Should your hotel use Tumblr instead of WordPress?
30 Comments
Ever since I started blogging about eight years ago, I’ve been a huge supporter of the WordPress blogging software. I still love it, and think it’s still probably the best all-around platform. If for no other reason, the huge number of 3rd-party themes and plugins make it a very customizable solution.
But as I work with hotels on starting blogging initiatives, the big thing most people lack is the time to write posts. Even though you don’t have to write a 500-word article each time, the thought of having to sit down at a keyboard and write a new post can be intimidating.
So I’ve been looking at some alternatives, and experimented quite a bit with Tumblr recently.
I know it’s not brand-new technology, and many others have been using this for a while.
With the little testing I’ve done so far, what I like about Tumblr is how simple it is. You can get a blog up and running in about 15 minutes, and there’s no cost. Even better, it seems to encourage multimedia publishing, with sharing photos, video, and audio very easy.
It seems that hotels interested in lifestyle blogging would find this a natural fit.
Morgans Hotel Group starts tumbling
A few days ago, Morgan’s Hotel group received some publicity for their new Tumblr “back of house” blog. As you can see, they’re reaching a specific lifestyle audience:
The content looks a bit unorganized right now, but I’m interested to watch as this develops.
Blogging can be easy
So maybe this works for you, or maybe it doesn’t – but I just wanted to let you know blogging can be simple. Whichever platform you use, just make sure you get out there and do it!
Has anyone else tried Tumblr? Share your experience in the comments below…
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Blogging is really simple…for those who just do it wrong quickly Josiah !
And it seems that Tumblr is just the perfect option for people who want to do it wrong quickly !
So I am off to check out Tumblr… even though I feel like I am cheating on WordPress.com ! Thanks Josiah
Cheers
Mihir
For my personal blog I prefer WordPress.
But from a Hotel perspective I think Tumblr is a brilliant option. You can utilize their Free themes, there is also more professional themes available there.
One thing I did not see you mentioned it here, is that if you get your own hotelname.com you can host it Free at Tumblr. This option is not available with WordPress.
You can of course go for the Free options at both Tumblr and WordPress. Then your urls will look something like:
Tumblr: http://hotelname.tumblr.com
Wordpress: http://hotelname.wordpress.com
And there are some limitations here vs when you host your own domain.
These are both great options for a Hotel. And don’t require a lot of maintenance or tech skills to use.
Great tips here Josiah.
Cheers.. Are
I definitely agree with you, Josiah, about the simplicity of Tumblr as a major plus. I work as a Content Curator and Ghostwriter for several companies that use WordPress as a blogging platform, but for my personal project (Visual Loop – http://visualoop.tumblr.com/ ) I’ve chosen Tumblr. Besides the simplicity and easy-posting style, I love the Reblog feature and the Followers metric – for hotels, this could be an awesome detail to know/engage with their audience on a more close level.
Keep up the great work!
@TSSVeloso
Josiah
I had a go at Tumblr but somehow it just didn’t feel right.
The simple interface and dashboard are great for people who are not so keen on Blogging per say but are looking for a Twitter like method to share their thoughts.
For me, the Tumblr interface was just missing the amazing configuration options that I have come to love on WordPress.com
But I can understand why Tumblr might just be the next big thing after Twitter…
Cheers
Mihir
Tumblr Update Nr 3: I love it, I love it, I love it
I have been on Tumblr the whole of yesterday and today and suddenly, Twitter and WordPress seem “so 2006 Dahling”
Tumblr does take a while to get used to but once you find your feet, Tumblr is just great. (http://www.tumblr.com/why-tumblr)
Tumblr is like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumble Upon and Flickr all rolled into one.
The dashboard is really simple and I love the many options you have at a click of a button including new media such as audio and video. I also got myself a new multimedia phone so I hope to be on Tumblr uploading photos and videos more often now.
Tumblr is also great on the web – I got a Share on Tumblr bookmark and whenever I seem something interesting all I need to do is click. Sharing is that easy. You can also automotically send your Tumblr feed to both Twitter and Facebook. I have also integrated Twitter onto my Tumblr desktop so I rarely need to leave.
My next step is to “follow” interesting Tumbelogs on Tumblr. I’l keep you posted on how it goes…
But in the meanwhile, check out my Tumblr page at http://mihirnayak.tumblr.com
Or why not try it out yourself and tell us how you fared ?
Very simply, if you can’t blog with Tumblr, you probably never will…
Cheers
Mihir
Okay, Mihir; I’m sold! Thanks to your enthusiastic endorsement, I’m definitely taking Tumblr for a test-drive
Thats great Katie !
Send us a link so that we can see how well you are getting on…
Cheers
Mihir
I don’t know about this, guys. I probably just need more time, like Mihir, so I’ll reserve my judgement…
http://swimkatieclapp.tumblr.com/
thanks josiah for this wonderful info but still i feel wordpress more useful for blogging
Mihir says “I had a go at Tumblr but somehow it just didn’t feel right.”
Mihir says “I love it, I love it, I love it”
What a difference a day makes
Good post Josh. Good point for Tumblr being a natural fit for hotels interested in “lifestyle blogging”, encourage multimedia publishing with videos, phots and audio.
Cheers,
Richard
BluSky Marketing
I know Richard, I know
I suppose the key to anything new is getting used to it and making it into a HABIT !
Have you tried Tumblr already ?
Cheers
Mihir
“Habits are like cobwebs at first, cables at last” — Proverb
No I haven’t tried Tumblr yet, however the more I see of it the keener I become. I feel one should learn the skill of creating content effectively using more than one type of media. A good skill to have.
Cheers,
Richard
BluSky Marketing
I love that quote… “Habits are like cobwebs at first, cables at last” !!!
Richard, have you read the awesome marketing book Habit by Martin Neale ???
It is indeed a good skill to be familiar with more than one media… and maybe even overlap your content on different media so as not to miss out any of your subscribers preferred media…a point I have been going on about with Josiah !
Looking forward to having you on Tumblr soon Richard…
Cheers
Mihir
http://mihirnayak.tumblr.com/
Katie,
A quick Tumblr Things to Do list especially for you…
1. Register a blog on Tumblr and choose a theme that you like (Katie, you have done that admirably!)
2. Go to your dashboard http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard
3. Try and share something using every bit of the Tumblr dashboard including:
A Quick Blog Post
A Quote
A photo of yourself from your camera phone
An Audio Clip you heard recently
A Video you liked recently from Youtube
A Link you found useful
4. Make sure you do this all in one day
5. And try doing it all again the next day
6. Tumblr becomes really easy when you drag and drop the Share Button onto your Bookmarks
http://www.tumblr.com/goodies
7. Surf the net as usual and the moment you find anything interesting, all you need to do is click on the Share Button on your Bookmarks to both Bookmark it and share it with your followers at the same time
8. I renamed my Share Button as “QuickPost on Tumblr”. That way, whenever I have a short thought I want to share, I can do so immediately by simply clicking on the Share Button and blogging away. Much simpler than logging into WordPress.com
9. Make this a habit for a week. I am sure you will come to love Tumblr
10. And remember, like Richard Goodchild says, Habits are like cobwebs at first, cables at last !
Hope this helps
Cheers
Mihir
I’m surprised why you don’t mention Posterous which has so many more features as posterous…
Sorry I mean Posterous has so many more features than Tumblr
I’ve just started the Absolutely The Hague! blog and tagged along a Absolutely The Hague | Posterous blog.
I did it with Chair Blog as well and after upgrading to WordPress 3.0 I imported 920 of my former Tumblrs which I had converted one on one into Posterous posts in one go … went excellent.
One of the problems with Tublr is the navigation and searcheability which is poor.
Another problem is if you are clipping and plonking down clippings in Tumblr you are easily getting posts without titles..as this lazy guy did.
So I have now to give 800 plus former Tumblr posts new titles in my Chair Blog (-:
That wouldn’t have happened when I had started from scratch with Posterous as that is so much easier to handle than Tumblr.
Guido,
I had a go at Posterous but I wasn’t too sure why it was better than Tumblr or WordPress.
Blogging by email… what advantages do you see with Posterous ???
Cheers
Mihir
Posterous has a (I admit litlle hidden) very nifty wigdet or maybe you should call it bookmarklet that you can place on your browser ruler. With that you can do the same as you can do with Tumblr, but also you can find back what you did….
an oldy, bur still relevant: 10 reasons why posterous is better than tumblr
Guido, as you say an oldy !
Tumblr now has (almost ?) all the 10 points mentioned in the article why posterous is better than tumblr. So no real advantages now.
Plus Tumblr has a great dashboard with different kinds of new media plus a great new bookmarklet…
Check it out… I can only recommend it (http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/mihir-tried-tumblr/)
Cheers
Mihir
Yes, I’ve seen some strong improvement on Tumblr recently…you should try it out, Guido!
I use wordpress for my two personal blogs… for one property we use WordPress as a badass cheap and simple CMS for a hotel, rather than designing some pricey alternative. It looks *sort* of like the old word UI, and close enough for my hesitant GM to “get”.
But for two other hotels I use blogger because it was just the simplest to get up and running. I assume you will all now tell me that is insane and meaningless? Is blogger/blogspot a problem? Most of the time I am just piping the feeds into Facebook.
I am not a blogger. I am a hotel guy that rambles on a blog.
Any input on the blogger/blogspot would be appreciated.
AND AWESOME CONVERSATION HERE!
It all depends on the person, right? My older GM who hates the bubble gum feel of social media won’t like Tumblr. Some young DOM might not like WordPress, for the same reason…. it’s sort of dinosaur looking. I love it, but that’s me.
Hi
Blogger might have been the simplest to get up and running. But ever since WordPress, that isn’t true anymore.
Be it a CMS or a simple blog, WordPress has a natural interface that makes it really easy to set up and use.
I was just telling a friend yesterday that Blogger somehow has a spammy sort of look to it, especially with Adsense and some horrible fonts.
Wordpress on the other hand looks naturally legit, something that is really important in today’s day and age.
Cheers
Mihir
What are your thoughts switching mid-stream? (and is this mid stream, or just the beginning of the lifespan of this blog in this location?)
aka… I have a couple crappy blogger blogs that were the best option at the moment. I assume moving to a tumblr blog would be confusing to some extent, but at the same time better now, than later?
I also assume it would be as easy as copying and pasting older posts. Which is nice.
But what are your thoughts about moving existing blogs? I guess it’s about traction?