Our Lifestyle Magazine Celebrates 100,000 Social Media Followers (who are not followers)

100,000

We track our statistics to know how we are doing. Sometime between early January and today, when we have 100,117 social media friends, the Skimbaco team hit the magical 100,000 follower mark. Our new e-magazine also hit the 100,000 impression mark – on the fifth day! Our monthly page views are very close to 100,000 mark each month as well. THANK YOU for believing in us! I created the fun “Skimbaco numbers” infographic to share some of our other “numbers”. In a world where social media followers can be bought with a few clicks, the number 100,000 is not grand. To us it’s huge. We know every single follower, fan or friend, is a person who has clicked the “like” or “follow” button because they have wanted to, and while our growth is slow, it’s real. It’s tough to be in the online media business, when you are often judged more for your “numbers”, than for your content or who you are. The race for bigger numbers makes me sometimes feel that why I have to try to gain new friends, I like the ones I have now. At the same time, it feels very humbling that we have touched so many people to take that tiny little “click” or “tap” action to connect with us. We have evoked action, that’s amazing.

Don’t be a follower – be a doer!

Truth to be told, I don’t want to collect followers. I want to be part of a community of dreamers and doers, part of a community of great people who share our enthusiasm for finding the silver lining, and who want to enjoy each sunrise and sunset as they come. I want to know that there are other people out there too, who have found their own “skimbaco” and are living it right now. I don’t want you just to “follow” what our team is doing, I want YOU to take action and DO. I don’t feel we have succeed in communicating our message right if we have cultivated a group of “followers” – I feel I am successful when I am among people who are often doing something completely different than I am, but they are living life to the fullest and being adventurous on their own terms. That inspires me. YOU are more than a statistic to me, you are more than a number. And getting to know YOU has been the best about Skimbaco the past 7 years, and YOU have inspired me.

Thank you for inspiration & living Skimbaco

I know the Skimbaco-reader isn’t a follower. I know you are a trendsetter, leader in your own community and an example and a role model for many people around you. Many of you hold high positions in some of the large companies I admire, many of you travel more often and in more luxurious places I ever can. Many of you work with media companies larger than we are, and many of you are far more adventurous and daring than I ever can. You are in many ways… better than me. And the same way I look at my husband and think “wow, this man loves me” – I look at your adventures on Instagram and read your tweets and blog posts and I think “wow, this person connects with Skimbaco.”

I hear and see you

I love how Nicholas saw this picture of enjoying outdoors no matter what the weather, and it inspired him to host a BBQ party in the middle of winter, and invite friends over for hot dogs! Or how Deanna has been going to a same vacation spot every year for over 10 years, but she wrote me that thanks for our inspiration, she looked at the old place through new eyes, and the old vacation spot turned almost like a brand new and she had the best vacation in years! And I love that people contact me and ask my personal travel recommendations – Carita, I know I owe you an email of the best things to do in NYC with the kids! Or did you see the photo France Malvar & Ami Guibone of the Blessings by Fad posted on Instagram of our digital magazine? It completely made my day that they wanted to share our magazine with their friends. I got teary-eyed when Veera wrote about her Skimbaco-moments (in Finnish). And did you read the guest post by Linda? She wanted so share the great experience from Sochi, yes, from the Olympic Winter Games. But one of my ALL time favorites is the FIRST ever “skimbaco” written on the beach by OakleyOC. And have you SEEN the 3592 photos tagged with #skimbaco hashtag on Instagram? Incredible. I know… you are not a follower. You are a leader, a dreamer and a doer, a SKIMBACOER, and you are 100,000 strong. We will feature Skimbacoers on each magazine, and I hope you will not just connect with us, but with each others. I hope you read the interviews with Paul T Tran from California on page 35. And the interview with and Angel Constance Eeg from Norway on the page 92. We will pick the featured Skimbacoers from our Instagram-friends for each magazine.

Share Skimbaco

I hope you will share our online magazine, and our Instagram-accounts and Facebook-pages with your friends too, and not just because we want more people to like us. We want to know more about you, who your friends are and what you do. We want to evoke more action of living life to the fullest. Don’t just follow us, join us. INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | FACEBOOK | GOOGLE+ | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | BLOGLOVIN | ISSUU | STUMBLEUPON