How to Tumblr, part 2

July 9, 2013 by Karen Jensen, MLS 3 comments

So how are we all feeling about Tumblr so far? Let me know in the comments. Also, let me know what your Tumblr name is, so I can check you out!

Now that you’ve all established your own Tumblr and found interesting people to follow, we are going to cover reblogging, creating your own original entries, and customizing your Tumblr. Let’s start by having a look at the Tumblr dashboard:

I hope that by now many of you have realized how simple it is to reblog a Tumblr entry you’ve enjoyed and wanted to share or comment upon. If I wanted to reblog the top entry on my dashboard, I would simply scroll down until the bottom of the entry is visible, and click on the reblog tool in the bottom right hand corner – it looks like two arrows curved into a box shape and is right next to the heart (which lets you mark an entry as a favorite).

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

When you click on the reblogging tool, it will bring up a page which will let you make several adjustments to how this will look on your page. At first, I’d just suggest that you add something in the box where the cursor appears. This box is labeled differently according to what kind of post you are reblogging. Sometimes it is a ‘caption’ box, sometimes ‘description’, etc. However, this is where people will expect you to add your comments. You can even respond with a picture of your own. Once you’ve reblogged an entry, it will show up both in your dashboard, and on your own Tumblr page.

While I’d venture to guess that the vast majority of people interact with Tumblr almost exclusively through the dashboard, you also have a page that contains just the contents of your posts to Tumblr. This is your blog, and you can direct people here to view any or all of your entries. You can also customize it in many ways to better represent your personality, etc.

To do this, you will want to start by going to your Tumblr blog. The easiest way to do this is to scroll to the top of your dashboard and click on your icon/avatar. This will take you directly to your blog. You can also type in the web address for your blog – ie. ‘myblog.tumblr.com’.

Move your cursor to the upper right corner of the screen and you will see two options – ‘Customize’ and ‘Dashboard’. Click on customize to take you to the customization screen. There, you should be able to choose from free or paid Themes, change the name of your Tumblr, add a brief description, and make a few more advanced changes. Remember to save!

Finally, let’s talk about adding your own original posts. I’d strongly suggest starting with pictures, but your mileage may vary. From your dashboard, choose one of the icons on the top row beside your blog icon:

Different tools may be more useful for one type of post or another. Try some of them out and see how they work!

For those of you with a high tolerance for whimsy, i’d like to point you in the direction of this video, which may explain more about the culture behind Tumblr that anything I can say:

Above all else, I hope you enjoy yourself!

Filed under: Social Media, Tumblr

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About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

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