Tumblr, home to more than 32 million blogs, many of them off-beat and some of them off-color, Monday added a very traditional voice: President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
In 2008, Obama made good use of Facebook to reach out to what was then a largely younger audience on the social networking site, and get them excited by and involved in his campaign.
Since then, many pols have flocked to Facebook, as well as to Twitter, which recently started accepting political ads as promoted tweets. (Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was first to sign up for those).
The Obama campaign move to Tumblr may be just as savvy — and ahead-of-the-pack —as its Facebook effort, although the Tumblr crowd is a little tougher to wow.
As msnbc.com's Helen A.S. Popkin noted, Tumblr, launched in 2007, has become known as "the go-to point for single service blogs (often with NSFW titles) such as "Look at this F---ing Hipster," as well as "Animals with Casts" and "Jumping Rob Pattinson." It's not, shall we say, for tepid types.
"We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort — a place for people across the country to share what’s going on in our respective corners of it and how we’re getting involved in this campaign to keep making it better," says Obama's campaign on its first Tumblr blog.
You can send us a few paragraphs about how your latest phonebanking gig went or why you’re in for 2012. Share the latest chart you saw that made you go “woah.” Ask a question. Upload a photo of 2012 t-shirts or signs you see out in the wild. Pass along jokes, particularly if they’re funny. And if you’re among the Tumbl-inclined, send us posts you’ve published on your own Tumblr that we should look at re-blogging.
And, the campaign is seeking civility on the blog, recognizing:
There will be trolls among you: this we know. We ask only that you remember that we’re people — fairly nice ones — and that your mother would want you to be polite.
Related stories:
- Blog platform Tumblr wins $85 million in financing
- Twitter starts accepting political ads
- Tumblr users beware: Phishing afoot
- Tumblr down! Hipster apocalypse nears second day
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
