SOCIAL MEDIA20

17B U I L D C O N N E C T I O N S E n g a g e y o u r a u d i e n c e & g e n e r a t e e x c i t e m e n t

SOCIAL MEDIA

Connect with parents and students — anywhere, any place, any time — on any device. Social media hums with activity — 24 hours a day, seven

days a week, 365 days a year. As you teach your students

the valuable real-world business skills of marketing and

selling their product (a yearbook) they cannot overlook

the importance of social media.

This guide is designed to help you set up a social media

presence for your yearbook that will help generate

awareness, build your brand, expand your coverage

and ultimately increase sales.

YEARBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA PERKS: • Create awareness with students/faculty/parents.• Bring the yearbook into students’ daily lives.• Build connections within your school community.• Increase yearbook loyalty and engagement.• Increase inclusivity by sharing photos/videos.• Create understanding of why yearbooks are important.• Promote the yearbook sale.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Social Media Matters 2

Develop a Plan 3

Allocate Resources 6

Build Community 7

Create Engagement 10

Promote Your Yearbook 11

SOCIAL MEDIA MATTERSThese days, you’d be hard-pressed to find a teen that isn’t savvy about plugging into social media. In fact, over 81 percent of teens interact on social media every day. With a mobile device or a computer, teens are continually engaging with their peers, sharing stories, images and videos.

Social media is an essential part of how we communicate in today’s world. For many teens, posting and reposting on Facebook, tweeting/retweeting on Twitter and sharing photos on Instagram is the way they stay in touch with friends (and sometimes even family members). That’s good news for yearbook advisers and staffs.

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to connect with your school community of students, parents, teachers and administrators — gather meaningful content, expand your yearbook coverage, promote your yearbook and increase book sales.

#SOCIALMEDIASTATS• More than 95 percent of teens are online.

• 81 percent of teens are on a social networking website.

• Teens spend an average of 10 hours a week on social networking sites.

• 14 percent of teens regularly blog.

• 38 percent of teens share self-created digital content.

• 21 percent of teens remix content using the digital content of others.

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DEVELOP A PLANBefore you jump headfirst into the world of social media, it’s best to have a plan. While the number of social media sites grows every day, some platforms are especially well-suited to helping yearbook advisers and staffs generate interest in their product, broaden their content and promote their yearbook. Here are some of the most popular sites used by yearbook staffs.

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Jostens ReplayIt is a yearbook-specific social media site that yearbook programs can use to enhance social media outreach. It’s also a great complement to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which remain at the top of teens’ go-to list. Best yet, content uploaded to ReplayIt can be used to help complete the yearbook!

Yearbook staffs can use this digital companion to create a fun and interactive photography experience for everyone in their school community. Students age 13 and older can easily upload and share their photos to ReplayIt and view photos from other students.

During the 2015-2016 school year, more than two million photos were uploaded. The uploaded photos are displayed on the site all year long so visitors can return over and over again to view favorite images and see new postings.

Users can access ReplayIt from a computer (ReplayIt.com) or from their mobile devices using a free app. ReplayIt app downloads grew nearly 60% during the 2015-2016 school year, which shows a trend of more and more people turning to ReplayIt to share photos with each other and their yearbook staff.

ReplayIt also offers many opportunities for the staff:

• Use as a great source of photos for the yearbook.

• Share all those great photos that didn’t make it into the book.

• Post videos of school events.

• Post surveys to engage students and use the results in the book.

• Provide links for students and parents to buy a book.

• Run photo contests or other special offers.

• Send push notifications to mobile users letting them know when photos are needed, the deadline to buy is approaching, details about distribution and much more.

REPLAYIT®

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Instagram is a photo sharing app designed to allow users to capture

what’s happening in their world and share those moments instantly with friends and family. Acquired by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has 200 million active users.

instagram.com

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service

that enables users to send and read “tweets,” which are text messages limited to 140 characters. According to Twitter, it has 284 million users and 500 million tweets are sent per day.

twitter.com

FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAMAll three of these social media sites offer yearbook advisers and staffs a free, easy and convenient way to generate interest in the yearbook, share information, gather content, broaden coverage and market the book.

Facebook is an online social networking service that enables users to

connect and share information online. As the world’s leading social media site, Facebook is the most widely used form of communication and social networking for teens—and the general population. Facebook proudly hosts more than one billion active users.

facebook.com

You can find more information on specific social media sites in the Social Media Marketing section of the Digital Classroom in Yearbook Avenue.®

One of the best pieces of advice that I

took away from Jostens Adviser University was to have a Social Media

Director on staff who gets the word out about

yearbook via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. This has already

boosted our participation from the student body

and helped them become aware of the

yearbook. It was a great way to begin promoting ReplayIt and our photos are already rolling in with

beginning-of-the-year events, fall sports and

other activities.” Dana Wallace, yearbook adviser, Horlick High School, Racine, WI

Set GuidelinesCreate a social media policy for your yearbook staff. This will help you establish social media guidelines and best practices for your social media editor and yearbook staff so they will know how to use social media in a responsible and ethical way.

Map Out Your Goals Understanding what you want to accomplish by using social media will help you spend your time and resources wisely. Focus on the ways your school community could benefit from your yearbook having a social media presence. Identify the ways in which your yearbook program could benefit from creating and maintaining a social media community. Set realistic social media goals (qualitative and quantitative) that are focused and measurable.

ALLOCATE RESOURCESTo maximize the effectiveness of your social media presence, it’s important to allocate your resources. Here are some helpful suggestions for doing that:

Recruit a Social Media EditorDetermine who will be responsible for setting up and managing your yearbook’s social media accounts. Social media management is an important role in corporate America, and it should be on your staff as well. You might want to add a social media editor position to your yearbook staff. He or she is responsible for posting yearbook-related information on all social media sites and monitoring the posts and comments that others make to the yearbook social media pages. He or she can also post polls and surveys and then follow up by contacting people for interviews and quotes. The social media editor should also adhere to the yearbook’s social media policy and follow best practices.

Create an Editorial CalendarCreating and scheduling your social media posts on an editorial calendar helps you manage your yearbook’s social media activity. Use this tool to determine the type of content you’ll post to your social media sites (photos, videos, spreads, cover design teasers and yearbook sale day reminders) and how often you’ll post it.

Once you have your action plan in place, you can tap into other online tools that let you automatically disseminate your content. ReplayIt® has a push notification feature that lets advisers set up automatic yearbook-related announcements and reminders (such as, “Don’t forget to upload your homecoming photos.”) in advance by simply selecting a date and time. An editorial calendar will also help you stay on track of your Facebook postings and Twitter tweets.

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BUILD COMMUNITYReplayIt and other social media sites build a sense of community because they connect you directly to the people most likely to care about the yearbook. When you engage students, parents, teachers, administrators and staff in your online conversation, you build awareness about the yearbook. Creating a presence and a community for your yearbook on ReplayIt, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is FREE. No amount of marketing or advertising money can buy you that kind of awareness-generating power. As you build your social media community, be creative, have fun and see what you can come up with.

Download and promote the ReplayIt app

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on Instagram

Here are three examples of social media yearbook goals and how to measure them:

Once you have your action plan in place, you can tap into other online tools that let you automatically disseminate your content. ReplayIt has a push notification feature that lets advisers set up automatic yearbook-related announcements and reminders (such as, “Don’t forget to upload your homecoming photos.”) in advance by simply selecting a date and time.

An editorial calendar will also help you stay on track of your Facebook postings and Twitter tweets.

Goal 1: Use social media to gather more content from students and the school community in order to increase the inclusivity in your yearbook.

Measurement: More photos to choose from and more students represented in the yearbook.

Goal 2: Sell more yearbooks by bringing marketing campaigns online where many of the students and parents interact.

Measurement: Number of yearbooks sold.

Goal 3: Build awareness about the importance of the yearbook through regular status updates and “behind the scenes” footage of the staff creating the yearbook.

Measurement: Number of followers on your social media accounts.

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“LIKE” US ON FACEBOOKTo establish your social media presence and build a fan base, create a Facebook page for your yearbook and sign up for Twitter, Instagram and ReplayIt® accounts. Have all the yearbook staff members “like” the yearbook’s Facebook page and “follow” the yearbook’s Twitter feed and Instagram account. Ask them to upload photos onto ReplayIt. Then ask them to encourage all their friends and family members to do the same. Find out if the clubs, organizations and sports teams at your school have social media accounts. If they do, “like” and “follow” them — and ask them to do the same for yearbook.

UTILIZE YOUR SCHOOL NEWSLETTERPlace an article in your school’s newsletter that’s sent to parents to tell them about ReplayIt®, the yearbook’s Facebook page and Twitter feeds. Let them know they can download the ReplayIt app for free on iOS and Android devices and then upload photos to that site. Ask the school newspaper to cover this important student and school-related news. If your school permits you to do so, obtain a list of the email addresses for all students, parents, faculty and staff and send an email promoting ReplayIt and your new Facebook page and Twitter account.

TWEETING AND RETWEETINGWhile Twitter posts are limited to only 140 characters, don’t be fooled by the brevity. Those short postings can go a long way toward building a social media community. To generate interest and create engagement, send a tweet letting followers know about yearbook-related topics like group photo day or senior ad requirements and costs. Or post tweets to congratulate a team on a win or to announce an upcoming book sale or deadline. If each staff member reposts an original post or retweets an original tweet, the announcements can go viral.

REPLAYITReplayIt is great for community-building. Users can upload photos straight from their mobile device. Stay in touch anytime, anywhere by sending a push notification reminder during the big game to encourage students to share their photos on ReplayIt. Or use it to remind students that the price of the yearbook is going up, so they’d better buy soon.

ReplayIt interactive features, such as tagging, also make it easy for students to engage with the images, which generates yearbook buzz. At the end of the year, all the yearbook content — including videos — is sealed into the ReplayIt Time Capsule™ and is available for years to come making it even faster to remember special moments after the year is done.

Facebook Post

Twitter Posts

ReplayIt

DOWNLOAD THE APP Rep l ay I t . comCheck our school’s free photo sharing app. It’s the feed for this year’s best moments as they happen and your chance to make the yearbook.

WHAT’S ON YOUR PHONE?S h a r e y o u r b e s t a n d s e e t h e r e s t .

Y E A R B O O K 2 0 16© 2015 Jostens, Inc. 15-1341

ReplayIt Printable Flyer

“Get your staff to friend/follow your social media accounts and have them get their friends to do the same. Advertise. Hold a contest. Make it known. Make it fun. Put photos and videos up. Share your yearbook pages. Give

them a reason to come and continue to give them a reason to come back. Once they do, your social media yearbook community will grow.”

Jim Roller, yearbook adviser, Fort Dorchester High School,

North Charleston, SC

#My Social Media

LINK SOCIAL MEDIA SITES TO YOUR SCHOOL’S WEBSITEAdd ReplayIt, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram links to your school’s yearbook website. ReplayIt web banner ads can be downloaded from Yearbook Avenue.® Add a scrolling message on the screensavers of your school’s computers letting people know about ReplayIt and the yearbook’s other social media accounts.

CROSS-MARKET WITH OFFLINE APPROACHESTo maximize your social media impact, promote your social media sites through your offline marketing efforts. Launch an offline “Find us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/ReplayIt” campaign using strategies like locker stuffers, school news announcements, school newsletter ads, report card inserts and dry-erase messages.

ReplayIt offers a marketing kit that includes ReplayIt promotional posters and flyers to help you build awareness about ReplayIt and drive students to the app. Create T-shirts for your yearbook staff that say “Like us on Facebook” or “Follow us on Twitter” or “Download the ReplayIt app.” Students can use it as a place to tell their stories, if they want to.

Add “Find us on Facebook” or your Twitter account name (for example: @YearbookName) to all yearbook-related printed advertising and marketing materials — including staff business cards.

Spotlight the ReplayIt app in your promotional materials too and include your school’s ReplayIt QR code.

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“Everyone has a chance to be

special with the ReplayIt app.”

#My Social Media

“We use social media to showcase spreads. We’ve tagged people who are covered on a certain page and said, ‘Look at this. Here you are.’ We’ve found selective ways to do that — and have given them little tastes and tidbits all year long to keep them in that conversation and get them excited.”

Sarah Nichols, yearbook adviser, Whitney High School, Rocklin, CA

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CREATE ENGAGEMENTYou put a lot of time and energy into producing a yearbook your students will love — now you can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and ReplayIt® to get (and keep) them excited about the book. To help ensure that the avid and interested folks who are following you stay engaged, give them a reason to come back, time and time again. Provide an opportunity for them to interact with the yearbook — and with one another.

As you are interacting with your followers, keep in mind that the social media stream flows both ways. Yearbook staffs can use social media to gain insight into what interests the students at their school. Students can use it as a place to tell their stories, if they want to. Ultimately, yearbook staffs can connect with a wider range of students than they’d normally be able to reach. Be on the alert for new coverage ideas.

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PROMOTE YOUR YEARBOOKSocial media tools, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and ReplayIt are mainstream vehicles you can use to support existing customers, work with partners and listen to what drives buyers so you can enhance the value of your product. The time and effort you spend building a social media community, creating engagement and using your online connections to generate content builds brand loyalty and strengthens your ability to increase book sales.

ENHANCE YOUR SOCIAL VELOCITYThe success of yearbook social media sales promotions relies, in part, on what viral marketers call a “pass-along” rate, which translates into a “if you post it/repost it, tweet it/retweet it, they will come” philosophy. This is what’s known as “social velocity.” In the virtual school campus beyond the classroom, social media marketing is always “on” and always has the potential to translate into book sales.

With so many students already plugged into social media sites, if students missed an offline yearbook sales poster or a yearbook sales announcement in their homeroom, they can always catch it later on the yearbook’s social media sites. A variety of social media promotional images are available to help you create your social presence and promote yearbook sales.

You can find them on the Yearbook Avenue® Digital Classroom, Jostens Adviser & Staff Facebook page and Jostens Adviser & Staff Pinterest page. Yearbook Avenue also offers email templates you can use to promote a variety of yearbook-related messages, including “Give the yearbook as a holiday gift” and “Buy your book at the best price of the year.”

yearbookavenue.comfacebook.com/jostensadviserandstaffpinterest.com/jostensyearbooktwitter.com/jostensyearbookinstagram.com/jostensyearbook

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START CREATINGENGAGEMENT TODAY!

PHOLD A SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEST where students and parents who like your Facebook page are entered for a chance to win a FREE yearbook.

PSET A GOAL for the number of likes to hit and offer a FREE book to the person who hits the magic number.

PUSE THE YEARBOOK AVENUE® SURVEY TOOL to gather content for yearbook spreads.

PPOST PHOTOS, QUOTES, SPREADS AND STORIES and encourage your Facebook fans and Twitter and Instagram followers to do so.

PUPLOAD SNEAK PEEKS of yearbook spreads to the yearbook’s Facebook page (hint: use the Sneak Peek button in the Yearbook Avenue Page Designer).

PUPLOAD SNIPPETS OF THE YEARBOOK COVER DESIGN, slowly building excitement as your Facebook fans try to piece the image together to figure out what the cover will look like.

PSEND OUT TWEETS asking questions, like: Do you have an after-school job? What celebrity would you like to take to prom?

PINVITE STUDENTS TO SHARE THEIR PHOTOS ON REPLAYIT.® Use the images in your yearbook to broaden coverage and increase inclusivity. Generate interest by promoting a “Best Selfie” contest or a “Most Liked Photo of the Week.”

PREMIND STUDENTS that all the photos posted on ReplayIt are archived in a digital online Time Capsule.TM

PSEND PUSH NOTIFICATIONS USING REPLAYIT. Set up notifications on the ReplayIt Plan page in YBA. Send messages like, “Buy your yearbook before this Friday and save $5” or “Submit your selfies for our selfie yearbook spread.”

PUSE VIDEO TO PROMOTE THE YEARBOOK by sharing the Jostens yearbook commercial on social sites. ReplayIt is a great way to share student videos and preserve them for years to come in the online Time Capsule.

PLET PEOPLE KNOW THEIR PHOTOS ARE INCLUDED IN THE YEARBOOK. ReplayIt makes it easy by automatically sending email notifications letting students know when their ReplayIt submitted photos have been used in a finalized yearbook spread.

©2016 Jostens, Inc. 151867