In a recent blog post about building your personal brand with Reddit I mentioned the platform, Paper.li. Paper.li is yet another potential brand building tool for authors, speakers and entrepreneurs. And because it has a lot of potential, I decided to follow up on that and get into some details about Paper.li. What is it? How can you make use of it in your brand building efforts? Why is it worth it? I’ll answer these questions below.
What is Paper.li?
Paper.li is a content curating site that’s sort of a nice mix between Pinterest and Medium. You follow topics and people you’re interested in and Paper.li provides related content on your personal site—what they call your newspaper. Your customized content can be shared directly to your other social media platforms. There’s even an option for adding your own content via Google Docs. And all this content you follow is shared on your paper. Paper.li also sends this content to your inbox via a newsletter as a reminder. They offer free and paid versions. The paid version is only nine dollars a month, so I think it’s worth it for all it can do for you.
Why Paper.Li is a Great Brand Building Platform
Paper.li lets you collect and share content like blogs, websites, videos, and images. Basically an endless variety of related topics you (and your audience) are interested in. And though it can be customized and tailored to your preference, this is all done automatically! Just type a topic into the search bar and find the ‘Papers’ that appeal to you the most. It’s everything YOU, all in one place. Paper.li is a great brand building platform because it offers so many valuable tools in one place. It lets you collect and share curated content, customize your page to fit your brand, and automates much of the process unlike other social platforms. There are other benefits to using Paper.li as a brand building platform too.
Paper.li is a Time Saver
Because Paper.li automatically adds favorite topics, papers and people to your daily paper, you don’t have to spend the time searching for good content to share with your audience. It keeps you up to date with what you and your audience are interested in. It’s all right there! You can share your original content, via Google Docs, of course, but if you don’t have the time to create your own (I know it can be a struggle), good content is right there waiting for you. I do, however, highly recommend that you spend some time gleaning through your paper and removing the less relevant content.
Everything YOU, All in One Place
With all that curated content right there it’s kind of like your own website, but with the variety and fresh updates of a social media platform. You can customize the look of your paper with the upgraded version too. It’s easy for your audience to see what you’re all about, your interests, tastes, and style—in other words, your brand—right on one page.
A Platform Not Regulated by an Algorithm
One of the best things about it, in my opinion, is that the content your audience sees and when they see it isn’t regulated by an algorithm. No more worrying about something you’ve shared, or content that reflects your brand being missed because of those fickle programs regulating sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And those social media sites make it harder every day for your audience to see your content. Having everything there, on your paper means there’s no scrolling through feeds filled with random content. And your content won’t just disappear into the ether on Paper.li. It stays there, on your newspaper.
One Click to Share Your Content
Another cool thing about having your own paper, is that it’s easy for you and your audience to share your content directly to other social media platforms. Just click the relevant platform icon, right there on your paper (or someone else’s) and it’s shared. Easy-peasy! Even better, you can schedule and share content manually or automatically through Paper.li, just like you would with social sharing software like Buffer or Hootsuite.
Keep Up with Other Content Creators and Your Topics
Since content related to your topics or niche is gleaned from multiple sources, from blogs to news sites, you won’t have to spend as much time and energy Googling topics. As a result, you don’t have to sift through your other subscriptions, or scroll through social media to find great stuff to share on your social channels or in emails. So it’s not only a time saver, it’s a fantastic resource for all things related to your brand.
Getting Started on Paper.li
Paper.li is super user-friendly. It’s simple to create an account, customize your paper, and start curating content. If you’d like to see a great example of a paper on Paper.li and how the platform is used as a brand building tool, you can check out a favorite of mine, New Shelves News.
First Things First
You start by creating an account. From there you can enter topics in the search bar in the upper left corner, and start searching. You can ‘favorite’ and subscribe to papers and share their content or add that content to your own paper. It’s pretty cool. It’s a smooth process. Everything is streamlined and prompts are easy to follow.
You can create your account Here.
Building Your Brand on Paper.li
Once you create an account, you’ll see a menu at the upper left corner next to the Paper.li logo. This is where you’ll see the option “Create Paper.” You can then select your interests. There’s also an option to choose to select from the topics they suggest, in case you’re wondering where to start. There are so many!
You can even customize the look of your site to better reflect your brand. Remember, your newspaper is all about who you are, your interests, your style—in other words, your brand. So, choose the topics that speak to your brand. Have fun with it! And remember, you can always go back and customize, filter out topics that aren’t serving you, and really get it dialed in as you learn more. If you’re not quite sure what your brand is yet, you can read more about getting started HERE.
Also, because you’ll get your own newsletter reminders (if you choose to) it’s a breeze to keep up with content and update your paper. You also have the option, as I mentioned before, of automating what is shared on your social media channels and even your newsletters. You can decide what works best for you and your brand. That’s the beauty of it.
In conclusion, with so many platforms out there for building your brand, and so much social media competition, it can be hard to keep up with your brand building efforts and stay engaged with your audience. That’s why I recommend using Paper.li. It’s like a one-stop shop for your audience to get a real sense of your brand and what you’re all about. It keeps you up to date on relevant content. Most importantly, it’s a big time saver. And we all know how valuable of a resource our time is!
I’d love to hear about your experience with Paper.li and what you think about the platform. Feel free to comment on the original post to start a conversation, or even share the link to YOUR paper.
