Here we go again with one of the many mediums in the Social Networking realm that are there to choose from and how I am applying them to my own reach as a creative running a brand like PiercingMetal.com – This one is called Tumblr.
Similar to Twitter, the Social Networking tool of Tumblr is considered a micro-blogging site but it let’s you post a few more things to get your own personal message out. It also let’s you use more than 140 characters which appealed to me. When I first signed onto it, I was not sure how to use it to help the site as we already had a Blog of our own and a PiercingMetal focused Twitter account. With this being the case I had to admit that I was not completely sold on Tumblr but I created an account to “lock out the branding” ID of my site. I then connected it to these other accounts and pretty much left it as is. That works for me since I am not posting new writing to this as opposed to the main websites blog or core site. The cool aspect of it is loading in little videos and audio stuff if you so desire and its a nice added choice to the mix for those who for whatever reason do not like WordPress or Blogger accounts. Some of my friends love it, as it lets them be a little more creative than a Facebook or Twitter profile does so that is good since it works for their needs. As far as PiercingMetal is concerned its more of a “catch all” feed of existing things. If you are digging what we’re tossing out there we welcome your adding us to the people you follow. As the RSS feed gets a lot of different things on it, you should see new PiercingMetal site content on a very regular basis. At least that is what I think it will do.
I’ve enabled the “Ask Me” feature since I felt that was also interesting but please know in advance that belligerence, super negative vibes and any hater commentary will just be ignored as spam. You’ve been warned. I have no time for that kind of crap when there is so much other positive discourse to share. With “Ask Me”, the preference is to stick to Metal music discussion. I’m planning on adding my personal blog of Click the logo above to be taken to the PiercingMetal Tumblr account. From there you can “Follow” us and see our postings across a couple of different mediums. If you want to learn more about the company and get deeper details you can read the Wikipedia entry HERE.
UPDATE: 6/30/2010: I really don’t like to update existing posts with new information but this was a totally relevant thought for this topic so I had to. Back in May I launched a side blog called “The Chronicles Of Piercing Ken” and this little site is a more personal side to my day and any adventuring that I do. Since Tumblr was already feeding my Metal Blog to the world I decided to let it import the RSS for the personal blog as well in case some of my readers want to see what I am all about in the more real day to day life. At this point in time it’s a growing experiment but then again so was PiercingMetal.com and I’m still doing that and the domain has just had it’s fifth anniversary.
UPDATE: 6/15/2011: As I mentioned when I first posted this little narrative so long ago now (a year is a lifetime in Internet after all) I was using my Tumblr account to automatically feed my blog posts, Twitter updates and Facebook Fan Page postings from not only PiercingMetal stuff but also my PiercingKen.com site. This worked for me and let me have the presence hopefully increase the reach of my brand identities. A few weeks ago I noticed that none of my postings were reaching Tumblr and I had not made any changes to the settings. It seemed as though in an effort to “better handle their resources” that Tumblr has removed the ability to import any RSS feeds. I’m discouraged about this as I view it as a cop out and something that lets those who choose to use this medium down quite a bit especially if they had chosen Tumblr over something else. I did notice that my links were okay and that my Twitter feed still showed for some reason so I will be leaving the page around as opposed to removing it. I only hope that those who find me here choose to dig deeper into my site brand and enjoy what I have over there for them.
UPDATE: 7/15/2012: Wow, its becoming a trend in updating this particular Social Networking overview post but once again it’s an important notice. I will admit to you that since I last spoke aloud about how Tumblr was failing me as a creative, the rapid rise in many of my friends using it has found me being once again on point with it for the purposes of broader reach for the brand name. Gone are the RSS importing, so now it’s up to me to just past in a link when I do things. My head is in a different place about this than it was a year ago because while I am a little bothered by needing to attend to something else; we do have the page here so it might as well be used for what we are featuring on the PiercingMetal.com domain. Here is my plan: I now plan on posting links to the review content I add to the site with a brief description of what it is. The same will apply to both of my blogs and to make it even more interesting I am going to let my Instagram, Foodspotting and Yelp accounts get featured on there as well.
UPDATE 9/28/2012: I am a casual user of the Tumblr account and essentially just come to it to repost links in the same fashion that I do with my Google+ page and today I noticed that they have employed a similar practice to that of Facebook in terms of offering the writer the means to “promote their post” for a moderate sum. This has apparently been in place since late June 2012 but I never noticed it because I tend to go into automatic when re-broadcasting the links to the main site and blogs on these secondary mediums to the brand. I will say that I don’t like this at all and will never participate in it. In my humble opinion, the users of this angle should really investigate starting their own Blogger or WordPress accounts under their own domain if at all possible. Just my three cents.
UPDATE: 10/1//2020:
Official Website: http://www.tumblr.com