The flip-a-holic’s ultimate guide to subscribing, curating and sharing using Flipboard

I confess!  I’m a Flipboard flip-a-holic!

I wasn’t always this way.  I originally hated Flipboard and found the magazine style layout cluttered.

Life has changed and Flipboard is now the most used app on my tablet.

And since I wrote my post on Google Reader replacements, I’ve had a lot of people ask me what benefits I gain using Flipboard that they missed!

So I’ve put together this information to help you get started using Flipboard or get more out of using Flipboard.

What is Flipboard?

Flipboard was originally designed as a social network aggregation, magazine-format app for iPad in 2010.  It is now the most popular of the magazine-like content aggrregator apps for iOS, Android, Kindle and Nook.

Flipboard’s strength is you are able to bring your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn into one location alongside your favorite news sources and anything else you like to read, or watch (like YouTube) – all while making it easily to share your favorite content with your social networks and enabling you to easily curate your favorite content into Flipboard magazine(s). Phew!

It’s no wonder I’m a Flipboard flip-a-holic when I can do everything I want, easily, with one click using the one app!

Watch this video to see FlipBoard in action.

Below is an example of some of my subscriptions inside Flipboard.

Each tile on the Flipboard dashboard represents a different subscription.  The thumbnail image on the tile changes as content is updated.

Tapping on a tile opens up the subscription where you can view the subscription content in a magazine layout.

Below is an example from my Google Reader education folder that contains all my favorite educational bloggers:

Tapping on the title of an article displays the full article.  You can use the social bar to share with your social networks.

Getting Started

To get started you just need:

1.  Download and install the app on your primary mobile device.

• Download from Apple store
• Download from Google Play

2.  Launch the app, choose any content to get started and then tap on ‘Build Your Flipboard’.

3.  Now sign up for a Flipboard account by tapping on the red ribbon in the upper right corner to open the Content Guide.

A Flipboard account is important because it means you can access your Flipboard on any shared device.  For example, I access Flipboard on my iPhone, iPad and Android tablet.   Once I sign into my Flipboard account on another device, it loads all my subscriptions and saved settings.

4.  Then “My Flipboard’ and select ‘Create’.

Connecting your social networks

Flipboard allows you to add your favorite social networks so you can:

• Easily read all the content shared with you on your social networks from directly inside Flipboard.
• Easily comment, share, like, favorite articles and content with your social networks from within Flipboard. 

All you need to do is:

1.  Tap on the red ribbon in the upper right corner to open the Content Guide.

2.  Go to Accounts.

3.  Tap a social network you want to add and login.

This adds the social network as a tile to your Flipboard dashboard where you can read content shared on that social network and connects the social network to your Flipboard account so you can easily share using the social bar at the bottom of a page.

It’s as simple as tap on the ‘Share’ icon:

Now tap on the social network you share with!

You can also choose which content you subscribe to from your social feeds!

This is as simple as tapping on an social network in the Accounts tab in the content guide or when you are reading any social account by tapping on the “masthead” at the top of the page for the specific section.

For example,  if I tap on “Twitter” at the top of the page in my Twitter section it lists the different ways I can view my feeds.

Tapping on “Your Timeline links” loads only links shared by people I follow.

Now you just tap on “Subscribe’ if you want to add this section to your Flipboard dashboard.

You can easily remove any sections you don’t want to subscribe to as follows:

1.  Tap on the red ribbon in the upper right corner to open the Content Guide.

2.  Go to My Flipboard.

3.  Tap on ‘Edit next to ‘My Subscriptions”.

4.  Tap on the cross on the top left hand side of a subscription you want to remove.

5.  Tap on ‘Done’ when finished.

I subscribe to the following social feeds:

1. Education folder in Google Reader – RSS feed from all my favorite Edubloggers. 
2. Google+
3. Instagram

Adding More Content

You can easily subscribe to more content by either:

1. Tap the red ribbon to open the Content Guide and explore the categories of selected content to find new content you want to subscribe to.
2. Use the Search box at the top to search for specific content.

Using the Search box is as easy as:

1.  Add your search term.

2.  A list of options that include your search term will appear.

Tap on the Show More Results to see more search results.  

3.  Just tap on the subscription you want to check out then tap on “Subscribe’ if you want to add the section to your Flipboard dashboard.

For example, if I want to add Twitter search for #edchat hashtag, I just need to search for #edchat then subscribe to the Tweets mentioning #edchat.

I use this method to subscribe to the following content:

• Local newspapers (search using the name of the newspaper)
• Technology blogs (search using the blog URL or blog title)
• Tweets mentioning posts published on Edublogs and Global 2 (search using edublogs.org or global.vic.edu,au) – finds all tweets that shares a link to a post published on any blog on Edublogs.org
• Twitter hashtags (search using the hashtag)

Check out this video to learn more on searching in Flipboard.

Or this video on discovering content using the Content Guide.

Curating your own Flipboard Magazine

Flipboard is now a powerful tool for curating your own curating your favorite content into Flipboard magazine(s).

The Flipboard magazine feature is a powerful tool for educators:

1. A Flipboard magazine lets you quickly curate and share articles you like directly to your own magazine from within Flipboard (or using the Flip It bookmarklet in your web browser) while also sharing the articles with  your social networks at the same time!
2. Other Flipboard users can subscribe to your Flipboard magazine(s) allowing them to easily read the articles you like to share.
3. Flipboard magazines can be enjoyed on the web so that any one who clicks on a link can read your magazine using their web browser regardless of whether or not they use Flipboard.  You can check out my Flipboard magazine here.

Here’s how easy it is for me to save an article to my Flipboard magazine and social networks at the same time!

Here’s just some of the ways educators can use Flipboard magazines:

1. Sharing articles you like with other educators.  You can check out my Education, Technology and Blogging Tips magazine here.
2. Get students to create their own Flipboard magazines for areas that they are interested in or on specific topics.
3. Get students to work in groups to co-curate Flipboard magazines together.  Watch this video to see how you can co-curate Flipboard magazines.

Watch this video to learn how to create a magazine using Flipboard.

And check out this video on how to use the new Flipboard Editor.

Here’s a video on how to create a Flipboard magazine for your class.

Check out EdReach’s Flipboard and your iPad 1:1 to watch a workshop on Flipboard for educators hosted by Mia Quiglarella and Sue Waters.

What do you think?

Have we missed any important tips on using Flipboard?  We would also love to hear how you use Flipboard!

Let us know in the comments below and we will be sure to add it to the post!