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Friday, December 9, 2016

Tumblr head over heels

I dropped the ball yesterday and forgot to post. No excuses since Stephen reminds us weekly because he's awesome like that. But, alas, my brain is currently subsisting on pots of coffee and Lifesaver mints as I trudge through revisions on my WIP and wallow in the dissolution of my favorite TV couple (Gallavich if you care). And I'm not even ashamed of it. No one appreciates amazing storytelling like a writer. I find a lot of inspiration in good TV. So much so, I think I've finally figured out how to use Tumblr.
I've had a Tumblr for a few years because it was THE platform for YA authors. Teens are on Tumblr! Okay, awesome. Except, I had no idea how to use it. I thought it was just an extension of my website, as in, I wrote a blog post and linked to it on Tumblr. And sure, I did that, but no one was reading my blog posts on Tumblr. So I stuck to Twitter and Facebook and forgot about Tumblr.

Fast forward to 2016 -- shitty year for the world but awesome for television. Apparently, even as a woman in my late 30s, I share the same viewing habits as teens. Makes sense as I'm a YA author. Anyway, when I watched one my favorite shows and was desperate for snarky comments or fanvids or gifs, I went on Tumblr.

When I was a teenager, I used to watch my favorite shows (sometimes on the phone with my best friend) and come to the school the next day ready to rehash every goddamn scene. I remember when My So-Called Life aired and I heard girls singing The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" in the sophomore hallway. I didn't watch TV in a bubble. I was watching what my friends were watching. And we fangirled (we didn't use that word then) and obsessed over the show. Again, it's 2016 -- we're streaming, binge-watching. We're not all on the same timeline. There's so much to watch now, we're not all watching the same things. We pick and choose. I have no one to talk TV with. My husband isn't going to get meta with me about Don Draper's dreams or Rebecca Bunch's take on feminism or Mickey Milkovich's backstory or Skam's ingenuity. But, you know who will? The folks on Tumblr.

I've written a few posts on my observations on the last episode of Shameless. And I've gotten more 'notes' on those posts than I ever have just rambling about my books. Which is the point of social media. Be social. Connect and if that's over awesome TV, so be it. Because I'm not well-known enough to warrant followers just on the platform of my books. And I enjoy this stuff.

I know Tumblr has some shady shit on there, but I'm there for the fanart, the fanfiction, and the videos. Good storytelling is powerful enough to unite us.
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10 comments:

  1. Mary FanDecember 9, 2016 at 9:29 AM

    Great post!! Yeah I discovered the meaning of Tumblr when The Force Awakens came out... namely, FANGIRLING 😃

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kimberly G. GiarratanoDecember 9, 2016 at 10:38 AM

      And Tumblr allows me more than 140 characters for my pithy observations about my fandoms.

      Delete
  2. Stephen KozeniewskiDecember 9, 2016 at 10:48 AM

    Tumblr is the Mos Eisley of the internet. But I'm glad you've found your Docking Bay 94.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kimberly G. GiarratanoDecember 9, 2016 at 1:50 PM

      I just had to google all those references.

      Delete
    2. UnknownDecember 10, 2016 at 12:34 AM

      hahahaha

      Delete
    3. UnknownDecember 10, 2016 at 12:37 AM

      I had to google what tumblr even is because I only know it from my all-time favorite website's author's tumblr of vintage ads: http://lileks.tumblr.com/
      I found it hard to navigate backwards, but perhaps I will have to explore it more deeply if it gives one the chance to micro-surgery various forms of entertainment.

      Delete
    4. Kimberly G. GiarratanoDecember 11, 2016 at 9:54 AM

      In essence, Tumblr is really longer Twitter. You can search hashtags, follow accounts, etc, etc.

      Delete
  3. Carrie BeckortDecember 10, 2016 at 12:03 PM

    I've not yet made it over to Tumblr. I'm still trying to be proficient in Twitter. I should though. For every social media site I don't use, I feel about 5 years older than I am. Must stay young...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cheryl OregliaDecember 22, 2016 at 4:59 PM

    OMG, this post ignites my greatest fear, what I don't know will be the death of me, or at least my writing. I keep trying to utilize the different forms of social media but I am always a dollar short and a day late. I have not tried tumblr, I worry that by the time I figure it out, the boat will have left the dock. I did hear about Flipboard and I created a magazine entitled, Across the Board, I included all of our latest posting. No one has viewed it but me? What can you do? Thanks for a great post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Marie ChristineFebruary 27, 2020 at 4:21 AM

    I have a job that needs to roam around in different cities and countries. I used to face problems as I was not able to post frequently on Tumblr resulting in poor traffic on my accounts. Blogonauto [com] came as the only savior of my sinking accounts. Now, I can operate BlogOnAuto from literally anywhere from my phone as it is mobile optimized and also providing cloud service.

    ReplyDelete