Increasing School Yearbook Engagement with Social Media

Social media has undoubtedly changed our lives. Thanks to social media, we are able to connect with friends and family around the world easily. For most of us, social media is a part of our daily routine. 95% of teenagers have a smartphone, according to Pew Research Center. Close to 50% admit to being online almost constantly.

If you’re creating, publishing, promoting and marketing your yearbook, using social media can really elevate your efforts. Understanding how to make social media work can also boost your yearbook sales.  

Increasing School Yearbook Engagement with Social Media

Social media engagement is a measurement of how people interact with your post, including likes, comments and shares. Engagement helps spread the word!

It’s clear that social media isn’t going anywhere any time soon, therefore, your yearbook sales strategy should also factor in social media as part of your overall approach. And it’s not just all about the followers (don’t get us wrong, more followers are great!). Engagement is what really makes social media tick. Here are a few ways of increasing school yearbook engagement with social media. 

Develop a Community

Your community on social media is an integral part of building engagement. The first step is to determine which social media platforms you are going to create profiles on. To maximize your yearbook exposure, we recommend profiles on: 

  • Facebook 
  • Instagram 
  • Twitter
  • Snapchat

Once you’ve set up your social media accounts, encourage your yearbook team members to like and follow the pages. Make sure your team is engaging with the posts on your page. Likes, comments and shares all help to increase exposure. 

Visuals

We are visual creatures. And visuals are a great way to boost engagement across your social media platforms. In fact, it’s estimated that Tweets with an image are retweeted 150% more than tweets without an image. Similarly, posts on Facebook with an image drive 2.3 times more engagement than posts without an image. 

Stuck on ideas for visuals? Why not try sneak peaks of images from your yearbook. Behind-the-scenes shots can be a fun way of engaging your audience. Plus, it’s a great way to share more of what’s involved in creating your yearbook. 

Set Your Goals

It’s important that you have goals to work towards with your social media accounts. Develop the strategy with your yearbook team. Consider how you are planning on leveraging your social media. Are you: 

  • Using social media as your primary marketing strategy? 
  • Aiming to increase yearbook sales? 
  • Looking to grow student participation? 
These are just a few goals you may decide to work towards.

Promote Engagement

Increasing engagement on your social media profiles will be an important part of your online yearbook strategy. There are a few things you can do to promote engagement.

  • Engage with other pages – These could be schools or student body organizations at your own school. Respond to posts on the page. Remember, genuine responses are best. Avoid making every post a sales pitch. 
  • Publish posts that encourage responses – Looking for information from the student body? Post a question! Social media posts are also a great way to crowdsource your school for yearbook coverage ideas.
  • Run competitions – Competitions are a great way to build excitement on social media. Get creative!
You may also want to consider creating a unique hashtag for your yearbook.

Drive Sales

Social media is a great way of driving yearbook sales and to keep your audience informed of important information, such as photo shoot dates, pre-ordering deadlines, etc. 

Need Help? Contact YearbookLife Today!

Looking for more help marketing your yearbook? YearbookLife’s Marketing Assistance Program is a free email marketing service designed to help you market (and sell!) your yearbook. Interested in learning more? Contact us today by clicking here.

Tips on How to Proofread Your School Yearbook

Getting your yearbook ready to print is an exciting milestone. After the many hours spent deciding upon your yearbook theme, creating the content and designing the layout, it’s almost ready to print! 

One your yearbook team has decided your yearbook is print-ready, one final step remains. And it’s an important one! Before you submit your yearbook to print, you need to do a thorough proofreading. 

The day has arrived! Your new yearbook is here! You open up the glossy pages, and smile. The layout is perfect. The content is engaging! It’s truly a yearbook to be proud of. Until you notice… “Oh no! How did we miss that spelling error?”

Is there anything more frustrating than finding a grammar or spelling mistake after your yearbook has been printed? 

Proofing your yearbook is an important step. It’s one that requires great attention to detail! To help guide you through this important process, here are our tips on how to proofread your school yearbook. 

Establish a Yearbook Style Guide

Inconsistent spelling and capitalization are one of the easiest ways to get called out. Make sure that your entire yearbook editorial team is working from the same style guide. 

Outline spelling conventions, as well as capitalization and punctuation guidelines. Your yearbook style guide can be established in advance. This also helps your writers create content that is already in line with your style guide. 

Preview Your Yearbook Digitally

Previewing your yearbook digitally will give you a good idea of what the final print will look like. It also gives you the opportunity to see the text highlights, calls to action and captions as they will appear. 

The truth is, sometimes it’s easier to spot mistakes when you’re looking at the final product. It can be too easy to gloss over typos or grammar errors if you’re doing nothing more than looking at a word document! With YearbookLife’s Design Software, you can preview your yearbook digitally to get your yearbook proofreading process underway. 

Prepare

It can be tempting to start the proofreading process right after finishing the writing process. However, this isn’t always the best idea! Creating the yearbook content uses the creative part of your brain. Proofreading, on the other hand, requires the analytical, detail-oriented side of your brain. 

Make sure that your yearbook content is complete before you start proofreading. Begin the process with fresh eyes. If you have stuck to your yearbook deadlines, you should have plenty of time! 

Work with a Team

Proofread your yearbook with a team. Make sure that you have multiple pairs of eyes reviewing the content. You’ll be surprised how many mistakes can be missed by one person! 

Ensure that you have a process in place to highlight any mistakes that the team catches. You may opt for a collaborative spreadsheet or add notes directly onto the page. Whichever way you choose to track things, make sure it is consistent across the team.

Take Your Time

Proofreading your yearbook isn’t something that you should rush. Make sure you are taking your time to read through the content. Check headlines, captions, content, snippets, quotes, etc. And make sure that names are spelled correctly underneath the portraits! There is nothing worse than having a student’s name misspelled or wrong.

You may even want to break up your proofreading process. For example:

  1. Start with only looking for misspellings. 
  2. Go back and reread the content, this time looking for punctuation issues. 
  3. On the third pass, look for grammatical errors. 
  4. Finally, make sure someone has compared the school roster to the portraits.

Read Out Loud

Sometimes, especially if we have written the content, we ‘read’ what we are expecting to read. And the truth is, what we think we’re reading isn’t always correct!

Reading something out loud can often help identify mistakes we hadn’t previously noticed. 

Make Any Necessary Updates

Once you’ve done your first review, it’s time to go back and make any necessary changes. Make sure you then go back and proofread thoroughly! 

Order a Yearbook Proof

When you’re confident that you’ve proofread your yearbook thoroughly, it’s time to order a printed yearbook proof, if available. This will show you the final yearbook layout. Remember to look again for any clear mistakes. The proof will also let you see if there are any issues with page bleeds or photo placements. 

Need Help? Have a Question? Contact Us Today!

YearbookLife offers a wide range of yearbook publishing and printing services. Our customer support team is always on hand and ready to help you with your yearbook creation process. Request your yearbook sample by clicking here.

How to Design Captivating Yearbook Page Layouts

Designing your yearbook can be a lot of work. It can also be a lot of fun! Your yearbook page layouts provide the perfect opportunity to really harness your creative skill-set. 

The real question though, is how you can design captivating yearbook page layouts? It’s one thing to have a creative, artsy layout. It’s an entirely different thing to have a yearbook layout that really captivates your audience! 

We’ve put together some tips to help you design a captivating yearbook page layout. 

Creating A Yearbook Page 

A great yearbook is organized, well-structured, and maximizes all the space available. Your yearbook page layout is more than just the copy and visuals.  

Let’s start with the basics. In order to make a yearbook page, you need to: 

  1. Start with your yearbook’s style guide or master template
  2. Set the goals for your page, such as content and theme.
  3. Choose a yearbook page template. Alternatively, create a custom yearbook page layout. Your choice should depend on the goals for your page. 
  4. Add your content. This will include captions, copy, photos and headlines. 
  5. Edit your page. Get feedback from your yearbook team. 
  6. Proof your page. 

These steps can be followed for every page of your yearbook. Following this process can make creating your yearbook much easier!

How to Design Captivating Yearbook Page Layouts

Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to get into the details! Designing a captivating yearbook page layout is easier than you may think. Follow these tips to make sure your yearbook is one that really captivates.

Write Effective Headlines

A headline has one primary purpose: to tell the reader what the page is about. Your headline needs to jump out at the reader. A good headline is short and descriptive. Make sure it’s readable, and in a large font that captivates your reader. 

Compliment your primary headline with subheadings throughout your copy. These are a great way to break up the content. They also help to further highlight what your page is about. Your headlines can be a great way to grab your readers eye. Try using drop shadows or other effects on your headlines to really make your page pop!

Choose The Right Photo

Choosing the right photo for your yearbook page is important! Make sure the photo that you choose relates to the content of the page. Just like your headline, the right photo will jump out at your reader. It will entice them to read more. 

Feel free to add additional photos or pictures to your page. Make sure they relate to the primary content and theme. 

Selecting Your Font

It may not be something that you immediately think of, but fonts can help define a page. It’s also a great opportunity to get creative. You can highlight elements of your page with different fonts, or different colors. 

Margins & Bleeds

As part of creating your yearbook layout, you should have an understanding of your margins and bleeds. Remember, not all of the workspace you see on your page will be printable space. You’ll want to know where the trim zone on your page is (spoiler alert – this is part of the page that’s cut off at the printers). 

Your yearbook design software can be a great help here. It should highlight where on the page you can place your various design elements. Background colors and elements should span the entire page so that they bleed from one corner to the other post-trim, but other design elements should stay within a safety zone to avoid being trimmed in production.

Find Your Perfect Yearbook Design Software

The best way to create a captivating yearbook page, is to play around with different options! Using yearbook design software can give you the flexibility to try different design elements on your page. It may also offer various templates and backgrounds for you to choose from, to help you create a one-of-a-kind yearbook. 

At Yearbooklife, we want to help you create a professional, memorable yearbook. That’s why we offer easy-to-use yet sophisticated design tools like Pictavo. Create a unique yearbook, keep your staff organized, and get help marketing your yearbook. Interested in learning more? Contact YearbookLife by clicking here today.

Meeting Your Yearbook Deadline: Questions to Consider

Some things this year have been very different. Other things less so. One thing that hasn’t changed are yearbook deadlines. 

In order to create a successful yearbook, and to do so smoothly, setting yearbook deadlines is an important step. Even if you’ve not had a deadline yet – the first deadline will be imminent!

For some people, the first yearbook deadline is a memorable experience. It marks the point at which the character, feel, and voice of your yearbook is beginning to take shape. 

To help you meet your yearbook deadlines successfully, here are a few questions to consider:

Does your yearbook staff know their tasks and responsibilities? 

Creating a yearbook requires team effort. You probably already have your yearbook staff members for the year. Each person will have a set of responsibilities. These may include yearbook advisor, managing editor, layout, fundraising, sales, and more

Make sure that your yearbook staff members know what their tasks and responsibilities are. Also make sure that everyone is aware of the various yearbook deadlines that are approaching. A clear understanding of tasks and responsibilities will help make sure you meet your deadlines with ease. 

Is your yearbook staff trained to do the jobs you’re asking them to do?  

It can be tempting to spend every day mentoring your yearbook staff. But that’s not practical or realistic! Effectively training your yearbook staff helps to empower them, and it frees up your time. 

For tips on how to train your yearbook staff, please click here

Does your yearbook staff know what high quality work should look like? 

To make your yearbook truly memorable, it has to be high quality! Make sure that your yearbook staff knows what high quality work should look like. Provide examples of well-written and structured stories. Discuss and provide examples of good photography.

Have you allocated enough time to produce high quality work? 

Along with understanding what high quality work looks like, it’s important for your yearbook staff to have enough time to produce that work. Make sure you’re planning in advance. Keep an open dialogue about upcoming tasks and deadlines, to avoid any last-minute scrambles. 

Have you planned for regular team catch-ups?

Each yearbook deadline will correspond to a different element of your yearbook. When you’ve met your deadline, have you planned for a team catch-up and debrief? 

Make sure to encourage conversation amongst your yearbook staff after each deadline. Discuss what worked, and what could be improved upon. This will make your next deadline easier to meet. 

Are you providing the right level of support?

Even the most experienced yearbook staffers may at some point require additional support. Are you making sure that your staffers have access to the support that they may need?

You may also benefit from additional support from your yearbook publisher. At YearbookLife, we offer a range of programs to help support your yearbook process. Our Marketing Assistance program, for example, is designed to help you market and sell your school yearbook to students via parent’s emails. Interested in finding out how YearbookLife can support you this yearbook season? Please contact us today.

Crowdsourcing Your School for Yearbook Coverage Ideas

This year has been unlike any other in recent memory. How many new phrases or words are we now using on a regular basis? “Lockdown,” “virtual classrooms,” “social distancing,” the list goes on! 

In an increasingly virtual year, you may be wondering how to capture relevant, interesting content for your yearbook. Due to local restrictions, some of the more ideal places to capture yearbook memories and moments, like a spirit week, are held virtually. 

There is, however, a way that you can collect great content for your yearbook. And it’s easier than you might think! The answer lies in one simple phrase: “Crowdsourcing.”

What is Crowdsourcing

The dictionary defines crowdsourcing as: “to utilize (labor, information, etc.) contributed by the general public to (a project), often via the internet and without compensation.”

Put simply: Crowdsourcing is a process of gathering content. This is achieved by asking a large group of people (like your school community) to contribute their content. These could be photos, written pieces, and more. 

Crowdsourcing Your School for Yearbook Coverage Ideas

Now that you understand what crowdsourcing is, it’s time to think about how you can crowdsource your school for yearbook coverage ideas. Some areas you may want to consider crowdsourcing include: 

The Art Department – In a year of virtual events, you may have fewer photos of school events. The art department is a great place to consider crowdsourcing photos for your yearbook. 

Ask students and teachers alike to contribute some of their favorite pieces from throughout the year. You may be surprised at some of the photos, artwork and illustrations that end up being perfect for your yearbook!

The English Department – This can be a win-win situation. Speak to your English teachers, and see if they would be willing to set a written assignment for students to describe what attending a virtual school is like. 

Not only will this provide you with a lot of first hand accounts, the English teachers can use it as part of a written assignment. 

What better way to provide a snapshot into what life in 2020 – 2021 was really like, than to hear it from the students themselves!

The Athletic Department – Just like most things, sports and athletics have seen changes this year. Speak to coaches and athletes. Ask them to document their experiences and their plans for keeping athletes in top condition. 

Has there been a top virtual workout that the teams are using? How about virtual training sessions?  

How to Crowdsource for Your Yearbook

Once you’ve decided the various areas that you will crowdsource content from, it’s time to actually start crowdsourcing! There are a number of ways you can go about this. 

These include: 

Google FormsGoogle forms are a simple way to capture information across a large pool of resources. You can use Google forms to capture things like story ideas, quote ideas, even photos. 

Online Sharing Service – Photos are one thing you won’t want to miss out on! But ensuring that students are able to share their photos in a safe and secure way is important. You can set up a system to accept photos by Dropbox, email or Google Drive, or directly through YeaboorbookLife’s design software.

These are just a few ways that you can crowdsource your school for yearbook content. What crowdsourcing techniques are you going to use? 

At YearbookLife, we offer a full range of yearbook publishing and printing services, including Elementary School Yearbooks, Middle School Yearbooks, High School Yearbooks and Specialty and Event Books. Preserve all of your life’s memories! Request your free sample today.