Yearbook Staff Tips: How To Leverage Social Media

Social media has revolutionized and changed forever how we share information with each other, and because of it, we are now more connected than we’ve ever been before. This is just one of the many reasons why social media can be important to your yearbook committee’s overall process including promoting and selling the yearbooks.

Did you know that, according to Best Masters in Education, approximately 96% of students with internet access report using social media.  So it seems only appropriate that yearbook staffs start using social media to their advantage.

Promoting through social media channels is one of the quickest ways to alert the student body about upcoming yearbook events, fundraisers, contests, sales, and more. You can share behind-the-scenes photos of the staff preparing the book, ask the students directly what they would like to see more of in their yearbook, and let them know their opinions matter. You can even use some of the photos that are shared via social media for the yearbook.

Use social media to boost yearbook sales and spread awareness.


BOOST YEARBOOK SALES

There really is no better way to quickly reach the masses than through social channels. Even more convenient, you can push out a single tweet about books being on sale and let the student body spread the word by simply retweeting what your staff has to say. What used be a long and grueling process can now be done in minutes…or in 140 characters or less.

ACCESS CONTENT

We all know that everyone wants to be in the yearbook, but it’s not always easy for your staff to be everywhere at all times capturing every moment of the school year. Social media is an excellent way to allow the student body to share and suggest content for the book. They can easily share their own photos with the yearbook staff via Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

ATTENTION STUDENTS & YEARBOOK STAFF MEMBERS: Here are some tips for using a smartphone to take photos for your yearbook.

FIND SOURCES

Tracking down a source for a photo or story is much easier with social media. If your publication has a social following, chances are the person you are trying to identify is already a follower or at least a friend of a follower.

CREATE STORY IDEAS

Generating story ideas is as easy with social media. It’s a great way to find out what topics students are most interested in hearing about.

PAY ATTENTION

Sometimes you may wonder how your audience will react to certain types of stories. With social media, journalists are now able to gauge what their audience wants to hear. You can test the waters by placing short notes or photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about different events happening around the school and see how your peers comment or what they favor through the number of likes a post or photo receives.

BEWARE/NOTE: YOU MAY FIRST NEED PERMISSION TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR THIS PURPOSE. ASK YOUR YEARBOOK ADVISOR AND / OR PRINCIPAL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING: THE COPPA PROTECTS STUDENTS UNDER 13 FROM HAVING THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF A PARENT OR GUARDIAN. THE CIPA REQUIRES THAT SCHOOLS PROVIDE INTERNET FILTERING TO PREVENT STUDENT ACCESS TO OFFENSIVE CONTENT.

PART 3: Creating Excitement and Awareness of Your Yearbooks

After scheduling the best times to promote and sell the yearbook, you’ll need to come up with promotional pieces and/or a theme that attracts attention to the upcoming sale dates, times and locations. Many yearbook publishers provide items to help you. Of course, you can always create your own promotional pieces to supplement what you’ve been given. Be creative and come up with clever slogans and messages if you really want to personalize the sales campaign to your school. Naturally, the use of simple statements like “yearbooks on sale!” or “don’t miss the opportunity!” or “last chance!” are always effective and a fast and easy way to draw attention to the yearbook sale.

Other ideas for making the sales campaign fun and effective include:

1. Tap into the principal, teachers, coaches or others heavily involved in planning school events to find out what activities are already planned that you could work around and use as a forum to promote the sale of the year book and possibly even start taking advance orders. (i.e. are there some Open Houses, pep rallies, sports events, activity nights or other events that draw kids and their parents to the school and are a natural venue for  promoting and selling a school yearbook?)

2. Identify the heavy traffic areas in your school where posters and banners could be hung to capture student’s attention about the yearbook. The school cafeteria, library, entrances (and even restrooms!) are used by everyone…don’t miss the chance to catch their
eye as they’re going about their day.

3. Don’t forget about school announcements, student and parent news letters and web sites! Work with your school administration and newsletter staff to determine how to take advantage of these opportunities to get the word out about when and where to buy a yearbook.

Gather Input and Buy-In from Students and Staff

There’s no better way to entice students and staff to buy a yearbook than making sure they’re included in the content and the development process. After all, making sure that the yearbook is representative of the people, events and happenings at your school is the whole value of the yearbook.

1. Develop polls and buyer surveys through English classes at all grade levels. Have these surveys ask for ways the yearbook can be improved and help you better understand their perception of value versus cost. You will be surprised how many people appreciate your effort and how much stronger your yearbook program and sales will be as a result.

2. Conduct a cover design contest and use the winner’s design for the cover or the title page if your school has already chosen a cover style. Miniaturize some of the finalists’ designs and use them as custom clip art throughout your book. This way, more students will receive recognition.

3. Include quotes from student interviews about selected topics. Include as many student
quotes as possible.

Stay tuned for more ideas.