Twitter has the character count limit, Instagram is only photos & videos, Facebook is too full of ads, and Snapchat can get tedious, trying to keep up streaks.

It may seem like merely the online haven for fourteen-year-old fangirls, but Tumblr deserves much more credit than it is actually given.

Variety. That is what makes Tumblr so unique. Pinned as the internet's "Arts and Crafts Section" by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, there are many more modes of posting than the majority of social media platforms; 6 distinct modes, in fact: Text Posts, Photos, Quotes, Links, Chats, Audio, and Video. Within these modes, there are subsections. Take Photos, for example. With this mode, you are not limited to a single photo. Instead, you can post gifs, photo sets, gif photo sets, collages, photos from the web, personal photos, edits, you name it! The world may not be your oyster, but Tumblr can be!

So, your interest is piqued. Good. If you want to become Tumblr-famous, here's what you should do:

The Fundamentals

1) Make an account (duh!)

Simply type tumblr.com in the URL bar...and boom you're here! Select get started, and it will ask for your email, a password, and a username.

(Fun fact: the Tumblr homepage switches layouts every time you reload, and each layout comes from a post made by an actual Tumblr content creator: people just like you!)

2) Choose a great username!

You can always change this later, but your username is more than a way to log in...it's an identity. It tells people what your page is about, and many users will choose to follow you based on your username alone. Your username should be recognizable, specific, and maybe even a little humorous. You want to get the attention of the people, right? Plus, it is what appears in the URL on your specific page, as (username).tumblr.com, unless of course, you change the URL to something else.

3) Find your niche (I cannot stress this enough!)

If you cannot think of a perfect username, that is completely alright! Think about what interests you. Of course, in the Tumblr-verse, people who group together based on similar interests and make posts related to these interests are in what is called a "fandom," but you probably knew that already. Some fandoms are of course, bigger than others. However, what is really important is having your fandom be popular, if you want to gain lots of followers and notes. (A note is either a like or a reblog. You can reblog a post as many times as you like <there might be a limit, but i have never gone so far as to test it> but you can only like a post once. If you want people to see a post often, reblog the post often...but don't overdo it)

Right. Popular fandoms. Some fandoms that are pretty much always doing okay for themselves are these: Harry Potter, Anime, Meme pages, whatever the popular TV show is at the time (right now it's Stranger Things), and fandoms centered around specific celebrities.

If you're having trouble finding what is popular, you can either click on the "Explore" icon, which is in the top righthand corner of the screen and looks like a compass

Or, since you will automatically be following the Tumblr Staff page when you sign up, you can look to their weekly update called "Fandometrics" (reblogged from the fandometrics page) to see what they deem to be most popular this week, based on hashtags and relevance.

However, what will really set you ahead of the rest is to....

4) Strike while the iron is hot!

I might make a separate article about my personal journey to relative Tumblr fame, but for now, I will offer one small anecdote. I created my Tumblr account in the fall of 2015, the week the Hamilton cast album was released. I joined when the fandom was in its infancy, and thus I was able to better get my content out there since there were not already-established mega-giants of the fandom. I had no idea what I was doing back then. I honestly just wanted a place where I could find people who related to this musical in the way I did and people who shared the same passion for it. I had no idea my blog would become relatively popular.

Anyways, it can be hard to predict which fandoms will be popular, but if you do find a fandom in its infancy, and you care very much about it, chances are that others will, as well. Trying to break into an already established fandom is difficult unless you produce really high-quality content frequently, but at least your fanbase will be a sure thing.

You can see if your fandom is popular by seeing if anyone has tagged any posts regarding you fandom by typing your fandom's name into the search bar and then

1) posts with your fandom's name as a tag will show up

2) related tags will also appear, in addition to pages focused on that topic

5) Follow a bunch of other Tumblr blogs

If you're worried about being that person who doesn't have many followers but is following so many people, don't be worried at all. The majority of Tumblr themes do not display your follower/following count to the public. That is something only your eyes can see, which is nice.

Following a bunch of other users will first and foremost help you to see what is popular and on-trend. You want your posts to resonate with your followers and gain reblog-ibility, and knowing what your audience likes is essential. Plus, the users you follow might just follow you back, which is always nice.

If you're having trouble finding blogs to follow, you can find the blogs through their content era specialty in the search bar, through the "recommended blogs" spot in the upper righthand corner of your dashboard (home-page), or through the most common way: linked reblogs. On your dashboard, many posts will be reblogged, and this will be indicated by some recycled-looking arrows at the top of the post. Simply scroll over the name of the user on the right side of these arrows, and you can hit "follow" if you're interested!

6) Choose an appealing theme

If you're wondering what a "theme" is, it is basically the layout, design, and color scheme that appears when you type in your unique URL. Many themes are free, but some people are bougie and buy those fancy themes for no reason whatsoever.

In order to edit your theme, click on the "account" icon (which looks like a little person) in the upper righthand corner of your dash, then click "edit appearance." It should take you to a page where you can edit your theme.

7) Use Hashtags & Queue your posts

If you want people to see your posts when they search for the content area, you're going to want to use hashtags. Furthermore, they will help your followers find posts for particular fandoms on your page, as well. Each person's individual page has a search bar, and adding a tag to a post you either made or reblogged will allow you to access it more easily in the future. To add tags, simply type them into the tag bar on the post, separating the tags with commas.

Furthermore, "queueing" your posts means that you are scheduling them to post throughout the day, so your blog will still be active even if you are not actually logged on. This is important for maintaining consistency and keeping your blog fresh. To queue a post, click the drop-down arrow next to the "post" button when you're creating or reblogging, and select "Add to queue"

(Scheduling, on the other hand, means the post will publish at a specific date and time that you set, while queuing ensures a consistent cycle of posts throughout the day)

8) Brush up on your editing skills

Like I mentioned earlier, there are so many different mediums your content can take.

If you're making gifs, I recommend using the extension MakeGIF Video Capture. If you're editing gifs, I recommend using https://ezgif.com/

For video edits, I use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.

For photo edits, I usually just use Paint (It get's the job done)

For Audio edits, I generally use Audacity, though I have used Garageband. It just depends on the content at hand.

Tumblr is a great space to brush up on your editing skills, especially because you can be as personal or as anonymous as you would like. The better you get at edits, the more attention you will garner.

9) Get Tumblr-famous bloggers to reblog your posts

Sometimes these Tumblr-famous people are actually famous people who have Tumblrs. Trust me. If Taylor Swift reblogs your post, then it is sure to gain notes in at least the tens of thousands. *typically, when a post reaches 1,000 notes, it is considered a "successful" post. When a post reaches 10,000 notes, it is now a "popular" post. There are some iconic posts which have reached note-levels in the 100,000s, and posts which reach close to or over one million notes are legen...wait for it...dary. Aim for 1,000 notes, however, as a major first milestone*

I was lucky enough to have Lin-Manuel Miranda himself reblog four of my posts, which really boosted my follower count. Famous people get noticed, and if they notice you, you will get noticed too!

However, DO NOT hound them to publish your posts. That is annoying and unprofessional. Sure, it can be hit or miss, but the best way to get the tumblr-famous to reblog your posts is either to directly @ them in your post (which is a bit brazen) or to use hashtags they will probably search.

One tumblr-famous celebrity is Thomas Sanders who goes by @thatsthat24. He very often reblogs fan content, so if you're a fan of his, you might want to make some fan art or something of the like. (He has a tag specifically devoted to his fan art, tsart, with hundreds of reblogs)

Now, finally, and most importantly, my number one piece of advice is to....

10) CREATE ORIGINAL CONTENT.

I repeat.

CREATE. ORIGINAL. CONTENT.

You cannot simply get by on reblogs alone if you want to gain more notes and followers. Reblogs are great if the page is just for your own entertainment, but if you want to get noticed, you have to be that entertainment. Use the editing skills discussed in #8 and the eye for trends discussed throughout, and keep cranking out new and fresh content. This should be stuff that nobody has seen before, if you really want to stand out (and you do), you'll become attuned to the type of content people want to see. The reason why one blog may have 80 followers and another blog as 8,000 followers comes down to this difference. The blogs with more followers create more original content, simply stated. Even through multiple reblogs, nearly all posts can be traced back to the original creator. And, if you have impressed the masses, they will give you a like, a reblog, and a follow.

Sure, it may be chock-full of fourteen year olds; but, these fourteen year olds are the most devoted followers and the kindest people. It's a pretty good gig, if you ask me.