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.
Yes, with Facebook, Instagram and the internet many think that a yearbook isn’t a necessity for students anymore. They think all their moments and excitement during the school year can be captured and looked at within a social network on a mobile device.
While that is potentially true, a printed yearbook chronicles what is most relevant to students and allows them to physically have something to touch when revisiting the book in future years.
Why is a yearbook important?
- For one, it doesn’t exclude anybody. Everyone is mentioned and no one is left out or snubbed. In contrast, if you rely on a social network and the web to showcase the school year, there is a good possibility sections, stories and photos can get deleted. This could lead to tension between students and perhaps lead to a memory that only few will want to remember instead of the entire class.
- Yearbooks are permanent keepsakes. Just like a wedding band and a piece of fine china, a yearbook will last forever. You will have the ability to go back to it and reminisce with future generations including your own children and grandchildren. In contrast, as quick as technology evolves, web-based sites may change their format or go out of business tomorrow and all of your memories could potentially be gone. A printed yearbook guarantees these memories will last forever!
While technology and trends change, good traditional storytelling never goes out of style and that is exactly what a yearbook is. Students will flip through the printed pages of their yearbooks, ask friends and teachers for their autographs and to share stories. Something that just isn’t the same on a mobile phone, tablet or computer.
A yearbook is truly a memorable item for any graduate, containing photos of classmates, teachers, school events and more. It creates memories and tells the story of the graduating class. That is why the more photos you have access to, the more likely you are to discover the perfect shots to include in your yearbook.
Sometimes though it can be difficult to obtain those great candid shots. That is because the yearbook staff can’t be everywhere at every minute of the day and night. To overcome this, there are few easy to obtain these great shots:
Have your students help you. With the rise of smartphones and social media, students are taking selfies and photos with their friends at all times. Browse various school hashtags and pages to see if there is good content that could be included in the yearbook. Then ask the students involved in the photo if you can get permission to include the photo in the yearbook. In most cases kids love to see themselves and will always give consent in providing their photo.
Create photo contests. Get students involved in their yearbook. Ask them to take photos and submit them to a contest page on your school’s Facebook page. By entering they are giving permission that they are allowing you to use them in the yearbook. Then pick out a few winners and give them a free yearbook for winning your photo contest.
Utilize student’s parents. Parents always have great photo content of their kids and their kid’s friends. Reach out to the parents via the school’s PTA and see what type of libraries they have of the kids.
Great photos don’t all have to come of students on school grounds. Student yearbook photos should be about the entire year’s experiences both in class and outside. If there is a great shot at the local pizzeria of some students, use them. It will create lasting memories that students with cherish forever.
Your class yearbook is one of the most important keepsakes after you graduate. That means making it look great is essential. That also means shelling out a credit card to help pay for it.
It doesn’t have to be that way though. Here are a few creative fundraising ideas to help make your book look truly amazing:
- Sell extra photos. You will have hundreds of digital photos that don’t make it into the yearbook. Why not create some CDs of the extra photos and sell them to students and their parents.
- Promote book sales to local doctors, dentists, realtors and graduates. Ask these locals to purchase books for students that could not otherwise afford too.
- Host a car wash on your school grounds for the locals to take part in. All money earned can be used for school yearbooks.
- Provide separate coupon books with ads that can be handed out when books are sold as a “point of purchase” reward for local businesses.
- Sell copies of old yearbooks that are lying around to parents and extended family of alumni that may not have had an opportunity to purchase one when their family member was graduating.
While selling ads in the actual book is always an option that can help generate some money, fundraising is another great option to bring income for your class yearbook!
