Connecting a Stream to Facebook only takes the click of a button in Tumblr’s Customize options but the ease of connectivity is at the expense of posting functionality & styling.
By taking the time & exploring the rich options available through RSS Feed Applications it is quite easy to post automatically & seamlessly to a Fan Page or Individual Profile.
Take a some time to consider how the posts are to processed & how they will display to your network.
How will adding your Tumblr content to Facebook effect the timing of your regular posts? Do you need a fancy scheduler? Do you need to post differently?
Before considering changing anything take a look at the options Tumblr & other 3rd Parties offer for posting to Facebook.
One of the backbones of information exchange on the internet is are the file formats known as RSS or Web Feeds. Know it or not the music, web pages & the majority of mobile content delivered from cloud based applications use the Really Simple Syndication format.
Facebook is on one level just a giant personalized RSS feed reader with advertisements with a really powerful recommendation engine.
RSS takes the basic content (HTML) of a webpage or Tumblr post and makes it available automatically online so it can be syndicated & used else where as needed.
Tumblr’s Facebook Application
The default options provided to import a stream use a Tumblr branded Facebook Application that posts a small thumbnail & the notes (Title & Description) from the original Tumblr content. These posts receive low ranking on Facebook’s Edge Ranking system and are subject to frequent lags & delays in displaying.
If several people in a network post simultaneously Facebook will either stagger the posts in large blocks and they appear nested in News Feeds. When this occurs your followers & fans may or not see your posts.
The posts from Tumblr’s Application can be commented upon but cannot be shared directly from within Facebook. To share the post on Facebook a visitor must leave Facebook & visit the original post on Tumblr and then share from there. Reposting these posts on Facebook is next to impossible on most mobile devices.
http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/facebook_pages
http://apps.facebook.com/tumblr-feed/
RSS Graffitti
Of all the free options RSS Grafitti is by far the one that offers the easiest installation & most comprehensive suite of options for posting Tumblr to Facebook.
It’s rich user interface provides clear instructions and helpful tips throughout the instal process. For a casual user it’s scheduling options are overkill but are essential for any Fan Page.
Content posted using RSS Grafitti on Facebook can be shared & commented upon without any limitations or loss of content
Networked Blogs
Facebook based small blog networking application. They are great at what they do. It is a fine platform for the beginner & those who dream of becoming a wealthy blogger superstar. Sadly gainful remuneration & traffic from Networked Blogs’ network of bloggers is a myth.
Content posted with Networked Blogs will appear on their site and can be shared quickly from within Facebook. Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.
The system of custom URL redirect and syndication used by Networked Blogs is controversial and questions their ethics of rebranding content under new addresses. When content is shared, interacted with from Network Blog’s system it is not with the original article.
In exchange for using their RSS syndication system for Tumblr or any Feed Networked Blogs takes content passing through their network and create a new page on their site with the same content but with their URL.
Any page views to that page will be credited to Networked Blogs & not your original Tumblr Stream. Networked Blogs does provide some basic promotion tools but they are limited to other users of their system and are time intensive.
Sharing is quick but Thumbnails are lost & any web visits will be to the Networked Blog’s version of your content.
IFTTT.com
A Hyper simple set of tools to connect various online platforms. The wide range of options IFTTT requires basic HTML & familiarity with RSS to work with it’s system of Channels & Tasks.
Still in Beta, it’s only drawback is it’s lack of scheduling options. IFTTT checks for new content every 15 minutes and posts all content from each time period at once. In order to use one must be mindful of timing to avoid over posting on Facebook.
Content syndicated with ifttt.com is sharable and clean looking. Worth the extra knowledge and patience needed to work comfortably with it’s powerful tools.
About Justin Stone-Diaz
When Justin is not correcting people, relatives or online services on what his name is, how to spell it or explaining how hyphens, like bacon can make anything better he spends his time reading, writing pondering media in all it’s forms.
An attendee of Ben Jerry’s Scoop U, Reed College The School of Hard Knocks, Justin Stone-Diaz has contributed to various print, trade technical journals under his or some version of his name.
That’s code for he’s a ghost writer. Wink Wink.
He is one half of the media duo working under the moniker ‘Toonmonk’ and the pixel pusher behind this and many other sites.
- Tumblr Removes Import Feature, Becomes Far Less Useful (wiredpen.com)
- ifttt - Or: If This Then That - Love At First Sight (wolpers.posterous.com)
- A Complete Guide To Tumblr (smashingmagazine.com)
Creating a Fan Page for your professional or creative projects is a powerful way to to create a strong web presence while giving additional privacy and communication options unavailable to Individual Profiles on 
While Tumblr offers easy connectivity to cross post content from any public blog on their platform to Twitter a few considerations should be made before doing. By taking a look at your content’s post styling it is easy to maximize the exposure of your posts via Twitter growing your network on both.