In 2007, the world was introduced to Tumblr, a blogging site where users could post everything from fashion inspo to personal writing to GIFS, art, and more.
Since then, countless other social media websites have risen and fallen, but Tumblr is still going strong after more than 15 years.
So, what’s the key to Tumblr’s longevity? community. Tumblr has the unique position of being a platform where different fans can gather virtually and discuss topics both new and old.
According to Forbes, 66% of companies say their community impacts customer retention. Additionally, 90% of social media marketers say that building an active online community is critical to success.
So, how do you build a community around your brand? Luckily, I talked to Matthew Ryan, Tumblr’s chief marketing officer, to get some tips.
How to foster community around your brand
As I said, community is the backbone of Tumblr’s longevity as a social media platform, so it doesn’t seem like Ryan was able to give excellent advice.
Know what makes your brand special
Anyone familiar with Tumblr will tell you that there are few online platforms like it. Over the years, Tumblr has become a haven for fans of various aspects of pop culture, such as comics, anime, film, and television.
Ryan says the team behind Tumblr doesn’t shy away from the site’s engagement with fans and enthusiasts.
“We lean toward two brand principles,” he explains. “The first is fandom; we’re a great place for fans In fact Dive deeper into the specific fanbase they love.”
The CMO says other platforms are places fans can go to react live to their favorite series, but Tumblr is where fans stay long after the series has ended.
He says, “A lot of places like the Long queues are where Tumblr thrives.”
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Ryan says this is partly due to Tumblr’s unique position as a social media platform that isn’t heavily driven by algorithms. Additionally, Ryan says the site is a “blank” platform that allows users to post any media type they wish.
He explains, “Our users have the ability to create or create their own art and their own stories around the characters and storylines that they find engaging.” “Fandom is a huge source of our creativity and life on stage.”
The versatility of Tumbler brings us to the second principle of Tumbler.
“The second brand concept is a great place for art and artists,” says Ryan. “We are an empty platform and one of the only platforms that still allows all types of media and has been since the founding of Tumblr… That gives artists, in particular, a lot more freedom Is.”
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So, focus on what makes your brand unique, whether it’s your audience, the type of services and products you offer, or something else.
Focus on your audience
Ryan explains, “We really try to listen to what they need, what they want, what they’re doing on the platform and provide them with the right kind of services and content that they’re asking for.”
Ryan recalls a recent trend in which a Tumblr user claimed that “anything” could trend on the platform. The user then put two random words together in a post and encouraged other users to make that phrase go viral on Tumblr.
The random words were “moles” and “interest” and, sure enough, “moles interest” became a Tumblr trending topic.
“‘Mole Interest’ became a meme and trended at number one. We wrote a feature on it on our Today tab the next day. It got a whole life of its own.”
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As Ryan said earlier, Tumblr is also a popular space for artists, so it’s no surprise that the platform has started a trend that appeals to the creative side of its users.
He recalls, “We ran a campaign last year called Build-a-Beast, where we gave people weekly prompts around Halloween about a monster they could build.” “It was a written prompt, and users could respond with art that matched the prompt.”
Sure enough, the trend took off and artists eagerly shared their creations throughout October.
To stay on top of Tumblr users’ interests, Ryan says the platform has an editorial team and staff to write content wrap-ups and implement social listening to learn about user trends and hot topics. Are dedicated.
Consider a similar approach for your own brand and create a team dedicated to tracking and reporting on topics and discussions happening within your brand’s community.
“Then you can see where the trends are going,” Ryan advises.
leverage split
According to Ryan, another key to building and maintaining a community around your brand is segmentation. And that’s where HubSpot comes in.
“We use HubSpot to deliver a lot of content to lapsed users,” he explains. “As far as tracking what lapsed users were doing on the platform, what they were interested in and “From what signals they’ve given us, we use very heavy segmentation.”
Ryan says the information is used to deliver hyper-relevant messages to those users to revive their interest in Tumblr.
“So, we found that people are interested in past memes that are similar and have a slightly animalistic tone to them,” he says, “We’ll send those users to molest interest, and hopefully they’ll reactivate and become interested in the platform.” Will take it again.”
be transparent
Trust is important for community-building and retaining consumers. In fact, 80% of consumers consider trust a deciding factor in their purchasing decisions. One way to build trust is to be transparent.
Ryan says that staff.Tumblr is the main blog that every user follows by default, and it’s where the platform goes to communicate any upcoming changes to the site.
Other blogs used to keep Tumblr consumers informed are Changes.Tumblr and WIP.Tumblr (WIP stands for “work in progress”).
“All these dedicated blogs talk about a lot of the work we’re doing and publishing,” Ryan says. “My advice is to be as transparent as you can and listen to every metric that comes back to your team.”
In short, if you want to build a thriving, long-lasting community of consumers around your brand, stay connected to who your consumers are and what they care about.
You also need to focus on the unique strengths and features of your brand, product or service.
Finally, you must be transparent and build trust with your consumers by keeping them informed of any major changes and being open to feedback.
