How and Why to Interact with Your Flipboard Federated Account

Composition by Janette Speyer

There has been a lot of buzz in the past year since Flipboard joined the Fediverse. Many changes have taken place reflecting the way we share and read our magazines.

The transition has confused many users and left us all asking how this benefits us.

Confusion aside, that WILL get resolved in time. I encourage all Flipboard users to get a Mastodon account and start the process.

Why?

The Fediverse is new. Starting on the ground floor puts you at an advantage once it takes off. You will get benefits from extra exposure. Flipboard and Meta are jumping in on the game and it’s worth getting your feet wet and exploring. This alternative social media ecosystem prioritizes decentralization, user control, and privacy. It is appealing to users seeking a more ethical and customizable social networking experience.

What Is the Fediverse?

According to Flipboard: “The Fediverse, short for the federated universe, is a network of open-source social networks, like Threads, Mastodon and Pixelfed, that are interconnected yet independent.

When you’re part of the fediverse, it doesn’t matter which platform you share to; the posts get distributed to the whole ecosystem. However, since the Fediverse is decentralized, there isn’t one company that owns your data, sets the rules, or keeps your followers within a walled garden.”

First Things First: Many Flipboard users are being “Federated” meaning their magazines are seen on both Flipboard and on Mastodon. This translates into additional exposure as the platform grows.

Where Do I Begin?

If you are not federated yet, set up an account on flipboard.social.com and start playing around to get a feel for it.

Here are the instructions to get you started:

Here is a one-minute tutorial on how to link your Mastodon account to the Flipboard.social.com instance. This video is for iOS.

1. Register for a Mastodon account. Open Flipboard & tap on the “four squares” at the bottom
2. Select “Accounts” from the navigation
3. Select “Mastodon” and follow the prompts to log in
4. Login to your “Flipboard.social ” Mastodon instance and authorize
5. Your Mastodon profile is now on Flipboard
6. Click on your Mastodon account to bring up the navigation
7. Select “Federated” to find content on the Fediverse
8. Select “Local” to find content on Flipboard
9. “Bookmark”, “Follow” or explore options straight from the Flipboard platform

If you are “Federated”

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to find your magazines on the Fediverse. Locate your magazines on Mastodon and curate them to get followers and to be seen.

How to find your federated magazines on the Fediverse

1. Open any one of your Mastodon accounts and select the search tool
2. Type in your user name in the search box
3. Find your Flipboard account
4. This is your Flipboard federated account. Note your URL
5. Click on “People Matching” your Mastodon federated profile
6. Here’s a list of Federated magazines follow them to populate content on Mastodon
7. Select your Federated magazine and click
8. Here’s what your Federated magazine account looks like on Mastodon
9. Note your magazine Fediverse URL so you can share it on Mastodon
10. Scroll to see your posts on Mastodon. You will also see your contributor posts
11. To locate your Fediverse followers, click on your follower count

Final Thoughts

I am very excited about the Fediverse and the Flipboard interaction. I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of magazines on Mastodon (around 400). This means that each magazine has an account and each account so far has 0–1 followers. It feels a bit like I saturate the feed every time I flip.

I understand Flipboard’s idea of giving my readers a choice of magazines to follow but I am still wondering if there could be a better method. I am sure this will sort itself out in the end.

Here are some tips from my initial findings:

Mastodon is like “X” so use hashtags so you can be found on Mastodon.

Put captions in your flips so you can start a conversation and build a community.

Follow your magazines so your content populates the Mastodon magazine feed.

Happy Flipping!

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