Friday, April 2, 2010

TUMBLR AS A BUSINESS?

BY: Brent Rice
 

In my last blog, I talked about the social media of Tumblr and what it is. Now, one may ask themselves “Ok, I’ve got Tumblr…what’s next?” This is a common question when new social media arises, everyone wants to know what is it for. As stated in the last blog, users engage in what is called microblogging. Which is simply blogging that gets straight to the point, usually in the form of a picture or short and sweet sentence. As with any major movement in media, businesses jump on board. With Facebook we see pages dedicated to musicians, businesses, organizations and more. With myspace we see pages dedicated to the same. Twitter we see several news stations updating their followers with headlines, authors and others promoting their business or product.

            The CEO of Tumblr, David Karp is starting to notice how widespread his website has become in the short 2-3 years of its existence. Tumblr, is starting to create a new wave of advertising. This wave of advertising is known as “interactive advertisements’. This allows the audience to have an active participation in advertising, “These kinds of interactive advertisements that share your social gestures are a lot cooler than banner ads” says Karp. Karp also notices that Tumblr is starting to become a launch pad for budding authors. The popular College Humor Site http://collegehumorlive.tumblr.com/ recently was noticed by publishers and earned a book deal. Karp is also attempting to turn Tumblr into a business venture for bloggers. The future may open up a new career field or expand it. That field is “Professional Blogger”. Tumblr is joining forces with financial businesses allowing bloggers to make money based off of their blog posts.

            However, people don’t like paying for things. One more thing to pay for is not everyone’s cup of tea. Tumblr is also pondering charging its users for premium services. Those premium service may include, more themes, color icons, blog enhancements etc. That premium service can also allow bloggers to receive “priority” in searches and push them to the front of the line when it comes to promotion.

            Of course business are starting to unravel the uses of Tumblr. But it looks like in the future, Tumblr will become a hub for entrepreneur bloggers who are looking to make a career in blogging. It sounds to be a promising venture but only the future will tell where this will go.

 

Sources:

http://scobleizer.com/2008/12/16/tumblrs-ceo-brainstorms-microblog-monetization/

http://www.blahblahtech.com/2007/05/tumblr-for-businesses.html

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