Overview
In the age of “fake news,” and seemingly endless internet content, aggregators and RSS platforms become a great way to consume the news we trust. There are many available content-feeds, but one of the longstanding companies to streamline content is Flipboard. Flipboard acts as a digital magazine, with content arranged by source or topic. It can act as an RSS feed for websites a user may follow, or users may choose to follow indexed topics and keywords, or create their own “magazines,” from filtered or selected content.
Flipboard has a large user-base, with 145 million users and 11,000 publishers as of August 2018. Promoting itself as a more “selective” source for news and content suggests an alternative for users who may be frustrated by getting content from social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.
Publisher Experience
For publishers, Flipboard makes publishing content easy and free. In fact, every aspect of Flipboard is free to use, and there is no premium paid version. However, because it is a free program advertisements are built into each publisher’s platform directly, and organizations may wish to inquire as to what adds will be places along their flipboard.
Publishers can publish their content directly through Flipboard, and they ensure that content will transfer to their platform correctly. Under their platform, publishers may make multiple “magazines” under their singular website, allowing them to potentially separate disparate topics. This is an excellent feature for platforms who might have multiple types of content. While all of the publishing end of the Flipboard platform is “self-service,” it is easy to use and upkeep.
Usability
The Metropolitan Museum’s Flipboard showcases Flipboard as a tool to merge one institution’s content into a singular stream, or the ability to divide articles into “magazines,” that cover specified topics. This is an excellent example of the utilization of Flipboard’s features as they can divide their editorial content from their institutional news, while also having a layout that provides an ease of access to both types of content.
Pros:
· Aesthetically pleasing content lay-out
· Indexed topics promote web-traffic
· Publishers may separate their content into multiple “magazines,”
· Indexed content can be pulled into Flipboard’s own curated magazines.
· Authentic typography and featured images in every article
Cons:
· Very little UI customization
· Less popular sources in Flipboard may open in web view, rather than a unified reading experience.
Competitors:
Currently, Feedly is the clear competitor for users looking to simplify their RSS feeds and web content into a singular stream. Feedly and Flipboard provide essentially the same service, although Flipboard may require more upkeep from the publisher to organize their content properly in their interface. They both are easy to set up and use and easily mesh with one another. Just by adding a Feedly and Flipboard “button” into content, readers may integrate your content into their daily feeds.
Conclusion:
While there are some drawbacks to Flipboard’s UI, its ease of use and price point make it a great tool to consider for promoting, publishing, and viewing RSS content. With a huge audience that they claim is “one-third Millennial, one-third Gen-X, and one-third Boomer,” Flipboard can be a simple way to further promote web traffic and get your platform’s content seen efficiently.