The fashionable rise of Tumblr and Instagram
I’ve changed my mind about Tumblr.
Two years ago, I left Tumblr for Posterous, but it seems that Tumblr has made an interesting come back in recent weeks; it’s simple to use, customizable (oh Posterous, your templates are too clinical for my liking), fun (reblogging this, reblogging that!) with a strong sense of community making it easy for users to engage with, and reblog branded content.
And fashion brands have fast spotted an opportunity to set up a presence on the simple blogging service. Tumblr is a great space to convey brands’ DNA through images and content that may not necessarily appeal to Twitter and Facebook audiences.
According this recent post on Mashable, “fashion-related Tumblr posts are reblogged on a much greater scale than general Tumblr posts. Tumblr Fashion Director Rich Tong suggests that “there’s a huge capacity for fashion content to go viral on Tumblr.”
Cool fashionistas on Tumblr include Oscar PR Girl, Kate Spade, The Business of Fashion, or Vogue. Some of the top fashion Tumblrs to follow include whatiwore and triciawillgoplaces, vintage and craft-focused blogs like psimadethis and hawtvintage, and street style blogs like fuckyeahstreetstyle and lookbookdotnu.
Burberry Instragram
And it seems that a similar trend is currently happening with Instagram. Early adopters brands such as Oscar de la Renta (again!), Burberry, @katespadeny @brisk @redbull @national_Geo, @starbucks and Levis Brazil have set up profiles and are sharing super ‘exclusive’ (this word makes me cringe!) photos with their fans.
Tumblr and Instagram have both struck a chord with the fashion community because the platforms are immediate and highly visual; the content that get reblogged / liked is prompted by a sort-of visceral / emotional response.
Plus if you’re an early adopter, the content you’ll get from Tumblr or Instragram will make you feel a little bit more special in a ‘this is where the cool kids hang out these days’ kinda way, than then content available to fans on mainstream platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
Thanks to @qwallis and @holliesherlock for helping me source brands on Instragram
[...] – April 2011: I wrote this post 2 years ago. Things move fast in the social media world and I recently wrote this post in favour of Tumblr, which might give you more insight as to which platform to choose. Thanks for [...]
Strange. I’ve also noticed a huge drop in the number of posts people share via Posterous. At least those I follow.
I tend to update my Posterous and Tumblr simultaneously (yeah, I know), mainly because initially I couldn’t decide which service I preferred. I started with Tumblr, then joined Posterous, but now I seem to discover more good quality Tumblr blogs. Maybe you’re right about its immediacy/visual aspect? (I still have my reservations regarding copyright violation on Tumblr, but I guess this is not a platform-specific issue.)
As for Instagram, I’ve written about it a few times on my blog. Love the service, but every now and then I get this feeling it might just be a temporary fascination…
Really? Why do you think so? There’s something quite addictive about making your pics pretty without knowing a think about photo manipulation!
Tumblr and instagram are definitely where the cool kids hang out. Curious that Tumblr has not become more popular, the most beautiful and easy to use platform.
Both Tumblr and Instagram built a busisnes by being cool and hip. They focus on design and there fore managed to bring in the coolest kids on the blog.
It’s a good startegy for a business but only if you’re founder is really indeed cool:)
wow nice p0st thank for share
[...] brands do social well, and I’ve been super impressed with Topshop’s Tumblr strategy. Fashion brands and bloggers heart Tumblr as the platform’s simplicity makes content discovery easy (you can follow blogs and see [...]