#ProfilesWeLove: How to Present Yourself on Flipboard
Jenn de la Vega / June 18, 2015
You’ve got the basics down. An awesome profile avatar, concise description and magazines with stunning covers. What could you possibly improve? Back in February, we showed you Christel’s profile, which contained thematic magazine covers to honor Black History Month. There are more ways you can take your profile a step further.
Branding isn’t just for companies, but it can be a great way to market yourself. You don’t have to be selling something to have a respectable point of view. Good personal branding online can give you legitimacy and can be a flag to people who also care about the little details.
Try this exercise. Can someone discern something about you from first glance at your profile or even one of your magazines? Think critically about the appearance of your profile, what it will mean to visitors and the kinds of people you want to attract. Really think about the totality of what you present.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of complete Flipboard profile presentations.
Tyler McElhaney used a naming convention for all of his magazine titles (or should we say “tytles”). Each mag begins with TY to signify ownership or his own brand of curation. If one were to encounter any of these magazines alone, you might think, “I know what design is, but do I know ‘TYDESIGN’? What is that?” You’d visit his profile to find out, wouldn’t you? His username is also @tynology, which is a pun for technology or could be interpreted as the study of all things Tyler!
Joi Rogers founded a company called Re:Innovating LLC. The prefix re- means “again” and it is used in the titles of all of Joi’s magazines. Seeing it again and again reinforces her brand and each magazine takes on new meaning. Joi’s use of looping GIF magazine covers is mesmerizing and fits in with the theme of repetition.
Victor Moruzzi is a hospitality consultant and his motto is “We serve happiness.” Not only is he smiling in his profile photo, all of his magazines are different kinds of happiness; presumably ones you can have if you follow them!
Have you spotted an awesome profile? Share it with us by tweeting the link to @FlipboardMag.
~jdlv is admiring Byron’s profile colors
