I’m one of those rare people who will register and try out pretty much every new website I come across. That’s because I work in social media. However, I don’t always end up using all of these sites on a regular basis. In this series of posts, I’m going to write about what services I do use, and why I use them.
Tumblr is best described as a micro-blogging service. Rather than essay style blog posts (such as at nowEurope), a tumblelog consists of brief text messages, quotations, links, images or video. It took me no more than a few minutes to set up my Tumblr site. Once I realized I wanted to use the service on a regular basis I set up a custom domain (the company might charge for this feature, but they don’t). You can see the result here: http://stevencarlson.org.
At first I saw my Tumblr experiment as an easy way to run a vanity website. However, as our social media universe continues to evolve I have discovered that my tumblelog is also something different (and even more useful) than what I originally thought.
Posting to my tumblelog is easy using the bookmarklet – a link that sits on my browser toolbar. As I read through online news articles and blogs, I can select a bit of text to quote (or a picture or video). Then I hit the bookmarklet, which opens a smaller window where I can further edit my mini-post. The process is simple and addictive.
How do people find my tumblelog? At first I didn’t care. I published the URL in my email signature and left it at that. What I didn’t realize is that Google REALLY likes the combination of my vanity domain and the tumblelog. I am now the top Google result for my name.
As I started delving deeper into Facebook, I discovered that I could publish my tumblelog as a feed onto my wall (the posts appear as notes). This discovery conveniently solved another issue. Tumblr doesn’t offer readers any facility to leave comments (nor do they plan to). However, my Facebook friends can and do leave comments about Tumblr posts. I actually prefer this solution because I don’t have to deal with comment spam on Facebook.
I’ve also been able to feed my tumblelog into other social media sites. Now my posts go out through my Twitter account, and appear on my Friendfeed and LinkedIn accounts. Last week I discovered I could also feed into Plaxo.
What is the value of these quotes, links, photos and videos that I am streaming into various websites? That’s for the reader – or rather for my friends and contacts – to decide. I see these data as a kind of virtual postcard – an update that reminds people I am still around, as well as what I found interesting, today.
By the way, Tumblr isn’t your only option. Steve Rubel likes Posterous. Let me know what works for you.
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