The Fashion Industry Wants Tumblr to Get its Fucking Act Together(betabeat.com)
betabeat.com
The Fashion Industry Wants Tumblr to Get its Fucking Act Together
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/08/31/ann-taylor-begs-tumblr-to-get-its-fucking-act-together/
4 comments
I wonder how much of this could be rigged together with smart Javascript tags dropped around the template? Have you looked in to that option?
We're definitely starting to embrace Tumblr at work, and even though we haven't really looked into the analytical/demographic aspect of it, it would be wise to know what's on the horizon for us.
We're definitely starting to embrace Tumblr at work, and even though we haven't really looked into the analytical/demographic aspect of it, it would be wise to know what's on the horizon for us.
That does address one's own Tumblr Dashboard when logged in. And there has been one browser extension that's gotten quite popular- Missing-E. But it's gone through battles with Tumblr, and also doesn't solve the "global" issue: I don't just wanna see stuff about me, I want to discover stuff outside my account. Example, "Who blogs about farmers markets in Miami?" Something like this is app-able in twitter, but not Tumblr given its current API.
I do still recommend checking out Missing-E. Don't put it on all your browsers (it can't keep up with Tumblr changes, and sometimes freezes). But it is helpful. (It's available for FF, Chrome, and Safari.) http://blog.missinge.infraware.ca/
I do still recommend checking out Missing-E. Don't put it on all your browsers (it can't keep up with Tumblr changes, and sometimes freezes). But it is helpful. (It's available for FF, Chrome, and Safari.) http://blog.missinge.infraware.ca/
Interestingly we just started work on a Tumblr analytics product. Will have to advertise to the fashion industry soon... :)
I'd be very curious to know how you're planning to measure the exposure of posts within the Tumblr Dashboard? See my post "The Fashion industry wants analytics from Tumblr, but what should they be looking at?" http://cbus.se/r3I80r for more detail on how I'm exploring the Tumblr Analytic "problem"
I think you bring up some really good points, but I think we've solved those with some things we've been adding in. I see you do social media strategy stuff from your blog; if you want to chat about how we can help you do your job with this tool, feel free to email (username at gmail).
We're trying to tailor this to how people will actually use it. :)
We're trying to tailor this to how people will actually use it. :)
How long until Tumblr creates the exact same thing?
If experience is any indicator, probably never.
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On the one hand, Tumblr's lack of internal analytics (as referenced in this article) is a major weakness of almost all social networks. But on the other, users and businesses feel the pain more acutely on Tumblr than on other sites. It's a bit chicken and egg, but Tumblr is best consumed through its internal Dashboard, and many social interactions on Tumblr are invisible through any other interface. (When you see a Tumblr out on the web, it looks just like a normal website, but people "inside" the system are having a giant party you don't know about.)
Tumblr's API (very recently updated, I may be slightly behind on everything it supports) does not giving visibility to a lot of this stuff, so there's no rich ecosystem of clients like Twitter has. One can argue how well Twitter handles its developer community, but there's no denying that all the little tools out there, even if they only get "stolen" by Twitter in the end, give Twitter visibility to what users want.
Let's start with search. Twitter's original search was much worse than it is today (bad timing for me to write this, as for about a month now, Twitter search has been slightly broken). They bought Summize, who did search very well. In fact, Summize also did the first iteration of trending topics (which even if they make you worry about America, is a fascinating and incredible thing to have around).
Tumblr's personal search has been broken for about 3 years (longer?). There is pretty much no global search. (And not supported in API.)
The Twitter ecosystem also has a whole bunch of little point tools like "Where are your followers located?" and "What tags do you use the most?"
Tumblr at one point asked you what city you were in during onboarding, yet that data is nowhere to be seen, even by the account owner.
I'll stop with my examples. My point is mostly that sure, Tumblr could make an analytics dashboard. That would be great. OR, it could provide more data through the API, and I'm sure a developer community would spring up to meet many of these needs, and some we haven't even thought of.