Tumblr is most likely misunderstood by many as nothing but a place for poorly-made GIFs and preteen fan clubs, but the truth is there are quite a few uses for the microblogging and image site.  Tumblr excels at simply posting images (moving or static) and short blurbs that are good for a quick scrolling, and thus can work well as a photo blog or for social media marketing. 

Unbeknownst to many, Tumblr can be great for meeting people and making new friends. Most social media sites require some sort of preexisting connection between people, but with Tumblr it is very easy to find a group of pages that share an interest and then share content with each other. This also brings a touch of anonymity, which is a breath of fresh air for some social media users.

The Tumblr Dashboard makes it easy to share different types of content and communicate with small friend groups, without everyone seeing the activity, unlike many interactions on Facebook or Twitter. Some groups of friends use a specific hashtag, which they add to posts to track activity. Others mention the group or its members by name in the commentary of the post.

Tumblr is also perfect for portfolio work, such as photography or other artistic works, especially once the layout is personalized to make it easy and fun to view specific pieces. The UI is uncomplicated and intuitive, making it a great place to display your work in a digital portfolio. On top of all this, the reblog and share features are prominent, so plenty of users access the site simply to present their work and follow other artists. Tumblr is ideal for showing off visual artwork, as well as for creative writing and short stories.

Lastly, Tumblr was pretty much made for microblogging of any sort.  For example, travel blogging is right at home on Tumblr, with great pictures brought to the forefront along with short blurbs describing one’s travels and lending a bit more weight to the photos. For some professional-looking Tumblr travel blogs, check out Exquisite Planet and Traveling Colors.  Location tags are also perfect for finding fun places and good food before traveling yourself. 

Hobby blogging is also a massive section of the site, including things such as exercising, knitting, music, dancing, cosplay, video games, fashion, tattoos, nail art, and of course, cooking.

Business blogs can also make effective use of Tumblr’s short and to the point format, as it can be used to help sales and develop a rapport with potential customers. Users can reblog or post products that catch their attention and help viral marketing.  Big companies like Adidas, J.Crew and Target are successfully utilizing the reblog feature to display products, and smaller businesses like Etsy members often use Tumblr for the free publicity.