Showcase your homecoming nominees in a week-long social media campagin.
Photo credit: Flickr CC user eagle102.net
It wouldn’t be high school or football season without a homecoming court. Mix things up in the yearbook with a unique spread showcasing the nominees’ best attributes for this rite of passage.
In movies, the homecoming king and queen tend to be the most popular people in school, but in real life, everyone has a chance to take the crown home. Document your campus’s diverse homecoming court and their week leading up to the big unveil with a colorful day-by-day pictorial for the yearbook and the social media channels, blog and other mediums of your online yearbook.
First, reach out to all of the nominees and see if they’re willing to share personal photos from their exciting week with the staff to be used in the actual and the online yearbook. Ask them to take selfies or group shots giving people the inside scoop on the entire event–from finding out they were nominated to driving onto the football field in their blinged-out dresses.
Next, have one of your staffers and a photographer sit down and get to know each of the candidates. Encourage them to get creative with the interview and break away from the traditional interview mold. Homecoming is a fun, light-hearted event and these interviews should show this spirit. Consider presenting the interviews in a unique format–like a fake dating profile that highlights what they like to do, their extracurricular activities, and how they’ll celebrate on the big night. Have the staff photographer get some candid shots of them during the interview or of them posing in front of their favorite spot on campus.
Since homecoming courts are usually fairly large and incorporate many different classes, you might want to tease to the full interviews that you have posted on your social media pages and link to the yearbook blog. This is a great opportunity to experiment with the format and showcase one or two candidates each day up until a king and queen are crowned.
Another fun idea to incorporate on the blog or in the actual yearbook spread is a flashback section. You can either interview your school’s past homecoming kings and queens and see what advice they have for this year’s nominees or you can see if any of the school’s staff has a secret (or not so secret) homecoming past. These types of pieces make great “Throwback Thursday” posts for your blog.
You can also use your blog and social media channels to remind people to vote for their favorites before the deadline.
Now for the actual event. You’ll need a staffer and photographer on hand the night of the homecoming game to document everything. What cars did couples drive to the game in? Did it rain that night? What were the girls wearing? If the winners gave a speech, who did they thank? Make sure your staffer takes down copious notes to capture the feel of the night and encourage them to get quotes from the winners and runner-ups after everyone is crowned.
