Traffic more than doubles since Q4 2014
The platform that describes itself as “easy to use and hard to explain” is no longer just the domain of angsty teenagers and fandom, according to a recent report from a leading web company.
The sometimes-dismissed Tumblr — which allows users to share all kinds of content from text, photos, GIFs, videos, audio and links — is skyrocketing in popularity, and brands should take notice.
According to Bit.ly’s most recent web index, traffic for Tumblr (a Yahoo company since 2013) has more than doubled from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of 2015. The microblogging service’s biggest increase is among desktop users, while Bit.ly says Facebook’s desktop use is on the decline.
It’s something of a breakthrough for a platform that’s always been mobile-first: a 2013 CNN article stated that more than half of Tumblr’s users accessed it with its mobile app, and that that crowd did so “an average of seven times a day.”
With 420 million users, 237 million blogs and 111 billion posts (and counting), this wonderfully addictive platform is rapidly gaining new converts every day — even the White House has an account. That’s a lot of eyeballs on your content, and some of its communities have grown so massive they’re becoming subcultures in their own right (kind of like Reddit).
But here’s the thing: while all of the top 100 global brands are on Twitter and Facebook, according to Contently, only 31 of those same brands are on Tumblr.
Some in the past have said Tumblr isn’t a great platform for business, but that hasn’t stopped several companies — including Calvin Klein, Coca-Cola, Disney and Lexus — from pioneering the business value of the social platform.
Granted, Tumblr’s sheer flexibility presents communicators and marketers with its own set of challenges—which is why Social Media Examiner threw together this handy how-to list for business on Tumblr.
And as the platform’s authority expands and its user base continues to diversify, Bit.ly’s latest index is just more quantitative proof for brands: time to think outside the Facebook box.
