A tutorial for journalists interested in entering the social blogging world that is Tumblr. There are three parts to this presentation: New user, intermediate and advanced. An audio supplement for this slideshow is available at matthewkeys.net/tumblr

1. TUMBLR FOR JOURNALISTS
(AND EVERYONE ELSE)
Presented by Matthew Keys
Updated December 2011
Monday, December 5, 11

2. Tumblr Overview
• What is Tumblr?
• A social blogging platform
• Incredibly easy to use
• Easily customizable
• Multimedia-rich (photos,
audio, video)
• Simple, but powerful
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3. Tumblr Overview
• Why bother with Tumblr?
• Promoting content
• Building a community
• Finding story ideas
• Networking with other
journalists & newsrooms
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4. Signing up for Tumblr
• You’ll need:
• An email address
(Gmail and Yahoo work best)
• A password
• A username in mind
(this goes in the “URL” field)
Tip: This is the sign up process for your individual blog.
An individual blog can only have one contributor.
For a group blog with multiple users, first create an individual blog,
then create a group blog from the dashboard.
Do not sign up for an individual blog with the username you want for your group blog!
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5. The Tumblr Dashboard
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6. Tumblr Dashboard
• Top row: Seven buttons for publishing content
• Text
• Photo
• Quote
• Link
• Chat
• Audio
• Video
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7. Tumblr Dashboard
• Below the top: Posts of follows
• Content by people you follow
• Follow posts be reblogged or marked
as a favorite direct from the dashboard
• Clicking on a user’s avatar brings up
“ask” and “unfollow” options (“ask”
option only appears if the user has
enabled it)
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8. Tumblr Dashboard
• Right row:
• List of people you’re following
• List of posts you’ve liked (favorites)
• Button to add/remove follows
• Following count
• Tags you’re tracking
• Hybrid of enhanced and regular tags
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9. Tumblr Dashboard
• Top navigation:
• Dashboard
• Blogs you author, with drop-down button revealing more blogs
• Messages button (with unread message count when applicable)
• Help button
• Customize blog button
• Power off / log out button
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10. Publishing to Tumblr
Options to publish
immediately, add to
queue, schedule for
later or save as draft
“Read more” button.
Please use if creating a Tags are keywords
long text post. the Tumblr community
uses to search out
content
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11. Content That Works
• Tumblr users like photos, videos and audio.
• When posting text, keep it short and sweet. Use
the “read more” feature for posts longer than
three paragraphs.
• Links are always appreciated. Remember to cite
your sources (with links if possible).
• The majority of Tumblr newsies are intelligent,
left-leaning, progressive with an appreciation for
national and international issues (this is not a
description of ALL Tumblr newsies).
• Don’t just promote your own content, and
remember to be real.
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12. Reblogging content
• One of the most social aspects of Tumblr is the ability to reblog the content of your
followers
• Reblogging publishes the content of your followers onto your own Tumblr blog,
broadcasting said content to your own network of followers
• To reblog content from the dashboard, press “reblog” on a post.
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13. Reblogging content
• Feel free to add your own input below the
original content in the “post” field
• You can change the title of most content
when reblogging
• You can schedule and queue reblogs to
appear on your Tumblr at a later time
• You’ll need to supply your own tags
You’ll need to
• Videos, audios and photos cannot be supply your own
replaced when reblogging tags on a reblog
• If the original publisher replaces an element
of the reblog (corrects a typo, changes the
photo, etc), it will not automatically appear
on your Tumblr
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14. Notes
• “Notes” show the amount of
reblogs and favorites a piece of
content has received
• You can view your own notes
and the notes of your followers
by pressing “notes” in the
dashboard
• Notes can also be viewed within
a Tumblr blog by clicking the
permalink or “notes” link (varies
by theme)
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15. Customizing Tumblr: Themes
• Several pre-built themes offer
customization options for your
Tumblr blog
• Most are free
• Some are “premium” themes,
priced between $9 and $49
• Several offer customization within
theme (change colors, font,
background image, etc.)
• Access the theme garden:
http://tumblr.com/themes
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16. Start Following People
• From within a Tumblr
blog, click “Follow” at
the top
• Most Tumblr users have
a “follow quilt,” a display
of Tumblr users that blog
is following
This “follow quilt” shows
•
the Tumblr accounts NBC
Follow Tumblr accounts Nightly News is following
relevant to your
interest. They will deliver
content that you can
later reblog for your
own audience
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17. Start Following People
You can also follow people who are following you.
Click “Followers” in the right panel
of your dashboard to reveal this page:
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18. The “Ask” Box
The “ask” feature is the only internal messaging Your “Asks” appear on your dashboard as
option Tumblr offers. It can be enabled to allow “Messages.” You can respond to messages by
“Anonymous” questions from users who are not pressing “answer” to the right of the message.
registered with Tumblr.
Your “Ask” page is typically located at Your answers will appear on your public blog for
http://yourusername.tumblr.com/ask others to read.
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19. Using the “Explore” feature
• The “Explore” feature is a great way
to check out content being published by
other Tumblr users
• “Explore” is powered by enhanced
tags, such as “LOL,” “Fashion,” “News”
and “Politics”
• Each enhanced tag is moderated by a
collection of editors who spotlight
some of the best content by the Tumblr
community
• Some tags are more popular than
others; keep an eye on the “activity”
graph
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20. Enhanced Tag Pages
• The landing page of an enhanced tag page
will show content that tag editors have
chosen to feature
• The right rail contains the top editor,
associate editors and top contributors for the
tag
• Top contributors are not “editors,” but are
Tumblr users who have provided the most
featured content within a given time period
• You can follow the editors and top
contributors from the right rail by clicking the
“plus”
• “Track this tag” button places a link on
your dashboard to the enhanced page for that
tag
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21. Non-Enhanced Tag Pages
• Non-enhanced tag pages do not have
editors, but may contain content tagged by
the Tumblr community that is relevant to
your interests or that of your organization
• This page lacks feature content, instead
showcasing all content tagged with that
keyword or phrase from throughout the
Tumblr community
• You can track these pages as well via the
blue “Track this tag” button (not shown at
right)
• Examples of non-enhanced tags to follow:
activities (“snowboarding”), cities (“seattle”),
countries (“iran”), topics (“babies”)
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22. Creating Pages
• Pages (on the “Customize” page) are useful for
showcasing non-blog content (like “about me”
pages) and URL redirects
• Page URL and title can be customized
• Standard layout: Tumblr-themed page with content
(like live video embeds, etc)
• Custom layout: Page with no Tumblr styles (custom
HTML, CSS necessary)
• Redirect: Takes a user to another page when URL
is entered
• Click “Show a link to this page” for it to become
publicly visible on your Tumblr
• Page links can be named
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23. Group Blogs
• Group blogs are Tumblr blogs that are
moderated by several authors rather than
one
• Group blogs are great for newsrooms
who wish to assign Tumblr responsibilities
to multiple people
• From the dashboard, click the drop-down
with your individual blog name, then click
“Add a new blog”
• Once the blog is created, click
“Members” to add or remove authors
(members must be registered with Tumblr)
• Group blogs use the same customization
and services as individual blogs
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24. The “Advanced” Sidebar
• Located on the “Customize” page, the “Advanced”
sidebar contains many additional features to make
Tumblr even more customized
• The “Custom CSS” field supports Google Analytics
and Disqus code
• The number of posts on a page, including the
homepage, can be changed from a value between 1
and 15
• Descriptive URLs adds post title to end of URL.
• “Promote Tumblr!” adds a “Follow” button to the
top-right corner of Tumblr blog
• “Optimized mobile layout” switches on a
truncated Tumblr blog when visited on mobile
phones
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25. Goodies
• Several features and applications to
enhance your Tumblr experience, including
smartphone applications and a backup
service
• Access services that publish Tumblr
content to Facebook and Twitter
• Post to Tumblr by e-mail and IM
• Post audio to Tumblr by phone
• Find Tumblr contacts by importing an
address book
• Embed a copy of your Tumblr blog with a
Javascript code
tumblr.com/goodies
• Buy Tumblr swag
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26. Tumblr Recommendations
soupsoup.tumblr.com shortformblog.com
on.washingtonpost.com newsflick.net
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27. Tumblr Recommendations
king5news.tumblr.com theatlantic.tumblr.com
blog.thedaily.com nationaljournal.tumblr.com
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28. Mark Coatney
Tumblr’s Media Liaison
• Mark Coatney is Tumblr’s media liaison,
connecting newsrooms and journalists with
the powerful social blogging platform.
• Reach out to Mark on Tumblr or Twitter if
you have media-related questions.
• Mark’s Tumblr: markcoatney.com
• Mark on Twitter: @mcoatney
• Follow Tumblr’s staff blog at
staff.tumblr.com
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29. Getting help with Tumblr
FAQ and more:
http://tumblr.com/help
Email: support@tumblr.com
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30. Follow me on
Tumblr & Twitter
• On Tumblr: http://producermatthew.com
• On Twitter: @producermatthew
• Email: mail@matthewkeys.net
• Website: http://matthewkeys.net
• Download the audio supplement for this
presentation at http://matthewkeys.net/tumblr
Monday, December 5, 11