How To Use Flipboard To Grow Your Content Marketing Reach

As content marketers ourselves, we know how much time and effort can sometimes go into creating the right piece of content.

And, of course, finding the right medium to publish it to get the needed results to help grow our business.

The only way to be able to get those results, though, is by promoting your content after you hit that publish button.

Nobody will find your content otherwise.

This is even truer if you’re just starting your business, so you must actively find ways to drive traffic to those pieces of content.

Otherwise, your time spent creating them has been all for nothing.

So what if we would tell you there is an incredible way to drive thousands of visitors, a way that contributes more than other social media platforms combined, and best of all, it is free?

This application is named one of the most important apps of all time by CNET and only takes five to ten minutes of management per day to get the results you want.

Did we get your attention?

If so, you might want to start checking out Flipboard.

Flipboard is a great way to acquire tonnes of traffic for your content to your business website or blog. If you’re not already using this platform, now is the time to learn more about it and how it can help your business.

Using Flipboard as a marketing channel is one of the easiest ways to drive thousands of page views to your site. It can introduce your brand and your content to an audience of 100+ million. The only thing you have to do to get noticed and get the word out there is just to add content to Flipboard with two simple clicks.

So what is this magical place?

Flipboard is a news aggregation platform that launched all the way back in 2010. At its core, It is a magazine-style feed reader where the users discover new content based on their interests. Next, to that, they can “flip” their favorite content into magazines ready for the rest of the world to see and consume.

In a sense, it might be a little bit the same as Pinterest, which also got released for the first time around that same period.

Pinterest, though, allows you to pin content to themed boards, and on Flipboard, all the content that is “flipped” is presented in a magazine-style format, presented to the readers based on their interests even if they don’t follow your specific magazines.

Looking at the statistics on our website, Flipboard is the biggest referrer next to search engine traffic or SEO.

When Flipboard started in 2010, websites weren’t that optimized for mobile traffic, so it wanted to enhance the reading experience for mobile users. Over the years, however, it has grown to become one of the most popular apps for feed reading and discovering new content.

If you want traffic to your website, Flipboard is by far the easiest way to get it with the least amount of effort.

If you’re not already using it, now would be the time this piece will show you how to take the most significant advantage of Flipboard so you too can amplify your Content Marketing.

Why would you use Flipboard?

Some people might ask, why would I invest time and energy in yet another platform in the hopes of growing my business? Well, Flipboard is different for a couple of different reasons.

Almost no learning curve

Unlike any other social media network, Flipboard is super easy to get started. From account creation to begin to see results, it can be done overnight.

All you have to do is download the application on your phone (if it is not already installed), available for IOS or Android, or head over to their website, sign up, and you’re off to the races!

A large following is not needed

Compared to other social networks, where one of the first tasks most people set themselves up to achieve is getting as many followers as possible, for Flipboard to work, you don’t need a huge following to start all ready to see some results and traffic to your website.

How?

Well, when you start adding content to Flipboard, it automatically assigns a category (for example, Marketing, Business, Advertising, or even Recipes). So it doesn’t matter which content you “flip” into Flipboard, their algorithm automatically scans for content being added, and it can feature it as the best content for your category every single day.

As you can see, Flipboard is not based on the “social graph” (the network of personal relationships like LinkedIn or Facebook), Flipboard is based on the “interest” graph (the network of shared interests like Pinterest).

This means that your target audience can automatically see every piece of content you add, the people who might take an interest in the problem you’re trying to solve (remember, Content marketing is just solving answering the same problems that your product solves through media you create and promote), your brand or your product or service.

Consumer research psychologist Dr Paul Marsden already had this to say about it in 2011; the business opportunity is to

“generate value (discovery, validation, recommendation) for and from people with shared interests rather than shared contacts.”

In other words, when you provide your target audience with relevant, useful, compelling content, they will give their attention (and hopefully their money) in return.

So, how great is it that, if you put in awesome content, it can automatically surface to the top without creating a huge following? (help on getting there later on in this article)

The lowest amount of investment in time and effort compared to any social media platform

So if you don’t need to spend lots of time trying to build a social following on the platform, it means you can focus on the real job, and that is curating content (which you’re probably already doing to have content to share on your other social networks).

Curating content is very easy as well, with their special bookmarklet and Chrome browser button.

Short-lived, but lots of traffic

Although Flipboard can deliver lots of traffic to your website, since there is so much content being “flipped” by their 100+ million users, the people that go to your website as a result of you adding content to the platform are short-lived.

On average, adding content to Flipboard will give you a huge traffic boost for around two days. After that, you need to come up with new content to keep the flow of traffic coming.

Although this might sound not that great, think of it like this; traffic from Flipboard is guaranteed, so instead of you having to spend lots of ad dollars on other social platforms to have your content seen in people’s newsfeeds, on Flipboard, the spike might be short-lived, but it is there.

How to get started with Flipboard for your Content Marketing

As stated before, starting on Flipboard is easy.

Create your Flipboard Profile

Head over to your IOS or Android Device, download the app, and set up an account. Of course, you can also just go to Flipboard.com to get started.

The first step in creating a profile is to select at least five topics from the thousands of topics available. The topics you choose in this first step will determine which content you will see on your home screen after completing the signup process. You can change these topics at any time and add more later as well if you want more.

Next up is filling in your name and email address and creating a password to complete the account setup. After that, you will get a confirmation email, and in the meantime, you will be treated with the welcome screen showing content for the topics you choose in the first step.

Create Flipboard magazine(s)

Magazines in Flipboard are where the content marketing magic happens; it is the core of getting Flipboard to work for you.

As the entire platform is based on the concept of curated magazines. Of course, these magazines can be made up entirely of your content or articles in your niche that you think might be of interest to your readers (we suggest the latter).

So after you create your profile, it is time to create a magazine. This can be done either in the mobile app again or from the desktop.

If you head over to your profile, you can see the “New+” button. By clicking on it, you can give your new magazine a title (required) and description (optional). You can also set the magazine to “public” by clicking the switch button, but it makes sense to first keep your magazine private up until you’ve got some content in there.

Make sure to have your magazine title and description to be interesting enough for people to pique their interest and see what it is all about. Include your targeted keywords to have it better discoverable to your target audience, and finally, make sure to have a clear focus for your magazine. If you want to cover more topics, create new magazines, each for its purpose.

After you click create, you can invite colleagues to start contributing to the magazine, but this step is optional.

And although we said that you don’t need a lot of followers to already get the first success from Flipboard, the more readers follow your magazine, the bigger the chances you have of being featured in your niche or having your content “re-flipped” into more prominent and more popular magazines.

When you click “Done,” you can start curating content.

Install the Flipboard bookmarklet or Chrome Extension

The easiest way for you to get content inside your magazine and as the final step before you can start curating content is to install either the bookmarklet or the Chrome Extension (if you’re using Chrome, of course).

Installing the extension or bookmarklet makes adding content to your magazines easier while browsing the web.

Curate content for your Flipboard Magazine(s)

To get the most out of your Flipboard magazine, curate content, gather the best content from your niche, and combine that with your content to drive traffic to your website. This way, your magazine doesn’t come over as spammy and becomes a beneficial document for your followers.

This means that when you’re publishing content on your website and when viewing content around the web (Nuzzel is a great way to find excellent content being shared in your niche), you can quickly add these to your magazine.

You can do this with the previously installed bookmarklet or extension or while using the Flipboard app on your phone or tablet.

Every time you see an interesting piece, click on the extension or the “+” sign in the app, and it will ask you which of your magazines you’d like to add it to.

When you’re just starting, we would recommend flipping between three to seven articles per week (try one per day) and don’t immediately go for ten articles per day. You want to find a consistent rhythm to keep bringing value to your followers and always stay on top of your mind.

And remember, your goal, like with everything in content marketing, is to help your readers. You do this by serving the best articles that are relevant to them.

Since you can collaborate with multiple people on one magazine, the entire department can help out.

Getting followers on Flipboard

When your first pieces are flipped into your magazine, it is time to put your magazine on public and attract followers.

Getting more followers is not needed within Flipboard, but the more people who follow you and your magazines, the higher the chances are for getting your content “re-flipped” (or shared throughout the network).

To find people to follow, use the app on your smartphone or tablet (the feature to find followers of a magazine is not available on the website), find other profiles that are sharing interesting content in your market, and follow the followers of those magazines. They will get a notification, see that you’re sharing interesting content with them as well, and might follow you back.

Another way is to look at the people commenting and engaging in your niche (although this requires a bit more effort). And, of course, be sure to promote your magazine on other social media and to your email list followers, for example.

How to use Flipboard to promote your business

You can use Flipboard to promote your business in many different ways. Let’s have a look at some of them.

Using Flipboard to cover what is happening in your niche

The first one is rather straightforward; content marketing is there to showcase your expertise, and you know what is happening in your industry.

What better way to show this is by having a magazine dedicated just to that purpose? There might be others already doing this, but that should not stop you from starting your magazine with your voice of course.

Using Flipboard as a Press Kit

If your company is being written about often, what better way to showcase this than by combining all the pieces of content in a dedicated magazine? This way, people interested in your company always have the latest news about your business readily available to them in an easily digestible format.

Creating a lasting memory of all the times people write about you also helps to create a company timeline. Don’t you think having a visual memory like that is great?

Or what about not using professional news outlets and what they write about you but also including just any article or blog post that mentions your customers using your product or service? A magazine like that could almost serve as an external customer testimonial page, and it will not just help you show what great products or services you’re making but also put the spotlight on your customers and help them by generating traffic.

Using Flipboard for brainstorming and internal market research

When brainstorming on new topics to produce content around, or when doing market research having an internal (and as a result of a private magazine) might be a great way to combine all the ideas and all the latest news about your competitors, for example.

Using Flipboard for your product catalog or as a photo album

Another way to use Flipboard is almost like you would use Pinterest.

You can create separate magazines holding an overview of all the products that you’re selling so that your salespeople can have a beautiful way to showcase them to potential clients.

Or maybe you’re holding an event and can use Flipboard to create a photo album afterward. The great thing is that Flipboard is not limited to just news stories or articles in general. You can also flip photos.

Having a way to showcase the event you just had or to showcase how life in the office is could bring another twist on using magazines.

Using Flipboard as a newsletter alternative

We would not go as far as replacing your entire newsletter with just a Flipboard magazine, remember the importance of email marketing, but it can serve as an extra way to get the attention of what it is that you’re sending to your subscribers.

A Flipboard magazine is a collection of links that your (potential) customers might find helpful after all.

How to market your content on Flipboard

Now that you’ve got a bit of a feeling of Flipboard and the different things you can do with and for your company on Flipboard, it is time to dive deeper into the specifics of how to market your content on Flipboard.

As you might have guessed, it all starts with your magazines, so let’s have a look at how to make the most out of them and turn Flipboard into a traffic-generating machine.

Curate to your Flipboard magazines on a regular basis

If you want to get the most amount of value from Flipboard, you need to be active on the platform and curate content regularly.

Don’t worry, though; this is not a task that takes hours of your day. Just start to set aside 10 to 15 minutes in your morning routine.

Using Flipboard, Refind, and newsletters that you’re subscribed to get inspired about your niche. Basically, any source of content that you’re already consuming every day can help you.

Instead of just reading it and getting on with your day, using the browser extension or re-flipping content from other magazines, just start adding the pieces you think are relevant to your audience to your magazines.

Flip your content

Of course, adding only the content of others won’t do you any personal good. So start infusing your content into your magazines as well.

Since Flipboard is designed as a news aggregation app, just add this to your to-do list as soon as you hit that publish button on your new piece of content. Newer articles get more traction, after all.

Don’t worry about adding older pieces that you already published before you started using Flipboard. Still, as you can imagine, an article titled “The best content marketing tips for 2016” will not get much traction in 2018 anymore.

The more evergreen a piece of content is, the longer it stays relevant and the longer it can live on the network.

Pro tip: if you want your content to have a better chance of ranking in the featured categories and maybe even appearing on the home feed for your relevant categories, be sure to add a short comment when you flip your content in the app.

Why?

Well, just like any other social network, comments act as a form of engagement. According to Flipboard:

Adding a short comment when you flip. Not only does this add value to your curation, but it also draws attention to your post since comments are emphasized in our layouts on phones.

So when you flip a piece of content in your magazine, be sure to use the space “Add a comment (optional).” Leave a short comment on why you think others would need to read this and be sure to include your targeted keywords in there as well.

When something is flipped into a magazine, everything is scanned by Flipboard to see if it is worthwhile to be featured in any of the categories on the home page.

Although this is an automatic process and you don’t have any control over it, adding the right comments can have a heavenly influence on this.

Make it easy for others to flip your content

The more people flip your content, the better the chances of it going viral on the application. As a result, you should make it as easy as possible for others to flip your content into their magazines.

Adding Flipboard buttons on your website

Start by adding Flipboard share buttons on your site next to the ones you’re already having for Facebook, Twitter, and all the others.

Although there are social media sharing buttons out there for WordPress (like Shareaholic, AddThis, AddToAny, and others) that have native Flipboard sharing options, you can also use the “native” sharing options available in Jetpack.

Go to Jetpack > Settings > Sharing and enable “Add sharing buttons to your posts.”

Next, go to Settings > Sharing from the left menu and choose “Add a new service.”

An overlay will open:

Where you need to fill in the following:

• Service name: Flipboard
• Sharing URL: https://share.flipboard.com/bookmarklet/popout?v=%post_title%&url=%post_full_url%&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=widgets&utm_source=jetpack
• Icon URL: For the icon, you can use this image > https://iconshow.me/media/images/social/flat-style-Metro-UI-Icons/Applications/png/16/MetroUI-Flipboard.png or create something yourself, upload it to your media library and use that URL

The only thing left is to click the “Create Share Button,” which will be available on your website.

Sharing your Flipboard magazine on other places

Of course, your website is not the only property that you control, so share your magazine on your other social networks, add it to your email list, or maybe even embed the magazine on your website.

Looking into your statistics

Just like all the other marketing actions you’re undertaking, it is essential to look at the statistics to see how your magazines are performing.

If you go to your profile page in your browser in the top right corner, you can see the message “Signed in as. There are a couple of options when you click on the V icon next to it. Just click “Analytics” to see the number of articles you flipped by day, viewers by day, and page flips.

Engage with other users.

The last step to help market your content is engaging with other Flipboard users. Try to set some time aside in the morning after flipping new content to engage with other users on the platform as well.

Engagement always works the best on any social network to bring the best relations, which in return will drive genuine traffic back to your profile and, of course, your flipped content, aka your website.

While Flipboard is not like other social networks that require lots of time every day, you will get more results if you follow other magazines, like and comment on other relevant articles, etc.

This also gives you the advantage of seeing what other accounts are flipping, what is working for them, and which articles are getting the most traction for them. Learn from this and apply it to your magazine.

Content should not live in a vacuum. Flipboard is an excellent way to get your content in front of many readers, and isn’t that what we all want when we produce a piece of content?

Here at User Growth, we’ve been using it since we started publishing content, and it still amounts to being one of our biggest traffic drivers to date.

There is no reason not to add Flipboard to your list of social networks and start seeing results immediately. It will help you get your content seen by a highly targeted group of people interested in the topics you’re writing about.

It will drive engaged traffic and hopefully new leads in your direction.

Have you been using Flipboard already in your marketing mix? Which results are you seeing? And if not, what is stopping you from adding it? Leave a comment below and let us know!