The Yearbook Connection » Thomas R.

Ideas to Try – Business Manager’s Books

Thomas R. — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:11:20 +0000

You need a business manager. Herff Jones provides the support. Whether to sell any remaining books for this year, coordinate thank you notes to advertisers, plan for renewal advertising or begin the campaign for next year’s book and ad sales, now is the time to take advantage of the resources and knowledge of Steven, Thomas and Cara. Look for new materials to arrive shortly.

Ideas to Try – Wish List

Thomas R. — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:01:28 +0000

Yearbooks matter. Memories fade. But wishes can come true. The Herff Jones Order Center Wish List program provides marketing support to reach students and their parents, and online payment to make your job of selling books easier. Herff Jones also provides the Direct Pay program and Buy the Book program. Check with Steven, Cara or Thomas for more details.

Ideas to Try – eDesign New Features

Thomas R. — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:13:29 +0000

We are excited about the continued evolution of eDesign, already the industry leader in power, elegance and ease of use. Click on the “see demo” button for a preview of our Facebook Sneak Peek application. Click on the paragraph below the bulleted list to go to the eDesign home page, where you can view a video preview of the eDesign experience. Check with Steven, Thomas or Cara for even more!

Ideas to Try

Thomas R. — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:22:28 +0000

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.

Ideas to Try (and talk about)

Thomas R. — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:18:49 +0000

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!

Ideas to Try

Thomas R. — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:57:30 +0000

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

Ideas to Try

Thomas R. — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:22:25 +0000

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

Ideas to Try

Thomas R. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:42:06 +0000

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.

Ideas to Try

Thomas R. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:57:00 +0000

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)

eShare Demo

Thomas R. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:29:36 +0000

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