Office Hours: Tumblr vs. WordPress and Google+

Office Hours: Tumblr vs. WordPress and Google+

July 20, 2011 by

Every week I hold online office hours and answer questions from folks like you. This week I answer a question about Tumblr vs. WordPress. We also see the power of crowd-sourcing a question about Google+. Take a look and be sure to join me every Wednesday from 2-4 p.m. CDT for online office hours!

What do you think of Tumblr as a true blogging platform? I recently moved my blog from a self-hosted WordPress to Tumblr because I found myself playing with the theme and plugins more than writing.

My answer: I think they’re two entirely different platforms with two different purposes. With Tumblr, the emphasis is on having a light, agile platform that’s perfectly set up for multimedia sharing. With WordPress, the emphasis is having a powerful, feature-rich platform that’s more suited for text-based blog posts.

I would never replace my WP blog with Tumblr. I tried that once and, like you’re finding, it didn’t work out so well. Hopefully that helps a little. You can see the main differences between my Tumblr and WordPress blog.

Hope that helps!

So, with the release of Google+, the church will have yet another social network to consider in communicating. As a ministry, how do you properly manage which social platforms are best and how do you determine which online tools you use personally?

For this question, I used the crowd-source option and asked some of you how you’d answer this question. Here are your responses:

@Kretzu: We don’t use any social networks for our organization that we can’t use successfully as individuals. Since I really don’t understand the purpose, strengths and weaknesses of Google+, I won’t be using it for The Gateway Church any time soon.

As far as personal use, I use whatever I enjoy. That’s the purpose of it all anyway, right? Enjoyment? Twitter is number one for me. I’m back on Facebook out of necessity more than anything, but hopefully Google+ becomes a viable alternative to that.

@AdamLehman: I use what is effective, fun & connects me to others. Not sure if Google+ will do this more than twitter/facebook/blog already do.

@JBurno: After just recently reading “Context & Voice” by Vince Marotte, I am of the opinion that the church should be present online in as many places as possible…this is of course depending on where your people are. In our context in Chicago our congregation is very quick to adopt new technologies and social networks. As soon as business/brand pages are available on Google+ I am planning on starting one for Park.

@GabeTaviano: Personally, I’m more focused on content, so I prefer to communicate through blogs than I do social networks. I think the true circles don’t just interact on Google+, but respond to how people are investing their talents. Typically, you get to hear or see that through their platform…thanks to the link on the networks. This sure can get confusing, LOL.

Thanks for the great questions (and answers) everybody! See you next week.

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Justin Wise


Justin Wise lives in West Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife and son. He likes coffee, reading, running and blogging.
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