Facebook, Twitter and now...Tumblr
Social media networks have spread their tentacles into every possible industry sector, so much so even traditional media companies have hopped on the social media bandwagon, pumping out news updates on Facebook and Twitter.
But do those companies have the time and resources to work yet another web outlet into their daily routine?
Mark Coatney certainly hopes so. Coatney, a 43-year-old journalist, is the latest hire at Tumblr, a fast-growing blogging service based in New York that says it has 6.6 million users.
Until last month, Coatney was a senior editor at 'Newsweek', where as a side project he headed up the magazine’s social efforts on Twitter and Facebook. Last year he decided to add Tumblr to his repertoire, according to a 'New York Times' report.
“I saw it as an opportunity to talk to our audience in a new way,” he said.
On Twitter, he said: "The main feedback comes mostly from retweeting, or retransmitting an interesting message. On Tumblr, the tone is a lot more conversational.”
Coatney quickly cultivated a following on Tumblr for his thought-provoking, quick-witted posts.
Often they included commentary that was funny and bordering on acerbic — something he was able to get away with largely because “no one at 'Newsweek' really knew what I was doing", he said.
The credibility he established among Tumblr users, and the fact that 'Newsweek' was one of the first big publishers to sign on, cemented Tumblr’s decision to hire him, company executives said.
Over the last few months, other media outlets have caught wind of Tumblr, which is free to use.
The newest recruits include The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, BlackBook Media Corporation, National Public Radio, 'The Paris Review', 'The Huffington Post', 'Life' magazine and 'The New York Times'.
But many of those outlets have done little more than set up a placeholder page.
In his new job as a “media evangelist,” Coatney’s role, and in some ways his challenge, is to help them figure out what to do next.
Coatney describes Tumblr as “a space in between Twitter and Facebook".
The site allows users to upload images, videos, audio clips and quotes to their pages, in addition to bursts of text.
As on Twitter, users can follow other users, whose posts appear in a chronological stream on a central home page known as the dashboard.
Users can indicate that they like an item by clicking on a red heart next to it or “reblogging” it.
One of the big differences between Tumblr and Twitter is that Tumblr does not display how many followers a user has, said David Karp, Tumblr’s 24-year-old founder and chief executive.
“Who is following you isn’t that important,” he said. “It’s not about getting to the 10,000-follower count. It’s less about broadcasting to an audience and more about communicating with a community.”
Moreover, he said, the site was designed with creative expression in mind.
“People are creating identities and personalities that Facebook and Twitter are not designed to allow you to do,” he said.
Since Tumblr is currying favour among a young crowd, it could prove valuable for traditional companies and media outlets that are trying to build a relationship with that audience.
And those companies are no doubt aiming to win points by being early adopters of a site that is on the rise.
Tumblr is growing quickly. It says it is adding 25,000 new accounts daily, and each month it serves up 1.5 billion page views.
Items posted on Tumblr can also ripple out to far-flung corners of the web.
When The New Yorker posted the Escher-inspired oil-spill-themed cover for its July 5 issue on its Tumblr page, it drew many links from other sites.
Alexa Cassanos, director of public relations for The New Yorker, which began using the service in late May, said the cover resonated in unlikely places, like the news aggregator Reddit.
For publishers, services like Tumblr reflect a broader shift in their relationship with their audience, said James E Katz, a professor of communications at Rutgers University.