For most people working in PR, Advertising or Digital - social media in 2009 was all about Facebook and Twitter and successfully incorporating them into campaigns.

At TVC we used them across various projects; most recently the ‘Alcohol. It’s No Joke’ campaign – where we engaged in genuine dialogue with young people.

But what’s going to be big for 2010?

There now seems to be a buzz around Foursquare – the city exploration platform / game that is particularly useful for food, drink and destination brands. It’s big in New York and is taking over London…

But the one that seems to stay below the radar is Tumblr.

And I don’t understand why.

Tumblr is a simple blogging platform where you can post content – and has been around for a couple of years already.

Its focus is on usability and is creating a new wave of bloggers who were put off by a lack of techy know-how.

Tumblr allows you to post videos, links, pictures, write words – whatever you want – in seconds through a very simple interface.

But Tumblr is so much more than just a blogging space.

A nifty trick is that when you post something on Tumblr it quickly fires it out to your Twitter and Facebook pages – so it becomes your definitive content space.

In some ways – it tips its hat to Twitter.

An example is how you can follow people and they can follow you. If they like your posts – they can reblog them

But where it differs from Twitter is - it’s not about “how many followers you have” – it’s about levels of engagement.

Every user has a thing called Tumblarity – which is some kind of popularity score.

Tumblr don’t reveal the exact formula for Tumblarity but it seems to be linked to how often you post, the number of followers, how many reblog your content and vice versa).

The scoring system should appeal to the competitive nature of PR folk.

I saw somewhere that Tumblr has a retention rate of 85% - unlike Twitter’s 40-50% - and it has an ever growing user-base.

Brands will start engaging with it.

Many celebs, including Katy Perry, Courtney Love and John Legend, already do.

My page is hosted here: www.adamclyne.tumblr.com

I love Tumblr.

I think you will too.

www.tumblr.com