Today social data analytics service Simply Measured announced that it has added Tumblr to the roster of services that it tracks. Simply Measured also tracks Twitter, Facebook, Vine, LinkedIn, and other social services. From that data it generates reports on conversations, brands, and other social performance. If you like specific data in large quantity, what Simply Measured can generate is almost pornographic.
Back to Tumblr. The partnership is via Gnip, which has access to the Tumblr ‘fire hose’ of information. However, and perhaps importantly Tumblr has designated Simply Measured a partner, meaning that the service isn’t merely absorbing data via Gnip sans blessing from that information’s source.
The Tumblr analytics service that Simply Measured will provide its customers includes information on post engagement, the growth in an account’s following, and the “longevity of reblogs.” I honestly don’t know what that last bit means, but I assume that if you, ahem, Tumbl, you grok what I’m getting at.
Simply Measured will also track your Tumblr identity against rivals, and compare your efforts on the platform to your performance on Facebook and other services. So, you can stack your social impact on Vine, and track that against what the Yahoo-owned Tumblr is producing for you.
The obvious kick to this news is that Yahoo wants a return on its $1.1 billion it spent on Tumblr, and thus the service will have to grow up a bit. Proving to social media managers and the like that it is producing traffic and engagement as they hoped, Tumblr can perhaps better monetize via advertisements once it Yahoo decides to extract material income from its new vassal.
But the flip to that is that this partnership has likely been under construction for some time. So, this is probably less about Tumblr frantically reaching for revenue, and more about it merely becoming the latest partner of the Seattle-based Simply Measured. But who doesn’t enjoy writing a trend piece?
Now, to the fun part: data. Check the following which I ripped from a sample Tumblr report that Simply Measured was nice enough to share:
That’s one section of a single report, but it is a decent taste.
Measuring the ROI of social interaction is an increasingly large, and crowded business. Simply Measured wants to collect and measure it all. And no, this is not the time for an NSA joke.
Top Image Credit: Bryce Edwards