• by Susan Frech , Columnist, March 16, 2015

New social networking sites are no longer launching daily as they were a few years ago, which is a relief. The slow-down is good for both marketers and consumers because it is increasingly difficult for anyone to keep up. Fragmentation in social media is one of the biggest concerns for brands as they vie for the consumers’ attention.

Marketers do not have the time or resources to manage dozens of platforms and consumers don’t have the time to visit even a handful of social networking sites. With all this fragmentation from a resource and attention perspective, brands need ways to reduce the time needed to engage consumers on social, and consumers need better ways to find relevant content. 

So the question becomes, how do CPG brands aggregate engaging and compelling content and serve it to consumers in a meaningful, relevant and efficient way? Tumblr believes they have the answer. 

CEO David Karp founded Tumblr in 2007. He felt that most blogs required high-quality writing and too much of a commitment. Tumblr was designed as a different format than most blogging sites, promoting short, to-the-point blogs over long-form content. It also allows users to share posts, photos, quotes, links, music and videos as well as customize all aspects of their blogs. Tumblr also functions much like social media, in that users can share other bloggers' posts, giving credit to the originator. 

Today Tumblr ranks #6 in most popular social networks, behind Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Even though Tumblr is not the biggest powerhouse, more than half of our CPG clients say they are developing a Tumblr strategy this year. For those of you not currently using Tumblr, the numbers are staggering and may cause you to stop reading this post and grab your team to start your Tumblr brainstorming strategy. But don’t go running off yet. Let’s look at the numbers. 

As of October 2014, reports say Tumblr has 420 million users on its platform. Tumblr also has 217 million blogs and 105+ billion posts. The growth continues as there are 120,000 consumers joining daily and over 80 million posts per day. 

Let’s break down some of the pros to consider when deciding if Tumblr is right for your brand: 

1. Easily aggregates content from other social networking sites 

2. Very visual; photos drive the content. Brands don’t have to worry about being text heavy, unlike traditional blogs

3. Easy for consumers to share 

4. Large youth demographic with disposable income 

5. Offers greater longevity for individual posts as no algorithm stands between those brands and their followers on the platform

Although Tumblr has less traffic than other social networking sites and it’s yet another site to manage, after I worked with several CPG brands building engagement on Tumblr, it seems to me the perfect place to experiment. Teasers and promotions, which are easily shared, make it a safe and inexpensive way to test and learn.

According to e-consultancy, it is the fifth-most visited site in the U.S., but only 31 of the top 100 brands owns a Tumblr page. Seems like a tremendous opportunity to gain the attention of the younger demographic on Tumblr, who are 34 years and younger, while not breaking your marketing budget. It has my vote, and I think we will see more brands gravitating towards Tumblr in 2015. Check out some of the brands that are doing it right for inspiration: Coca-Cola Tumblr, Red Bull Tumblr, and Nabisco Tumblr.