Recently C2 embarked on a very lofty goal of implementing more social media outlets into our marketing and community outreach. This includes Facebook, Twitter, our blog and other outlets. In talking with others in the “socialsphere” I’ve found that many seem overwhelmed by Twitter or Facebook and I was left scratching my head until I finally asked someone – why?
Come to find out many people simply mismanage their accounts. Which made me think, social media is what you make of it.
Meaning if you choose to use Facebook for business rather than personal use, keep that in mind when you post or subscribe to things. I do admit that I have old classmates and friends on Facebook, but I try and keep the newsfeed traffic streamlined by blocking quizzes and watch out for junk. I do the same with Twitter – after a trip out to Adobe HQ, I ended up following over 40 additional people in my feed. However, after a few days many of them were unfollowed because of an abuse of useless posts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the Twitter Czar, but I do like to be able to keep up with my feeds daily and not spend hours sifting through updates.
I also found that if you manage your time on these outlets to important posts or for contacting others, you can really expand your effectiveness and networking capabilities.
You can also increase your online credibility – I post only when I want to, not because I feel that I have to fulfill some unseen need to entertain. I have something to say that I feel is important so I share. Granted, there are businesses out there that have people that do nothing but monitor Tweets and postings, but I am one person and its up to me to control how I use my time. If I feel that Tweeting and posting on Facebook is time well spent (and my employer agrees – ha) then that’s my prerogative.
If you take control of your social media you can make the best of it. If you choose to let it run wild, then you have no one to answer to but yourself. Choose how you will use these great networking social media outlets and then stick with it.
If you still need help with how to manage these outlets, check out this great article from MacWorld.
Ok I’m not one to geek out, but Fritz brought this to my attention a while ago and I just saw a live demo of this and it blew my freakin mind…
Check out a demonstration by the folks at 
Find out more 
You probably already know that when you find the file you are interested in, in Adobe Bridge, you can double click on that file and it opens in the program that made it. And that’s great. But what if you want to place a PSD file into InDesign or Flash (or After Effects or Illustrator)? The fast, convenient way is to do the following: select the item or items you want to place into another Adobe program, go to the File menu, go Down to “Place” and choose the program you want the files to goto. Voila!
The wait is almost over. Ever since Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen’s announcement last September of an online version of Photoshop, the web has been a buzz about what this will look like, what will it feature, etc. Adobe since this announcement has already launched an online version of Adobe Premiere, called Premiere Express. (You can try it out here on 
You will be able to use familiar items, such as the healing tools, crop, and liquify commands. This also has a limited history so there are undos! The one downside is that it has a lot of “auto” corrections instead of the familiar menu options. The way this will work is you choose what you want to change in your photo, such as saturation, then the application gives you a drop down with several options of varying degrees to click on. Convenient but limiting.
So not only is today the birthday of James Fritz, one of our Rockstar instructors, but it also marks the 25th anniversary of Adobe Systems, Inc. 25 years ago, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke left Xerox to pursue a new computer system that would incorporate graphics and text into printable pages called Interpress. Interpress and another program called JaM would evolve into the Adobe Postscript language we have all used in our graphics applications today. This was the launching point for the desktop revolution.
Stephanie Shimerdla creates some of the best quality work I’ve seen in a while for brushes. You may recognize her “swirls” series as something right out of the Adobe.com website. She also has a link called “tip the brush maker” where you can donate $10 and she will create your own custom brush set!
