With only 216 million users (September 2013) compared to Facebook's 2.1 billion (January 2012), Tumblr may not be the most popular social media site, but it definitely deserves more recognition. The design is streamlined and minimalist. It's ridiculously easy to use. And it has some pretty exciting elements. Here are 6 of Tumblr's most brilliant features.
Tumblr's activity feed shows you, at quick glance, the overall activity on your blog over a set amount of time. You can view activity from the past 24 hours, 3 days, 7 days, or 1 month. The activity feed displays how many notes you've received (notes are likes and reblogs), how many new followers you've gained, and your total number of followers. As you change your time filter, you'll also see the biggest fans and the top post from that selected period of time. In case you wanted to know even more about who's been creeping on your blog, Tumblr also shows you the top 4 users who have liked and reblogged your posts. It doesn't tell you exactly what they've liked or reblogged, or how many notes they've generated though. Tumblr also shows you which post on your blog has received the most notes for the selected period of time.
The Tumblr Dashboard is so clean and simple. It shows you everything you need and nothing more. No ads, no fluff, no promotions, no worthless updates. The top navigation has a few options: home, messages, help, settings, and logout. There is a search bar where you can search the entire web or just Tumblr. Along the top of the dashboard, you have the option to create a new post with text, a photo, a quote, a link, a conversation, audio, or video. Along the right side of the dashboard, you can toggle between blogs (Tumblr lets you run multiple blogs from one parent account), check followers, check your activity feed, see drafts, see queued posts and customize your blog's layout. The Account tab shows all of the posts you've liked and the blogs you've followed – and gives you the option to find more blogs. There are sometimes 3 recommended blogs and then the Tumblr Radar, which promotes one post based on other blogs you follow. These Tumblr Radar posts are on point. I willingly reblog them a few times per week.
For someone like me with a nearly schizophrenic push and pull of interests, the option to run multiple blogs from one primary parent account is ideal. I'm not sure if there's a limit on how many blogs you can run. However, once you've started your first blog, that blog will forever be the parent account for any other blogs you start. You can't change it later.
Tumblr gives you the option to customize your queue to post as often as you'd like. You can queue up hundreds of posts and tell Tumblr to post a certain number of times per day between specified hours – 8 times per day between the hours of 9 a.m. and 12 a.m., for instance. You can also tell Tumblr to post something at a specific time, like Sunday at 1:12 p.m. Once items are queued, you can go to your queue tab and view your posts or rearrange the order by dragging and dropping. At any time, you can edit a post to publish it immediately, delete it from your queue or schedule it to post at a specific time.
Tumblr lets you customize their premade blog designs to your heart's content. You can play with the HTML if that's your thing. Or you can embed your Google Analytics account information and have everything tracked. You can also put in the information for your Disqus account to enable comments on your blog. A Disqus name also allows non-Tumblr users to leave comments on a post.
Besides the Tumblr Radar post, Recommended Blogs, and the occasional informational post from the Tumblr staff, there aren't any irritating ads on Tumblr. Anywhere.
There are so many more things to love about Tumblr. From its diverse users to its strange niche fandoms and its everlasting supply of cat .gifs, there's something for just about everyone. Want to see for yourself? Sign up. Or, if you're already Tumbling, tell us what your favorite (or even least favorite) aspects of Tumblr are.
