New Facebook Group about QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress’ Facebook Group was founded 3 months ago today.
Here’s some history about it:
A bit over three months ago, customers asked Quark why we don’t create a Facebook Group for QuarkXPress.
Quark already had a Facebook Page for QuarkXPress, so I first was hesitant. The Facebook Page is handled by Quark’s Social Media team and “pushes” out news and information about and around QuarkXPress. Sure, Facebook pages also allow a back channel, via comments or a “post to page” at the side, however both is not very prominent. A Facebook Page still feels dominated by the creator of the page, it feels like a push channel. So I was hesitant to create “just another page”.
When I looked at Facebook Groups, it felt like this could be different. A bit more like forums, more user interaction, as everybody can post on the main page.
So exactly three months ago, on July 21, 2015, I created the QuarkXPress Group on Facebook, a bit of an experiment and to see whether that is valuable for QuarkXPress users and fans.
And it was. Almost 700 members after one month, currently at 870 members and every day another fan or user asks to join. So this Group will stay and has become an important communication method between the QuarkXPress team at Quark and QuarkXPress users. And it also helps QuarkXPress users and fans to communicate with each other.
There are many posts by the members of the group, sharing memories of QuarkXPress 3, asking questions on how to do something in QuarkXPress 10 or QuarkXPress 2015, seeking help or participating in small polls. For example an ongoing Facebook Group poll asked about the best version of QuarkXPress so far, and 66% think that it’s QuarkXPress 2015 (see here). And it feels a bit like a QuarkXPress User Group. Another poll asks which feature is more important and thus directly influencing development at Quark.
And it even spans into the real world, when I presented at a tradeshow in Birmingham last week, five members of the QuarkXPress Facebook Group came to the show to talk to me in person.
So if you are a QuarkXPress user, fan or just want to see what’s going on,
why don’t you join the group?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/quarkxpress/
Both an engineer and a layout artist, Matthias bridges the gap between technology and people.
Before joining Quark, Matthias pioneered print, Web, and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies. Since 1997 he has played a central role in shaping Quark’s desktop and enterprise software.
Starting 2003 Matthias has focused on Quark’s interactive and digital publishing solutions. He is an active participant in design and publishing communities and represents Quark in the Ghent PDF Workgroup.
Since February 2014 Matthias heads Quark’s Desktop Publishing business unit and is therefore responsible for QuarkXPress.