Tumblr Blesses Its First Analytics Provider, Union Metrics

Union Metrics, which makes the TweetReach Twitter analytics service for brands and PR, is heading over to Tumblr to do the same thing.

And Tumblr is happy about it. Union Metrics for Tumblr is the social blogging company’s first “preferred analytics provider.” It’s not an exclusive relationship, but it’s the first of its kind.

The new product aims to help marketers get a sense of what’s being discussed on Tumblr and how it spreads through shares (a.k.a. reblogged). It’s built on Gnip’s authorized Tumblr fire hose, which was released in April.

What’s interesting about this idea is how late it’s coming about relative to Tumblr’s popularity — especially considering Twitter’s developer ecosystem has become so fraught. Tumblr itself is just getting around to being friendly with advertisers.

And actually, Union Metrics for Tumblr is not ready yet; Union Metrics is just asking for signups today and hasn’t published pricing yet.

I asked Union Metrics CEO Hayes Davis about the difference between Tumblr and Twitter.

“We have a good relationship with Twitter, but it’s more like an arms-length kind of relationship,” he said.

Davis posited that the lag time between activity around the Twitter and Tumblr APIs are because the core early Twitter audience was tech geeks, while the early Tumblr crowd was content creators.

“I think Tumblr has its own center of gravity,” he said. “There’s an ecosystem here building over time.”