Get a Bump in that Slump — Take Your Flipboard Traffic to the Next Level
Do you recognize yourself?
- You’re a regular Flipboard user, with several magazines.
- You have already pollinated a topic.
- You have a following on Flipboard.
- You have been featured several times in #MagsWeLove.
- You once drove crazy traffic to your website.
- You are neither a publisher nor a creator.
But, after all that effort, you are not getting enough traffic from Flipboard anymore. You noticed a drop in traffic, you are not progressing.
Now What?
It’s not over, there are still many things you can do to keep the momentum going. In this article, I will give you five tips to get a bump in that slump.
1. Partner with Influencers
Flipboard influencers are a great traffic resource. Pick the ones you think might be a match for your business. Court them by reflipping their content and commenting on their articles. If this fails, find their blog and write them a personal note. Introduce yourself, share your Flipboard account and a magazine that you are proud of. It’s best if this magazine features some of their articles. Flattery works (it does with me!).
Be honest and transparent. State your purpose and offer something in return. Influencers are busy, so make it worth their while. If you are not in a position to offer money, work out an arrangement where you both benefit from the partnership.
Your Benefit: Influencers have a lot of visibility on Flipboard, they know the inner workings of the platform. You can team up to build great programs for mutual benefits.
2. Invest in Flipboard Advertising
I am an advocate of paid promotions. They have interest-based advertising that covers 30,000 topics, it’s ideal for brands. They also introduced Promoted Videos, which I am anxious to try with one of my clients. (I’ll keep you posted). Flipboard is not like other ad platforms. You will be assigned a rep who will work closely with you and make recommendations. I strongly recommend that you set your goals for realistic expectations. Traffic from Facebook and Google is different from Flipboard. This type of audience is more prone to reading and learning before purchasing.
Start by investing a small amount to see where it gets you. Then get creative. Try using Flipboard’s different advertising programs. Track your results on Google Analytics and cross-reference with Flipboard’s Reports.
Your Benefit: The live rep makes all the difference. Having a human you can bounce ideas off is a real game changer. I have seen how Flipboard for brands can take your publication to the next level. You might be pleasantly surprised.
3. Topics Are Your Friends
Use Flipboard’s search engine to break down your topics. This is the most underused and useful tool on Flipboard. When you search for a topic, you will see the number of followers it has (see image). Build smart magazines around your searches and curate your content accordingly. For example, you are blogging about “Industry”. Find a way to integrate your articles into the very popular “Food” category. Drill deeper into the topics to find something else that relates to “Food” like “Food Industry”.
Your Benefit: The more you get familiar with Flipboard’s topics, the more you can use them to your advantage to drive traffic to your website and capitalize.
4. Check your updates!
There’s a wealth of information in those “updates”. Once you look at the drop down you will see who’s flipped, liked, shared, and so on. This is valuable information for the next steps.
Now you can:
- Build magazines based on “Likes”.
- Share content based on reflips.
- Look at who is following you to see what they have flipped and what interests them.
Your Benefit: This step helps you understand your audience. The more you know the better you are equipped to provide them with content they want to read. Write articles and share them accordingly.
5. Set Up Your Analytics in G4
We are often focused on Flipboard and traffic from Flipboard. It seems so obvious, but we often forget about the Flipboard reader experience on your website.
Set up your new Google Analytics G4. “Bounce Rate” is now replaced by “Engagement Rates”. Build a report that measures traffic from Flipboard.
If your Engagement rate” is low do the following:
- Check to see if your flipped article loads quickly from Flipboard.
- Your readers most likely read in the “Reader” view and may never come to the website. Encourage visitors to stay by adding links to other relevant articles to your articles.
For example, an article about the best lighting for night photography could include a link to another post about lighting methods. Linking to other articles in your blog will keep visitors reading and diving deeper. I can assure you that this does happen to me. I read an article and found myself going down a wormhole. This is also great for backlinks.
- Flipboard is a mobile app, so make sure your website is responsive or mobile-friendly.
- Always share your best content.
Your Benefit: Traffic from Flipboard comes in many shapes and forms. Besides the traffic you can measure in your Google Analytics, there are also visits coming from Google’s searches, other social media channels, and backlinks. All is great SEO.
6. Be Social
We think nothing of posting on social media. Yet, we never share our magazines. Why not? Social media is prime real estate. This is exactly the space for sharing Flipboard content. Build a storyboard or a magazine with your latest articles and post it on all your social media channels.
1. Share on Microblogging platforms
Join Instagram’s new platform, Threads, and share your magazine links. Also, take advantage of Flipboard’s relationship with both Mastodon and Bluesky. Get accounts on these channels and share your content with this budding community.
2. Use your newsletters wisely:
- 1. Share on Microblogging platforms: Join Instagram’s new platform, Threads, and share your magazine links. Also, take advantage of Flipboard’s relationship with both Mastodon and Bluesky. Get accounts on these channels and share your content with this budding community.
- 2. Use your newsletters wisely: Feature your magazines in a weekly newsletter. Build stories around your publications, to encourage your readers to look forward to your emails.
For example, try sequencing your magazines. If you are a travel blogger, take your readers on an adventure by sharing your latest trip to Colombia. Make it a travelog. The first newsletter will feature a Colombian food magazine, the second the sights, the third could feature the people, and so on. Build an interesting story around your magazines.
Your Benefit: By sharing your magazines outside of Flipboard, you broaden your audience. You are exposing not only your content to new visitors but your magazines as well. The more people follow you, the more people will visit your website.
Final notes:
It’s also a good idea to take a look at your profile and take inventory:
1. Update your Descriptions with new “Keywords”.
2. Refresh your bio picture.
3. Join communities.
4. Reflip content from your blog.
5. Add the Flipboard widgets to your websites, newsletter, and all your online publications.
Best of luck and happy flipping!
Come and chat with me on Mastodon!
- Please follow my Flipboard profile.
- Join our Facebook user community for #Fliptips and tricks.
- To learn how to use Flipboard, follow my 40-second Flipboard tutorials on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZGlQ5isiIkY3TXK4KWCStNUX_98A7asj
