Most marketers share the common goal of generating and sharing as much social media content as possible.  This is balanced against what they determine to be a practical level of effort.  Complicating things is the fact that social media content is untamed.  Most content is totally random created in the moment for immediate gratification.  It is fun, easy to take, and 99% of the time too easy to forget.  The clutter and noise is a recognized evil.

But a brand must not try and fight its way through it. Our advice is to find a way to fit in. 

One way to fit in is to use a sweepstakes or contest to create structured content that compliments the natural flow.  Along with more structured content you’ll need a more expansive method of sharing of information.  Tumblr is that method. Tumblr enables you to supercharge sharing because of Tumblr’s newsfeed oriented functionality.

It makes it easier for a user and thus your brand to find and keep an audience engaged!

The Tumblr dashboard gives users many options for sharing and handles multiple types of content.  From the dashboard a user will be able to post text, photos, links, chat, quotes, plus multi-media audio and video files.  They can take your promotional message and easily build on it in a variety of ways.

Tumblr refers to original content as originating content which again is affirmation they see sharing information as their core value.  This is quite different from Facebook and the others.  It is closer to blogging software than a social media platform.  For a comparison of common blogging software options, click here.

You may want to check in with us for the up to the minute interpretation of Tumblr’s promotion guidelines but in broad strokes here are the key things to remember.  We can help apply these rules to your specific concept including where and when certain language must appear.

1. No prizes over $1,000 in value unless you get permission (which we can help with).
2. No-one under 18 can be encouraged to participate, and they can only reside in the country of origin. (contact us for information on multi-national promotions)
3. You will need full official rules to disclose eligibility, dates, prize information and the like.
4. You will need to disclose you are separate entity using language such as the promotion is not endorsed by tumblr.
5. And the last one is a biggie, no non-genuine posting of content!!!   We don’t necessarily agree that earning an entry into a sweepstakes should be considered non-genuine but in the spirit of fitting in this means no use of Tumblr functionality as a means to gain advantage in winning a sweepstakes or contest.  This feels a lot like Facebook’s guidelines which prohibited a sponsor to use liking a page, posting on timeline etc., as a way to enter.  That by the way was changed earlier this year.  We suspect Tumblr might entertain relaxing this a bit as well because they haven’t their promotion guidelines in over a year.

So acknowledge the restrictions and move on with your planning.  Focus on the ability Tumblr has to promote a sweepstakes or contest by aggregating relevant UGC mixed with your structured content. This is a timely example to support a brands sports marketing promotion.  Let’s say your brand is an official NFL Sponsor.

You’ll be able to leverage it on Tumblr by posting a football related sweepstakes message alongside the UGC and encouraging users to reblog.   The posts are tagged (#name of your sweepstakes) so others can find it along with the other football content. In other blogging software the meta description displays as a text description as part of the Google search result.  Tumblr is not limited to text!   In this manner Tumblr is used as a way to promote but not directly ingest consumer participation.  Again remember a sponsor cannot provide any incentive to enter a promotion directly through the use of Tumblr functionality.  An entry must occur after they make their way to your microsite or Facebook Page for registration or other forms of engagement.

Also the true power of Tumblr lies in relevance.  Look to engage smaller niche audiences to increase relevancy on an almost limitless number of a dedicated promotional Tumblr pages.

Here in NY, the Giants just won their first game of the season this past Sunday so #NYG, #Victor Cruz, and others are tags that are naturally appearing in quantity on reblogged posts including photos and videos.  Remember let the river flow where it naturally wants to go.  This contiguous resharing of content building on the individual originating content is what sets Tumblr apart.  Let your sweepstakes or contest promotion go along for the ride. This is the perfect place to insert a ticket give-away as long as you stick to the rules.  If you have a promotion that would benefit from promoting on Tumblr give us a call and we’ll work up a plan.  If you are shy contact us first at expert@mardenkane.com and we will respond quickly.

I have to admit the NY Jets are the more exciting football team in town right now but we still love the Salsa Dance Victor!