How to market your blog using Flipboard:

Flipboard is taking the route of the proven growth hacking technique (content curation) to take it to the next level. From being a simple content reading app, they have progressed to becoming a more personalized reading app. Flipboard now allows you to read content from your social-media timeline, subscribe to any feed, and follow any topic created by others. Most importantly, Flipboard let’s you create your own Flipboard magazine for content curation.

The power of Flipboard for business is in the simplicity of following any person on Flipboard or following a magazine created by them. The idea is not unique, but the way Flipboard has integrated these features within their app is appreciable.

Note: Flipboard is no longer a mobile-specific app, as they have launched a web version as well. So even if you are not a Flipboard app user, you can take advantage of their recently launched website for desktop users, and use it for your marketing or reading pleasure.

Let me show you the exact steps you need to take when using Flipboard to get traffic or give exposure to your business:

Magazines are the powerhouse to get Flipboard to work for you:

If you are not new to content curation, getting started with Flipboard magazine will be as easy as pie. If, however, content curation is a foreign subject to you, allow me to briefly explain:

Content curation is a technique geared toward finding the best content from the web and consolidating it in one place. You can do it on your blog, or you can do it using any of the online content curation sites.

There are people who are making money from content curation. Here is a post where you can find a list of content curation tools.

Back to Flipboard:

To begin using Flipboard, download the Flipboard app onto your smartphone (or desktop). The apps are available for iOS, Android and Windows phone. If you choose to work on your desktop, head over to Flipboard.com and create your profile there.

Once your profile is created on any platform, you can select the topics you would like to follow. (As of 2015, they have over 34000+ topics!)

I would suggest spending some time building your profile and setting up your Flipboard app. Once you’ve completed all of this, the next step is to create magazines in your clipboard account.

Magazines are the topics you want to create, on which you will be curating content. I recommend that you curate the best content from your niche, and also blend your own content to drive traffic to your site. If you are a popular brand, you can create a magazine with your brand name, as it would make it easier for people to follow your brand updates on Flipboard.

How to create a magazine on Flipboard:

If you are using a mobile app, click on your profile to begin the process of creating a Flipboard magazine. If you are using the desktop version, go to editor.flipboard.com and you can create your magazine from there.

For this guide, I’m using their desktop version as an example, so that you can follow the steps and create your own magazine right now.

Click on “Create Magazine” and give it a niche name. It is best to use a clear topic-centered niche rather than a broad based niche. For example, “Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers” or “Google AdSense” as a magazine names would be far better than “Make Money Blogging”.

You can create any number of magazines on your Flipboard account. I usually create a few magazines based on categories I publish on my blog. This way, I stick to my niche for reading, and also for curating content in the same niche. After all, content curation is all about establishing yourself as an expert in a particular niche.

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If you are a brand or business, you can also have multiple Flipboard users contributing to the same magazine. This is useful for serious businesses to amplify the reach of their Flipboard magazine.

Curating content on Flipboard:

Once you are done creating your magazines, it’s time to start curating content.

The Flipboard smart phone app makes it easier for a user to add any content to a magazine he has created. If you are working on a desktop, you can use their handy bookmarklet to curate content from your web browser. You can also curate from your iOS device by adding a bookmarklet using this tutorial. Chrome users can take advantage of their Chrome extension.

How to make Flipboard work for your blog traffic and business:

Once you have completed all the steps mentioned above, you are halfway through the process of making Flipboard work optimally for you.

Next comes the most exciting and challenging part of using Flipboard which is to curate content on a regular basis. This is when you begin to work toward giving readers a reason to subscribe to your magazine, which is how Flipboard will start driving traffic to your blog or to your business website.

Here are five important tips for you as you learn to curate content effectively:

1. Curate evergreen content:

I am a firm believer in the importance of producing evergreen content. When you produce evergreen content, your older posts remain relevant over time and thus remain useful to new readers. For this reason, you never have to trash your old content, because your content, and your magazine, are evergreen (useful and meaningful over time).

Once you have a grasp of the concept of creating evergreen content, you can avoid the time-intensive task of weeding out old, time-sensitive content, and the work you put into writing your posts (and creating your magazine) will pay off for a far longer period.

Note: You can curate the same post on different magazines created by you. This way you can have micro or macro magazines for your target topic.

2. Follow topics:

To utilize the content discovery feature of Flipboard (crowdsourcing), make sure you are following all relevant topics of interest to you. Also, check to see if any well-known people in your industry are on Flipboard, and follow them to discover quality content.

3. Comment on posts:

This is probably the most underused technique on Flipboard, but you can (and should) use it to get more eyeballs to your Flipboard profile. Flipboard lets you comment on any post that you are reading, and your comment is visible only to Flipboard users. You can use this technique to get more visitors to your Flipboard profile and to convert them into followers.

4. Check your progress:

It is very important that you continually check to see how your Flipboard account is helping you to drive traffic, and how your Flipboard magazines are performing. You can go to editors.flipboard and click on “stats” to see how your magazines are performing.

Here is my Flipboard traffic for the last few days:

Flipboard traffic report Google Analytics

5. Promote your Flipboard Magazine or profile:

Most of the time you will be discovered by Flipboard users on the app itself (or on the desktop version), but you can also increase the number of your followers by using Flipboard buttons, or by sharing your created Flipboard magazines on your social networking sites. You can embed Flipboard Magazine on your blog, or you can display a Flipboard follow button to get more followers. You can also get a “follow” badge for your profile or for your magazine from here.

Note: You can check out an example of a Flipboard profile and magazine here.

Conclusion: Is Flipboard useful for bloggers and brands?

Flipboard is a growing platform for consumers and publishers like you and me. They have grown from being a mobile specific platform to including a desktop version, and in my opinion they will only continue to grow.

You would do well to start using Flipboard right away, and while it may take some time to arrange it for your optimal benefit, (depending on your visibility and quality of curation), it will ultimately help you to get traffic and exposure for your blog, business or brand.

• Useful link: Flipboard for Publishers and Bloggers

Get started using Flipboard and make it work for you.

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