• by Maryanne Conlin , September 7, 2011

Yes, yet another new social media platform to watch! But Tumblr is one that could change the landscape for those of us who are targeting moms ... which is of course, a large percentage of the marketing community.

After years of figuring out and then connecting with mom bloggers, I think that Tumblr could change not only the way moms blog, but also who blogs and who reads them.

Here's why.

1. Tumblr is blogging made easy

If a traditional blog encourages enough words to tell a story and Flickr believe a picture is worth a thousand or so, Tumblr marries the best of both. Tumblr encourages posting of photos, videos and even audio with a brief explanation ... for mom bloggers, this means no more trolling for blog fodder. For brand bloggers, who often struggle with finding enough to say, Tumblr is a much better platform for talking about your company and the company's products.

2. Tumblr is a visual medium

Most articles you read about Tumblr will tout it's popularity with fashion brands, but the very reason Tumblr works so well for that product category makes it a shoo in for other visual brands That includes food products which rely on recipes to increase usage...which may be why Tumblr has becomes popular with recipe bloggers. Moms, of course are readers of both types of blogs. But, I can see toy brands, personal care, especially haircare brands and even cleaning products benefitting from the visual nature of Tumblr.

3. Tumblr is social

Tumblr is the first blogging platform that is truly social. This is attractive to many bloggers, as well as brands. Tumblr makes it easy to interact with other bloggers within the platform and includes the social tools to broadcast beyond. The networks of like blogs that so many bloggers join are built into Tumblr though a robust tagging and search function.

4. Tumblr is growing

ComScore reports that Tumblr reached 13.4 million users in July. As a social media site in its infancy, those are great numbers. Though site demographics now show a young audience equally divided between women and men, over half have children. This make up is bound to change as more mom bloggers discover the benefits.

Tumblr reports that the average user creates 14 posts per month and reblogs three. Half of those are photos. This encourages both traditional bloggers who, of course DO occasionally run out of things to say and "Photo sharers," who want a richer platform on which to display their photos. Methinks we'll see, as we have with many other social media sites, the demographics change as the platform grows. Tumblr might not be the right fit for many brands targeting moms right now, but it's defiantly one to watch ... closely.