According to data from Parse.ly, which looks at external referrers to publisher websites, traffic from Flipboard has more than doubled since the start of 2017. We caught up with Parse.ly’s VP of Marketing, Clare Carr, at Content Marketing World last month to demystify the data and further understand the flow of referral traffic. (Every couple of months the Parse.ly team takes a look across its publisher network to identify trends.) Here are three insights from their recent study: 1) 90% of readers of lifestyle content come from Facebook, whereas 60% of the readers of technology content come from Google. What does this mean for publishers and content creators, according to Carr? “We see platforms being unique to the audiences they’re bringing in. That’s why it’s important to understand your audience.” 2) On mobile, Flipboard is among the top 5 sources of readership to publisher stories. Carr’s advice to publishers: “You have to think about how your audience uses different devices, what type of stories they will read on them, what time of day it is, and what mode your readers will be in. Facebook and Google make up a big percentage of the online audience, but when you look at different breakdowns, such as desktop vs. mobile, you see other sites light up. Flipboard is one of them.” 3) Facebook surpassed Google as the biggest referral site to publishers a year and a half ago, but during the solar eclipse, Hurricane Harvey and the Charlottesville riots, Google spiked passed Facebook. This insight tells Carr that content creators should use search data to inform themselves of what stories perform well and what content to create. It’s hard to compete with big news organizations when it comes to breaking news, but long-tail stories have staying power, as do stories on niche topics. You can watch the full interview our head of curation, Mia Quagliarello, had with Clare Carr at Content Marketing World: https://youtu.be/58Se_vjM2lM ~Christel van der Boom is reading Media Matters