Struggling with traffic to your website or blog?
You should give Flipboard a shot. The ‘first and only social magazine’ (in Flipboard’s own words) has more than 145M monthly active users globally. The news website/app attracts an engaged and passionate audience that loves reading, sharing, and discussing great content. Most social platforms see content from other websites as distracting, pulling users away once they click a link. Conversely, Flipboard embraces content and puts it centre stage: The videos or articles are displayed in full glory on users’ profiles, allowing them to view them and take a deeper dive without leaving the platform.
Contents
1. Create a profile
It’s free and easy to do. At first, you’ll be asked to follow a few topics of interest. The more you use Flipboard, the more you’ll discover content and profiles that interest you. Flipboard, in turn, will suggest more and more relevant topics and magazines for you to follow.
2. Start flippin’
That’s the fun part, and it’s even more fun using Flipboard’s mobile app because you’ll feel as if you’re flipping a magazine. Warning – this is addictive!
Go to the For You section and start flipping. This is your main feed, with content from members, magazines and topics you follow. Found an article/video you like? Click the + and flip it into a magazine. You can also like an article/video or comment on it.
At first, you’ll have a few general magazines (e.g., Food, Lifestyle, Health). Still, as you explore more content, you’ll give your magazines better names and descriptions and create more niche magazines (e.g., Organic Food & Recipes, Health & Fitness after 50).
Magazines are the bread and butter of Flipboard. Other members can follow your magazines whether or not they follow you. As you flip, Flipboard will suggest magazines for you to follow according to your interests. Even magazines with very few followers can be pushed to members.
The rule of thumb is that if you like an item, flip it into one (or more) of your magazines. Can’t find a fitting magazine? Create one.
During your first week, spend at least 2 hours daily flipping content on Flipboard at different times. The reward will come very soon, as you’ll see other members flipping your content, interacting with it, and following you. This is the only social platform that brings such fast organic engagement.
At first, you’ll flip other people’s flips in the For You section mentioned before. You can also search specific topics, articles, magazines, and profiles. Take it to the next level and flip your fresh content—articles and videos you find online, not on Flipboard. Use your RSS feeds and blog aggregators like AllTop, 9rules, Hacker News, Reddit, etc.
Think about it this way – you’re building a reputation as the content authority of your niche. The more interesting your flips are, the more members will read them, interact with and follow you.
Install the Flipboard Chrome extension or bookmarklet to easily share your favourite content as you browse from any device.
3. Watch the bell
After a few days of consistent flipping, other members will notice you and start flipping the stories you’d flipped, liking and replying (commenting on) them and following you. Compared to other platforms, Flipboard provides relatively fast results. This is important because seeing success will keep you motivated.
This will help you charge forward and keep that content-flipping machine spinning. While Flipboard is super-fun, if you’re a content lover, you must work on it daily to keep your followers interested. Most of them follow magazines and expect fresh content on each visit.
Watch that notification bell and whenever you see active profiles engaging with your content. Go ahead and follow them or their magazines, interact with them, reply to their comments, etc.
When you interact with another profile or magazine, you stay on their radar because they get a notification on their profile, and they’re more likely to visit you and flip your stories again.
4. Keep going
Now that you start getting traction, it’s time to develop a Flipboard routine. Yes, it will take some of your time (30 minutes or more daily), but the reward will be immense. You can efficiently work this routine into your dead hours (waiting to pick up the kids from school, queuing up, etc.) using the Flipboard mobile app:
Follow your followers and those who’ve followed your magazines, flipped your stories or interacted with them,
Actively engage with members who interact with you or with your stories by flipping their stories, commenting on them, replying to comments you receive and @ mentioning them. Flipboard features a vibrant community of members who love reading and discussing stories. This is the ideal audience for distributing and amplifying content!
So, become an active community member and earn the best blog/site visitors for the long run.
Visit the For You section and flip stories into magazines. Be selective, and skip stories you don’t resonate with. Create more magazines as you go along, according to the stories you come across.
The math is simple – the more stories you flip, the more followers and engagement you’ll enjoy.
5. Fine-tune
The difference between flipping for fun and turning Flipboard into a tour de force of content distribution lies in the details.
At least 3-4 times a week, do the following:
- Search Flipboard for topics, articles, videos, magazines, and profiles you’re passionate about. In the creators’ own words, “the more you follow, the better it is.” By widening your scope of content, your For You section will become more exciting to you and your followers. As you dive deeper into Flipboard, you’ll notice many stories flipped by many members you follow. You aim to stand above the crowds by sharing fresh, varied content.
- Add your ‘own’ content, i.e. articles and videos you added to Flipboard (using the browser extension, bookmarklet, etc.). This will brand you as an authority in your field(s), resulting in more engagement, flips and followers 🙂
- Go over your For You section. Look for stories that don’t fit your magazine or brand. Click on the right-side 3-dot menu and choose between Show less like this, ‘Mute’ or, in extreme cases, click on the member’s name/logo and unfollow them. Now spot the top-performing stories (with 50 flips or more), like them, comment on them and be sure to give them a prominent spot in your magazines.
- Visit your Analytics (desktop only), and simultaneously open the Magazines section on your mobile app (under your profile icon). The analytics will show you your ten most popular magazines in descending order. Now, reorder your magazines on mobile following their popularity to get maximum exposure. Move the least popular magazines or the ones with very few stories to the bottom. You can easily do it on mobile by dragging and dropping the magazine icon. Note that magazine popularity is dynamic and can be influenced by trends, seasons, holidays, etc. For example, my Black Friday Deals magazine is now my second most popular, but this can quickly change as we move away from the holiday season.
- Visit Magazines on the desktop. Take a good look at all the magazines and consider removing the ones that don’t serve you, don’t interest you or are simply repetitive. Now click Edit and give your magazine an accurate yet attention-grabbing title. Add a short & sweet description; now look at each magazine’s analytics. Remove the boring stories and drag the high-performing ones (with the most open and social shares) to the top. Flipboard suggests your magazines to new members, even if they don’t follow you or your magazine. This is your chance to shine and gain unmatched exposure and magazine followers, so go all in!
What next?
There you have it – this is the tried and true strategy to get your first 200 followers on Flipboard, and from there, the sky is the limit. What’s in it for you, and how Flipboard can help you drive engaged traffic to your blog or website? Share your thoughts in the comments and watch this space for part 2 🙂
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