For this blog assignment, I chose “Twitter, Tumblr, and Microblogging” from the Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media as my chapter. My chosen new media genre is mobile technologies and this chapter is relevant to this genre because mobile technologies have created greater access to microblogging. According to Ryan, M., Emerson, L., & Robertson, B. J., “mobile reading and updates helped fuel the rapid adaption of microblogs (2014, p. 493).”
This chapter also fits in well with my path of inquiry which is “The Business of New Media” and my topic which is content marketing. Microblogs constitute a widely-used social media platform that have great influence on content marketing.
“Twitter, Tumblr, and Microblogging” deepened my understanding of microblogging and this media’s relevance to both content marketing and mobile technologies. One of the reasons content marketing is successful on microblogs is that it builds a relationship between businesses and consumers by allowing the audience to be in touch. I found it interesting that Ryan, M., et. al started that “many of them [microblogs] emphasize what the creator is doing, reading, finding, looking at, or thinking about… (2014, p. 492).” This level of detailed communication that builds relationships was not a reality before microblogs, and it remains a content marketing tactic. I previously understood the fact that this new media connects microbloggers with users, but this chapter opened my eyes to the association of this phenomenon with content marketing.
Ryan, M., et. al define microblogging as “a practice that applies a size constraint to the content of blogs (2014, p. 492)” and also state that it “primarily refers to posting that takes place on specific platforms whose design either encourages or enforces brief communication (2014, p. 492).”
I chose Tumblr as the current example of media within the mobile technologies genre which connects to the chapter’s content because Tumblr is a microblog.
Ayyar R. states that “Tumblr has seen some spectacular growth…With about 189 million blogs hosted on Tumblr, 93 million new posts every single day, and about 42% of the entire domestic traffic of the United States visiting Tumblr blogs, it is well and truly a force to reckon with (Ayyar R., 8 July 2014).” Tumblr Marketing: An Untapped Resource states that “several brands have found ways to effectively market their products and services to Tumblr’s unique audience of 555 million users (2016, December 07).” Tumblr and other microblogging sites are successfully employed as content marketing platforms that appeal to mobile technology users.
Microblogging is a form of new media that has quickly become a trend as a content marketing strategy. Mobile technologies have provided access to microblogs, which ultimately increases content marketing.
References
Ayyar, R. (8 July 2014). 7 Original Ways to Use Tumblr for Content Marketing. The Content
Wrangler, The Content Wrangler, thecontentwrangler.com/2014/07/08/7-original-ways-to- use-tumblr-for-content-marketing/#.
Ryan, M., Emerson, L., & Robertson, B. J. (2014). The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media.
Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tumblr Marketing: An Untapped Resource. (2016, December 07). Retrieved from
https://www.scripted.com/content-marketing/tumblr-marketing-guide
Media Meditations 