This blog is part two of a four-part series on creating a yearbook in 60 days. Each part contains two weeks’ worth of tasks and inspiration, and this time, it’s all about promoting and designing the yearbook.
Yearbook (yes, it is a verb) along with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
1. Share the Good News
You’re building a yearbook, which is a mic-drop task in itself. People need to know how awesome you are the yearbook will be. Treering created flyers, QR codes, and personalized links for you to quickly share.
Yearbook Marketing 101
“Buy your yearbook” is not your only message.
Yes, you are selling the yearbook. You are also rallying stakeholders (administrators, teachers, plus students and their families) to support the yearbook project by purchasing, sharing photos, donating books, and joining the yearbook staff next year. So, go get them!
Identify the best to reach each stakeholder where they live. In other words, go to them. Utilize all the communication channels available to you and evaluate which ones work best for each group.
Possible channels include:
- Staff newsletters
- Morning announcements
- All-call services
- Parent organization website
- In-school bulletin boards
- All-school events
- School meetings
- School sports games
- School arts events
- Social media
Yearbook Marketing Resources
2. Autoflow Portraits
Ready to level up your yearbook achievement? Portraits comprise 40-60% of a yearbook. Between the choice of a Heritage Cover and building portrait pages, you’ll be halfway finished. Take a minute to let that soak in.
If a professional photographer took your school photos, chances are you have a PSPA (Professional School Photographers’ Association) file. This is industry standard. With it, you’ll be able to go to the portrait tab and follow the prompts. (If you don’t have a PSPA file, you can still use autoflow. See the resource section below for instructions.)
Portrait Resources
3. Fill Your Photo Folders
Remember when we set up the photo folders, and some were green? That means only the editorial team (you!) can see them and their contents. The yellow public folders are marked public, and your school community can share photos by
- Emailing to the folder
- Using a link to access the folder
- Signing in and accessing the public folders
- Using the Treering app to upload
Treering’s privacy measures prevent just anyone from uploading to your shared folders. Only your invited school community members with activated yearbook accounts can see and share.
Parents and editors can add photos from their computer or mobile device as well as third-party connections to your personal Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Google Photos, and Google Drive.
5 Ideas to Source Yearbook Photos
If you build it, will they come?
- Send each teacher a link to their class folder; ask them to share it with their room parents
- Share event-specific (hello, last Friday’s zoo trip) asks via social media
- Show coaches and club leaders how to add photos via their phones
- Connect with event organizers so they know you have dedicated space and you need pics
- Comment, “Will you share this for the yearbook [email/link]?” on Facebook photos you want to include
Crowdsourcing Resources
- Article: Email Photos Directly Into A Photo Folder
- Article: Sharing Photo Folders with the School Community
4. Build Your Spreads (First Semester Events)
As your photos fill your folders, drag them onto your spreads. There are two ways to quickly complete pages using Treering’s built-in tools: auto page layout and templates.
Everything is fully editable, so if you need to add or remove a photo, text box, or piece of theme art, permit yourself to do it!
Yearbook Design Resources
- Article: Changing the Background on a Page
- Article: Page Editing Options – Graphics
- Article: Page Editing Options – Layout and Design
Feeling Adventurous?
Create your own layouts using Treering’s drag-and-drop design tools.
Intermediate and Advanced Design Resources
- Examples: Winners of the 2023 Editor’s Choice Design Contest
- Blog: What is Modular Yearbook Design?
- Article: Setting Default Text Styles
- Article: Setting Default Photo Styles
- Article: Alignment Tool – Customizable Guideline Grid
- Templates: InDesign
Halfway through building a yearbook in 60 days, you should split tasks between gathering photos and adding them to the book. The cover is finished. Portraits are flowed. First semester events are filling in. Congrats!
