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.
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 Forms – Google 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.
When developing your school yearbook, your yearbook sales and marketing strategy is an important consideration. Timing is key. Understanding when to start your yearbook sales or yearbook marketing campaign can help drive interest in your yearbook.
Although the end of the school year may seem like a long time away, it really isn’t. The winter months roughly represent your halfway mark on the production of your yearbook. This makes winter a great time to build up interest in your yearbook. Here are 5 reasons why you should think about starting your yearbook sales now:
- Time to Plan
First of all, let’s get the sensible reason out of the way: starting your yearbook sales early gives you time to build pre-sales.
By getting some pre-sales under your belt you can predict end-of-year sales and budgets.
- Get Your Sale On
Give your sales a boost by launching your sales campaign with an early-bird sale. Yes, early-bird sales might mean that you miss out on some revenue but they have a bunch of other benefits that make them worthwhile.
For instance, they can boost your cash flow and allow you to gauge demand. They also allow you to create a buzz and motivate buyers who don’t want to miss out on a deal. Let’s face it, everyone loves a bargain!
- Build a Sense of Urgency
Starting your yearbook sales early also allows time to implement a ‘tiered pricing’ system where the price increases at certain times. Early-bird sales and tiered pricing develop a sense of urgency and encourage students and parents to buy the yearbook as early as possible to snap it up at the best price.
This also means that those who may be put off from buying a yearbook at full price have the opportunity to buy it at a reduced price, increasing sales overall. It’s a win-win.
- Create your Marketing Campaign
More time means more advertising opportunities. By starting your yearbook sales early you have more time to promote your yearbook through a range of different platforms: from traditional posters and flyers to social media posts and email campaigns.
There are many great ways to build yearbook sales and by starting now, you have more time to get creative with your advertising techniques!
- Old School Rules
Sometimes the best way to build sales is the old school way, face-to-face! The earlier you start your yearbook sales the more chances you will have to promote the sale at school events, such as sporting events or parent-teacher evenings.
The Time is Now!
Starting your sales now gives you more time to reach out to the biggest buyers of yearbooks, those in their first and final years. Yearbooks capture the most important and joyous memories of the school year. In an age when everything is posted online, yearbooks offer something tangible to look back on when school years feel like a distant memory.
By building excitement now, not only can you get your yearbook sales off to a great start, but you can also encourage more people to get involved with the creative process so that this yearbook will be bigger and better than ever before.
Interested in learning how YearbookLife can help support your yearbook marketing efforts? Ask about our Free Marketing Assistance Program and check out our YearbookLife Shop, available online here, for all the yearbook marketing collateral needed to make your sales a success.
Student communities need a way to come together. In a year of change, it’s even more important. With many schools running a combination of online and in-person teaching, finding ways to engage students virtually is important.
Staff and students alike are coming up with creative and fun ways to hold school events safely. Virtual school events are a great way to develop engagement and communication strategies and are a safe, unique way to help grow your remote community.
Check out these virtual school event ideas that you can try for your school!
Virtual School Event Ideas
Virtual Spirit Week
Spirit weeks are a great opportunity to hype up school spirit. It helps get students engaged and light up their school spirit! Spirit week in a virtual world may look a bit different, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be any less fun. Try these virtual spirit week ideas:
Crazy Hair Day
Nothing says 2020 like “I need a haircut!” A crazy hair day is fun, and also offers a unique link to 2020. Time to let your wild hairstyles free!
Superhero Day
Who doesn’t love a chance to dress up? Why not hold a superhero day during your virtual spirit week? Remember: not all heroes wear capes. Make your superhero day unique for this year by celebrating your local community heroes!
Pajama Day
One of the best things about being home all day, are comfy clothes. Pajamas are a definite perk! Celebrate your spirit week with a pajama day.
Virtual Contests
Everybody loves a good competition or contest. It’s a great way to test your knowledge and work in teams. Here are a few virtual contests you could incorporate into your virtual spirit week:
Virtual Trivia Contest
Trivia is a great way to showcase your (sometimes random) nuggets of information. With a virtual trivia contest, you can get really creative. Consider setting trivia topics related to your school. Or perhaps you’d be more interested in pop culture! Whatever you decide, a virtual trivia contest is a fun addition to a virtual spirit week.
Virtual Photography Contest
A virtual photography contest can have two benefits in a virtual spirit week! First, it will get all the up and coming photographers involved. Secondly, it can be an ideal way to gather additional content ideas for your yearbook! Just like with a virtual trivia contest, you may decide to open a photography contest with multiple themes.
Virtual Field Trips
Who doesn’t love a field trip! Between social distancing and virtual schooling, field trips are often not in the cards. Thankfully, there are many options for a virtual field trip. No permission slip necessary!
The Zoo
Most zoos now offer live webcam footage in some of their more popular exhibits. One example is the Panda Cam at Zoo Atlanta. The San Diego Zoo offers a more in-depth look at their zoo. Their site features behind-the-scenes videos and stories, as well as a variety of online games.
The Aquarium
Immerse yourself in the underwater world in a virtual aquarium tour. Or, you may instead prefer to focus on a live webcam feed! Check out Georgia Aquarium’s Ocean Voyager webcam here. Or take a 30 minute tour of the Seattle Aquarium here.
Virtual Museum Tour
Art, history, paintings, photography, sculptures and more can be enjoyed on a virtual museum tour. There are also a variety of choices! 360-degree videos, walk-around tours with voiceover, or interactive content. Here are 10 of the world’s best museum and art gallery tours.
Make sure you save the memories from your virtual school events for your yearbook. Yearbooks are a great way to preserve your memories. 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. Request your free yearbook sample today.
Yearbooks can help keep memories alive. They highlight important school events. They provide a window into your school life.
While a printed yearbook is a great way to remember the year, a digital yearbook is interactive!
YearbookLife’s Digital Yearbooks, powered by FC Yearbooks, look exactly like a printed yearbook, but a digital yearbook allows you to:
- Send messages to people in your yearbook
- Sticker your yearbook
- Send videos to people in your yearbook
- Digitally sign your friends yearbook
What printed yearbook can do that?
We’ve already explored how to make a digital yearbook. You can check out how by clicking here. Today, we’re taking a closer look at one awesome feature: Digital signing!
Signing A Digital Yearbook
With a digital yearbook, you can sign each person’s yearbook with just one text message. It’s really that simple. Here’s how it works:
- Open up your digital yearbook
- Tap the person you want to send to
- Select the “Type It” option
- Type your message
- Hit send!
Once you’ve sent your message, only the person you have sent it to will be able to read it. They will see a text talk bubble from you, right on their yearbook!
It’s also easy to keep track of who you have sent a message to. Every person you have messaged will show a grey text bubble on the bottom of their portrait. That way, you can easily see who’s digital yearbook you’ve signed. Clicking on the icon will let you see what you’ve sent.
Review the messages that you’ve sent and received on your notifications page. The search function in your digital yearbook app will help you find anybody in the book. You can also use the search function to find any stickers throughout the digital yearbook.
Flip through your digital yearbook to see all the people you’ve interacted with. If anyone has sent you a text, image or video, you’ll be able to find it right on their portrait photo!
A digital yearbook is a fun, interactive year to remember your school year. Interested in learning more? Our yearbook support staff would be happy to answer your questions. Get in touch with YearbookLife today.
