Social Media Guide for Wattpad

Practice (Tumblr) (answers)

Your mission last time was to try to figure out what gets traction on Tumblr. You were to guess about genres that might do better, and those that might do worse. You were to attempt to figure out whether the knowledge that most Tumblr users are under the age of 35, and a substantial minority is under the age 25, could color your decisions and your actions at all. Armed with the knowledge that most users are accessing the site with desktop and laptop computers, rather than with mobile devices, you were to determine whether that mattered, too. 

You were also asked about how to prop up poorer performers.

Research

Just like when we looked at Pinterest, I did some research using GoodReads list. They should be taken with a grain of salt, as the people making the lists are self-selecting and are probably trying to telegraph higher brow tastes than they might really have. 

Here’s a likely list (Top 25 for under 25) –

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/10664.Top_25_for_Under_25

This list is dominated by bestsellers and it is dominated by series. One thing this list really tells me is that there’s a completion instinct here. If these people start a series, they want to read through and finish it. Only 13 of the 35 titles on that list (or, a little over a third) were not members of a series. Of those 13, maybe 8 of them were classics. 

This is an incredibly conservative list. But it’s also a loyal one, and that could play into the high loyalty levels typically seen for Tumblr. Maybe posting a series would be a good idea, eh? 

Here’s another list (Reading the In Between; Too Old for YA, Too Young for Adult) –

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/35166.Reading_for_the_In_Between_Too_old_for_YA_Too_young_for_Adult_

Only 39 out of 139 books on the list are not part of a series. That’s 28%, even less than on the first list. Of the 39 odd books out, I spotted no classics. The list was dominated by Romance and Fantasy. This seemed to be the perfect list for a stereotypical Pinterest user – 10 – 20 years ago. It seemed, though, that everyone who voted on that list was female. 

One more list (ALA 2009 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers) –

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1511.2009_ALA_Quick_Picks_for_Reluctant_Young_Adult_Readers

The ALA is the American Library Association, so the assumption is that they are less swayed by popular and trendy works. On this list, 77 out of 107 are not the parts of series, for a whopping 72% standalone works. However, this list is not just fiction. There’s plenty of nonfiction, about topics as diverse as science, pregnancy, and cooking. About the only thing this list told me was that the ALA might be out of touch with today’s youth.

What does it all mean?

Me you’re asking? 

All right; I’ll answer. I think, as in every other area we’ve looked at, the audience is splintered. The audience is also loyal like nobody’s business. I would freely post images related to series as I think, once you got someone as a reader, they would stick around, long as you treated them right (e. g. likes, thanks, update when you say you will, that sort of thing). As a fan fiction writer, one thing I have noted, time and again, is that posts about canon characters (with good images) do extremely well. What about those posts that covered original characters? Not so much, and that plays straight into questions of loyalty.

The Science Fiction, Action, and Horror genres seem to be the most represented, but I’ve seen plenty of Romance and Chick Lit on Tumblr. Hence I think genre doesn’t matter quite so much. Tumblr is about imagery. But don’t forget proper captioning and hashtagging! This gives Google (and the people searching with it) something to find. 

The media is all the same as last time in order to give you a refresher. The link is to a post of mine on Tumblr. The image is the image that goes with the linked post. The YouTube video is some pretty interesting information about Tumblr. 

Did this chapter help you? Did it hold your interest? Do you want to see more? Then please vote! You know the puppy wants you to. ;)