. If a user wants fans to be able to send in questions, they can.
Best of all, the person in charge of the blog in question gets to decide whether they want to post each question and the answer they give it. They also don’t need to answer every single question that comes in.
On the surface, this might seem like a small and silly feature, something that’s good for a bit of fun and not much more, but you’d be surprised by how many benefits this simple action can have for your blog.
One of the most important benefits, of course, is that it gives your followers a chance to connect with you, at least on some small level.
You might have noticed this already after years of internet browsing, but especially when it comes to content creators, people really enjoy a sense of personality and originality.
Users don’t want to feel like they’re looking at content that came out of a human-robot hybrid. Most importantly, when someone identifies with an online brand and follows their developments and their new content, they feel attached to that content and the person or the people who made it.
The more connected followers feel to an online persona, the more likely they will be to keep coming back and maybe even donate some money to that creator to support their work and feel like they’re a part of the community.
Doing small Q&A sessions with your Tumblr followers is a small step in this direction. It will give followers a chance to get to know you a little bit better, and it could also give you the chance to talk about what inspires your work and which projects you’d like to work on next.
With just about any pursuit, it’s really important to be your own worst critic, at least sometimes. These close looks at your work can give you a lot of valuable insights into what you’re doing right and what you feel like you could be doing better.
With Tumblr, it’s easy enough to just look at your metrics and go from there. For example, how many likes do your posts tend to get? Do specific types of posts often get more likes than the rest?
How often do you post? Has that schedule been consistent over the last six months? Over the last twelve months?
Is your blog where you would like it to be? Would you like to pivot your content to something else?
These are all very important questions, and you’ll likely come up with even more questions when you take a closer look at your blog and how it’s been performing.
Even if your blog has been extremely successful recently and you’ve gained a lot of followers, you can’t stop there. You need to keep the momentum going.
Always be asking yourself how you can improve your blog and how you can improve your connection with your audience.
