What's the best approach to building a website or doing a blog? The reality is that you'll probably get as many different answers as there are experts (or opinions, really). And, honestly, that's probably a good thing--monopolies haven't historically created the kind of healthy competitive environment that spawns good ideas, one upmanship, and some interesting failures along the way.
While I registered this Blogger account a while ago, honestly, I didn't do anything with it for the longest time (mainly because I've put my online energy into my "family" Blogger account since 2005, which broadcasts to a handful of relatives). Like others, I simply wanted to lock down my professional name, my brand, my identity in this great online universe (especially since my web domain of choice is currently occupied by a professional photographer who shares the same moniker). And, now, as I swim in the proverbial idea soup of marketing convergence, it made sense to "go live."
But, offline, by choosing Blogger, I created a small controversy. Some lauded Blogger and sang its praises. Others were surprised at my choice, and hailed Wordpress and its many features as being superior.
But, I heard relatively little about Tumblr until Fashion Week, a guilty pleasure for this sometimes apparel marketer, when there in the front row of of many shows in seats formerly reserved for fashion royalty sat....David Karp, founder of Tumblr, and a teenage girl from a suburb of Chicago who makes fashion magazine collages and posts them online. (I digress...more about the unknown teen and her cohorts later.) Who, you ask? What in the world? Why? And, along with David, there were a litany of fashion bloggers, who probably operate out of their studio apartments in Brooklyn. That's when I got interested and a little jealous.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal ("Fashion Week Tips Hat to Blog Site", February 9, 2011), in December, Blogger ruled in terms of unique U.S. visitors with 59 million followed by Wordpress with 28 million. (Points for me or am I part of the herd mentality?). And, while Tumbler's unique visitors are up 168% from the year before, they still only have 6.7 million visitors in that same time period. What gives?
As the Wall Street Journal reports, while Karp didn't create Tumblr for fashionistas and their posts, as it turns out 20% of blogs using Tumblr are about fashion.
What's appealing about Tumblr is that it's highly visual, allowing for short form mixed-media blogging (a lot like souped up post-its and Polaroids), a dizzying array of fonts, designs and looks, and easy sharing (like ever popular Twitter and Facebook). And, better yet, it could mean a covetted front row seat at Fashion Week. If anyone knows what Blogger may get me, please let me know....before I jump ship to hang on the coattails of the fashionable crowd.
Even Vogue and other fashion mags use the site for their blogs, giving it great credentials and making it a very hip social media choice. However, is a changing of the guard afoot? Vogue and the other magazines may end up looking like fashion followers and get unseated from their fashion roosts if they don't watch out. Blogs like Jessica Quirk's http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/ have attracted 54,000 followers and counting...and that was before all the media attention bestowed on her. Pretty soon, will she and others swoop in and leave Vogue and others in obstructed view seats?
The most recent issue of Lucky magazine, which has profiled a favorite blogger in each issue and online for a while, took the grand step of having the editorial staff select half a dozen key fashion bloggers to profile in the book in a series of spreads....easily eclipsing each editor's own single page coverage of trends. Instead of dropping blogger names like obscure designer names for cache, these editors better watch out--if the fashion bloggers become more fashionable, more immediate, more interesting than they are, they may suddenly find themselves antiquated and back in their old walk up apartments...trying to start a hip new blog. Maybe, then, I won't be so alone on Blogger, which is feeling sturdy and adequate like my parka but a little uncool.
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