Social networking. Love it or hate it, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook play an important role in our media and communications culture. Savvy yearbook staffs have learned how to take advantage of these sites, which surpass in popularity other technology tools such as email. A recent NPR report noted that most college students get email addresses so that they can then sign up for social networking. Rather than communicate or collaborate via email (or in person), these students prefer to “Facebook” one another or send tweets.

High school and middle school students aren’t far behind.

So, sign up for Facebook and watch your yearbook take off, right?

Well, some good planning helps.These goals for the use of social networking sites will help you become an effective user of networking sites to not only promote your book, but also to involve your community in the creation of it in ways not possible just a few years ago.

1. Social networking is two way communication.
2. To be effective, your staff must provide an online experience that customers – the student body, staff and other community members – will want to remember.
3. Build a community of contributors.
4. Create a staff position for on-line editor.

Intrigued? You should be. Ask us how we can help you develop a new and exciting – and potentially game changing – part of your approach to yearbook.

We completed our Herff Jones national conference and have many applications and much information to share with you. It is an exciting time for Herff Jones Yearbooks!  We are excited about products that are going to bring simplicity to the process, provide expertise, use cool technology and strengthen your book’s finances. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the products and services:

• Twelve new  or revised Roadshows that we can share with you. These presentations can be used in the classroom to cover everything from theme to typography (expertise/simplicity).
• A whole suite of eLearning videos and tutorials available via the Herff Jones customer website. Topics include eDesign, InDesign, eShare–and more to come (expertise/simplicity).
• Smart Template, which allows teachers or students to quickly change template-based eDesign layouts without altering content. This powerful new tool lets users apply different templates to spreads and swap photos quickly. Templates can be from the eDesign library or school designed (simplicity/teaching tool).
• New Business Manager Books, a two-volume set walks the staff through the process of budgeting, planning for book sales and ad sales and executing a sales plan (expertise/finances).
• The Viewbook – a beautifully designed example of the quality and range of Herff Jones printing. With text by author Pat Conroy, the Viewbook invites you and the staff to dream big and remember that yearbook is a love letter to the school (design/inspiration).
• Revised HJ Index Builder and HJ Name Check. Built on the industry leading technology, Index Builder is a great way to track your coverage of students and staff. Name Check allows you to import names from a master list and add them to an InDesign spell check dictionary (simplicity).
• A new suite of Merchandising Materials
  • Wish List, our revised direct mail/direct pay program, gives students and parents a chance to order the book of their dreams (simplicity).
  • Posters, banners, stationery, envelopes
  • Buy a Yearbook driveway signs–a set of four or five signs to place at the entrance/exit for parent pick-up or student parking.
  • The Flair Campaign–buttons to help advertise yearbook and yearbook sales.
  • Re-usable stickers — better than window clings, these 4″ by 6″ stickers can be placed on glass or on walls, without taking off the paint. Great for lockers!
  • Facebook Sneak Peek. What a cool way to reach out to readers. Share eDesign spreads that you’ve created and selected to let the community get a taste of the yearbook. Or, use the spreads to promote sales to the students who appear on them.
  • Custom Posters. Order and print customized 14″ by 22″ full color posters with your own photos and messages. Each set includes 20 unique posters with four photos per poster. That’s 80 total photos of your school’s students you can use to help drive book sales (finances).
• Industry leading Color Plus, the program in which Herff Jones individually color corrects every photo, providing a full range of rich, true tones. No other company corrects each photo (technology/quality).
• On-line Ad Creation. This tool will allow your personal and business ad clients to use an on-line wizard to create high quality ads and pay form them with a credit card. Ads are delivered as jpegs to your eShare account and them placed in eDesign or InDesign (technology/simplicity).
• HJ eShare iPhone App. Now, anyone with an iPhone can be a yearbook photographer! This free app is available on iTunes or the App Store. Imagine the possibilities: yearbook becomes more of a community creation and your coverage possibilities increase dramatically (technology/coverage/simplicity).
• Revamped Yearbook Access. Now, a single log-in allows advisers to navigate through planning, eDesign, sales, and finance. The Yearbook Access portal combines ePage, eShare, eDesign and will include a new eBusiness tab for 2010-2011. (technology/simplicity).
• eBusiness. Available fall 2010, this on-line feature integrates in-school and on-line book orders and ad sales. All sales and ad money are tracked in one place and this site integrates with the Yearbook Order Center, so tracking is timely and easy (technology/simplicity).

Look for more information soon as we discuss each one of these topics in depth. Feel free to ask Steven, Thomas or Cara for more information now. It is an exciting time for Herff Jones Yearbooks!

The Herff Jones World Yearbook offers a great way to include 16 pages of full-color coverage of U.S. and International news stories that made an impact and will want to be remembered by your students in years to come. If you have not ordered copies of the yearbook for your school contact Steven, Thomas or Cara to do so.

This year, Herff Jones is also providing matching templates for the pages before and after the World Yearbook tip-in. That’s right, if you don’t want to place the World Yearbook at the end of your book, you can easily integrate it into another area of coverage. These templates, available for inDesign and eDesign, make “matching” the look of the World Yearbook to surrounding pages simple.

To download inDesign files, click on the appropriate trim size and version number below.

World Yearbook Template, size 7, CS2

World Yearbook Template, size 8, CS2

World Yearbook Template, size 9, CS2

World Yearbook Template, size 7, CS3

World Yearbook Template, size 8, CS3

World Yearbook Template, size 9, CS3

World Yearbook Template, size 7, CS4

World Yearbook Template, size 8, CS4

World Yearbook Template, size 9, CS4

Creativity is contagious and several schools and staffs are using new ideas to help sell books and ads. One of the more interesting is to make a “yearbook video” for morning or afternoon announcements. This can be a great way to involve TV production classes or develop projects for staff members in need of some work. Check out the Dunnellon High School video!

We also had some more input on the gift card idea. Check out the samples below. The files are available in PDF and inDesign formats.

Hanukkah Card (inDesign)

Hanukkah Card (pdf)

For You Card (inDesign)

For You Card (pdf)

Finally, here is some preliminary information for our plant trip to Charlotte, NC. Please download the pdf and call or email Steven or Thomas for more information. Click on the image to download.

Charlotte Info pdf

What’s the best way to get your students and staff to buy a book? Let them know that they are in it! Click on the link below to download a simple and easy “You’re in it!” slip in Microsoft Word format. Be sure to customize the information on the slips — there are 3 slips per 8.5 by 11 sheet. Make sure to include details on how to order. Information on the Herff Jones Order Center is on the bottom, so be sure to put in your job number/school code on the slips.  If you are not using the Order Center, just delete that portion.

You’re in it slips

What’s one of the easiest ways to get the information for your slips? Run HJ Index Builder! Whether you are using InDesign or eDesign, HJ Index Builder generates a list of student and faculty names AND tells what page those names occur on. As you create your pages, be sure to include captions on your spreads that name the people in the photos. Make sure you attribute quotes correctly. See how everything ties together? That’s what a yearbook connection is all about!

For help on using Index Builder, contact Steven, Thomas or Cara. For eDesign, you can also check out help videos on the eDesign website or at www.yearbooks.biz/resources. You’ll click on the “eLearning” link and then have to log on.

Why have the parents to go the mall to look for just ‘The Perfect Gift’ for their kid when they can simply go to www.yearbookordercenter.com or call you at the school and order a yearbook for their son or daughter as a gift that will last a lifetime? We have a simple little ’stocking stuffer’ gift card that you could use for parents to show their student that they have reserved a book for them. What a PERFECT GIFT! Download a pdf or inDesign document to print out copies of the gift card (or information for the staff).

Stocking StufferCard (inDesign file)

Stocking StufferCard (pdf)

Stocking StufferInfo (inDesign file)

Stocking StufferInfo (pdf)

Check out the link below to eShare. The video gives a quick overview of this cool new tool. Herff Jones eShare provides an easy way for parents, students and other community members to upload photos for yearbook.

eShare Demo

Coverage is cool. Everyone has stories to tell and opinions to share. How well does your book capture them? A key factor in the perception of the yearbook by the rest of the school is the quality and diversity of coverage the yearbook provides.

Make sure each faculty member has a yearbook liaison. This mean, in all likelihood, that each staff or club member will be assigned multiple faculty with whom they must develop a professional relationship for checking in and finding out what is happening in class, in a club, in a sport – with whatever those faculty are involved. If the school has homeroom periods, consider assigning each of your staff members to teachers by homeroom period, and then add in faculty and staff you don’t have homerooms. Essentially, such a system creates a “faculty beat” for student journalists. It’s great PR, makes other faculty feel important, gives new opportunities for discovering stories and angles, and gives yearbook a proactive image.

Index often. Whether you are using eDesign or InDesign, putting together an index is a piece of cake. However, start early. Index pages even before the first deadline to maintain a list of who is in the book. Use this list to make sure you cover every student and every faculty member, in word or in picture, a minimum number of times, depending on the size of your school. Three entries for everyone is a great goal.

Have a caption for every photo, even very small photos. Name correctly the people in the photo.

Use photo credits and bylines. Staff members deserve credit, and giving it helps builds the reputation of the yearbook program. If you accept “free-lance” photos from the school community via eShare or some other system, be sure to credit those photographers. Same thing with copy: if you ask for or accept copy written by free-lance writers, make sure they get a byline.

Have fun! Listening to and seeing pictures of the year’s many stories ought to be good fun, and a meaningful experience for your staff or club members. As your coverage improves, so will the quality of the book, your book sales, and the desire of the rest of the students to be a part of something cool.

Join us September 1st at Oak Hall School in Gainesville for our annual Day Away Workshop. Featuring former yearbook Adviser-of-the-Year Paul Ender, the sessions features an emphasis on theme, coverage and design for staffs to take back and apply to their books, and includes individual staff sessions with Mr. Ender. The workshop is a great way to get a dose of creative juice that lasts the rest of the year. Check in starts at 8:30. Sessions will begin at 9:00 am and finish at 1:30. Contact Steven or Thomas to register or for more information. Cost is $15.00 per staff member. A Tallahassee date and location will be announced shortly.

The 36th annual Summer Workshop gives advisers and staff members a great opportunity to start the 2009-2010 yearbook strongly. Contact Steven or Thomas for more information.

Location

Oak Hall School
8009 SW 14th Ave. Gainesville, FL 32607

Jacksonville– I-10 west to Baldwin, U.S. 301 south to Waldo, S.R. 24 South to 53rd Ave. (First stop light in Gainesville), right on 53rd Ave. to 43rd street., (about 7 miles), left on 43rd street to Newberry Rd., right on Newberry to 75th Street., left on 75th to 14th Ave. (look for the Oak Hall School sign), right on 14th Ave.

From Ocala — North on I-75 to Exit 387 (S.R. 26/Newberry Rd.), left/west on Newberry to 75th St., See above.

From Lake City– South on I-75 to Exit 390, as above.

Times

Monday’s registration and Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s sessions will begin promptly at 8:00 am. Dismissal Monday and Tuesday will be at 4:45; dismissal Wednesday will be at 12:30. Lunch Monday and Tuesday will be at 12:00 pm. Wednesday’s dismissal is early, so lunch is not provided.

Check In

Check-in begins at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning. Please be sure to arrive promptly so that we can complete check-in on time. Our first session for Monday will start at 9:00 am.

Attendance

Students are to attend scheduled classes unless they are with their adviser. Some schools choose to take some time to work together, which is fine as long as the adviser is in attendance.

What to bring

•Trip permission slips for each student. Simply use your school’s form or make copies of the YBC form found in the registration material (see previous blog).
•Swim suits for free time pool-side if staying at the Fairfield Inn.
•Layout ideas that you have seen or thought about already.
•Your school calendar to plan deadlines and events for the school year.
•Your yearbook and possibly extra yearbooks to exchange with other schools.
•Money for snacks.
•Advisers should bring specific ideas to exchange for the Adviser only sessions. Suggestions on grading, organization, hints for new advisers, anything that works for you, etc.
•Art and theme ideas to discuss with a Creative Arts designer at the workshop.