Flipping for Flipboard: Making Magazines

When Flipboard first came out a few years ago, I thought it was a beautiful way to peruse my Twitter and Facebook streams. Because it visualized the links, I felt as if I was actually seeing more of what my friends were sharing, though it was really just that it was a much more attractive view. I used it on my brand-new iPad, which I'd won in a raffle, of all things.

I bring my laptop with me everywhere, though, and I didn't really use the iPad for much. It became a repository of games for my boys, and eventually this iPad became the property of my younger son, when we got my older son an iPad 2 (with airline miles). I got used to not using the iPad, and just using my laptop for everything I did. Flipboard was a mobile app, and while it was nice on my iPhone, it wasn't quite as useful there and I fell out of using it.

My friend Aida was a Flipboard addict, however, and it was her first stop every day, to see what was happening in the world. My favorite Flipboard moment came when she screenshot a cover that was of my dog, wondering where the snow had gone. It made me think of a newsweekly, and the most important story in the world that day was my Siberian Husky, wondering where her snow was.

Then Flipboard launched its magazine-creation feature last year. Aida started out making some lovely magazines on things that interested or amused her - Mason Jar Living and Winter Cocktails, for example. At first, I saw it more as an alternative to Pinterest. Then Aida started the #FlipboardClub Facebook group, and before we knew it, we were joined by the folks from Flipboard itself, who were charming and loved the feedback they were getting on the magazines feature.

Even so, I was slow to pick up the mag-maker mantle. I wanted to, but the time it took for me to search for good content for the magazines I wanted to create seemed overwhelming. I'm mostly on a desktop or laptop computer, where I can flip things into magazines nicely with a bookmarklet, but I have to find them first. On mobile, the bookmarklet took a few extra steps and searching was even more difficult. I mostly kept up my Women Who Tech and WomenLead mags, as those were subjects I curated content for already on other social platforms.

I occasionally popped in on the Friday #FlipboardChat, and always found interesting new ways people were using the platform. I read and I listened more than I talked. Things were forming in my mind. Once I discovered the search functionality on Flipboard, I flipped, so to speak.

I was now able to search any topic on multiple platforms - Facebook, Twitter, G+, 500px, Instagram and others. I could curate Twitter lists that I'd then bring into my Flipboard to bring whole new streams of content. I could look at Flipboard's curated sections and see all the content the platform was pulling in from yet other sources.

I started my mag on Punk (classic 70s/80s variety, for the most part), on Generation X (demographic, not the band, which ends up in both this mag and the Punk mag), my mag curating my favorite shares on the #365FeministSelfie hashtag, even one for my friends for our Fistbump Friday hashtag, #fbumpf - I also created one for my friends at The Tutu Project, to round up their good news and amazing photos.

The #FlipboardClub challenges started coming, too - a Valentine-themed magazine, which I used to focus on the loves of Jack Bauer, in anticipation of the upcoming season of 24, which I'll be live-blogging again with my buddies from Blogs4Bauer. Then last week the focus was on the Sochi Olympics. A few minutes before the challenge came down, I had been reading about how this would be the first year women were in the Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined (which includes the

ski jump) competitions - the last competitions of any kind in Summer or Winter Olympics that excluded women. That was, of course, the perfect fit for me.

I'm curating my interests, for the most part, but I've loved seeing how some folks are using them for work or causes - Scott Kleinberg of the Chicago Tribune has some terrific magazines devoted to Chicago, such as "Instagram Loves Chicago." And Beki Winchel, who's curating a terrific magazine, "CSI: Forensic Science News," for a client. And Janette Speyer, who is curating a touching magazine for the nonprofit "Save Poor Children in Asia."

It evokes the feeling of a magazine, and you can sit there on your iPad leisurely skimming through until an article catches your eye that draws you in more. While visuals are vital on Flipboard, the setup allows you to include all sorts of content that isn't visual, as it will be interspersed with lovely photos and videos. You can set the cover to whatever you want, so you don't have to worry that a photo-less article will grab the cover from you.

Flipboard is considering many updates suggested by Flipboard Club members, and those they hear from the overall community. I've spent a lot of time on a lot of social media platforms, and I've been extremely impressed by the openness of the folks at Flipboard to suggestions and input from their users.

If someone were to ask me what my pick for the Next Big Thing would be, I'd have to say Flipboard. This is becoming the killer app for a social media world in desperate need of skilled curation.