Dear Photoshop Facebook Fans,

When the Photoshop team began our adventure into social media, I had no idea it would be so much fun. I didn’t expect that navigating these uncharted waters would become my permanent second (night) job and one of the most exciting parts of what I do every day. On July 16, 2009, my team and I took over the Facebook Fan pages for Photoshop and Lightroom. Photoshop had 249,818 Fans and Lightroom had 7,028 Fans. Both pages were created by a former colleague, but there was little direction and no interaction with the members of the product teams.

We quickly realized the power of our Fans’ passion and creativity. Every day you were sharing images, posting comments, making suggestions and asking questions. As product managers, our jobs are to identify ways to make our products better and more useful to our customers. What better place to listen, respond and engage with our customers than our Facebook Page?

We started by asking what you wanted from the Page. We shared tips/tricks, tutorials, presets and anything we thought you would find interesting. You let us know what you liked and what you didn’t.

The Photoshop team used this as an opportunity to try new things. We focused on learning and experimenting without the fear of failure. We shared what inspired us in hopes that it too would inspire you. We shared some sneak peeks of future technologies, invited you to vote on our next Photoshop Evangelist and asked a lot of questions like “What does Photoshop mean to you?”

You responded quickly and immediately and the Photoshop team began turning to Facebook to read your reactions and gain insight from your comments.

A year and a half ago, we didn’t even have goals in mind. We wanted to spend time getting to know you and letting you get to know us. I’m proud to say that the Photoshop team’s objective on Facebook has always been to provide you value and make your experience with Photoshop better. It’s the same way we build our products at Adobe – our customer is our highest priority.

As we celebrate this milestone (1 million Facebook Fans for Photoshop), we thank you for your passion, creativity and participation, and we promise to continue our commitment to making your creative visions a reality. We hope you’ll join us throughout the week for some fun and giveaways as we celebrate YOU. Today, leave a comment below answering the question, “If we could make one improvement to Photoshop specifically for YOU, what would it be?” We’ll pick 5 random people from the comments to receive a free copy of both Photoshop and Lightroom as a thank you for your dedication.

Best,

Maria Yap
Director of Product Management, Digital Imaging