The Yearbook World of Scott Geesey
from Jostens Yearbooks of central/northern Pennsylvania
ARCHIVE - MAY 10, 2020
CHECKING OUT THE NEW TOOLS: Jostens is Innovating for the Future
Hello! Looks like half of Pennsylvania will now go to "yellow" status this week. Again there doesn't seem to be much difference between yellow and "red" except that up to 25 people are now "allowed" to gather. But I'll guess that most people will just stay home in fear of "something." Reminds me of FDR's famous line about the Depression - "all we have to fear is fear itself." After seven weeks of quarantining and for many areas of the state, perhaps fear is really the big enemy.
But in the meantime, let's still journey forth...
Our special event to prepare for next year's 2021 yearbook featuring our Jostens Creative Accounts Managers continues this week. I've been waiting for such an online instruction event like this for years, and I already look forward to more such events in the future, hopefully without a virus to cause it.
Don't miss this! Remember that each individual person (Adviser or staffer) must register on their own:
• Week Two: May 11-14 (Inspiration & Trends) - click here to register by Sunday night the 10th
• Week Three: May 18-21 (Concept and Theme Development) - click here to register
Don't miss out on this first of its kind event. Our six speakers over three weeks have combined yearbook experience of well over a century. Now you can take advantage of that knowledge.
If you're a non-Jostens school YOU can take part as well. Why not register and see the ideas and expertise that only Jostens brings to what I call Yearbooking?
And for advisers and administrators out there, our Jostens Renaissance folks are running an online series of twice-a-week sessions designed to help during this crisis. Every Monday and Friday at 12 Noon ET you can watch live sessions on Facebook and Twitter with ideas and tips for any school - Motivation Mondays and Graduation Fridays. And afterward look for a recap on those social media outlets as well as our main Renaissance website at www.jostensrenaissance.com. Definitely worth watching - and sharing out to YOUR audience!
In this changing time, these new yearbook tools will spur some changing of their own, now and next year...
Our Jostens Clarksville, TN superfacility is doing yeomen work right now, but safely and efficiently. I know our folks are being ultra careful with every employee and thankfully they are working right along. I've already had a number of spring yearbooks ship out early the last fewweeks with a bunch more expected here in mid May, always the big crunch time every year .
Things are certainly changing and that includes two great new tools about to come online, one for next year's 2021 effort but one for THIS year and going live shortly...
DIGITAL YEARBOOK SIGNING: As much as I want real physical yearbook distribution days and big signing events to have this year as always, it's just not going to happen. Some schools have decided to wait till summer for any such events and I'm hoping they can actually happen then.
But in the meantime for those who don't plan to wait, what about those always prized signed messages from friends? How can you get those written messages when we can't even gather?
Our new Jostens virtual signing tool flies to the rescue! This great new service, designed by our Jostens tech team, will allow any student the chance to get those prized written messages again for easy insertion into their new 2020 yearbook whenever it arrives.
And "written" is the key word here. Students have told us overwhelmingly that they really want those written messages to keep in their yearbook forever as they've always done, not a video that's more complicated and will get lost or deleted later.
How will it work? Every student can get a unique URL code which they can then share out to their friends. That will take the friend to their "page" where they can compose their message as they always would. Later the student will be able to download those pages, print them out on any home printer, and insert them into their new book. And since it's virtual, friends will be able to add stickers and such, but here's one difference - unlike a real signing where ink on paper is hard to delete ("I really didn't like that message,") the student would be able to delete any message they don't care for.
This is a fantastic FREE tool that ANY student will be able to use this year, and this year we're even offering this to schools who currently work with other companies. We've all been disrupted by this insane situation, and especially for the Cheated Class of 2020 we think everyone needs this valuable new service.
Stay tuned as we begin using this awesome new tool shortly, can't wait...
YEARBOOK+ DIGITAL TOOL: We gave this amazing new tool a new name recently and it's perfect because this will be a definite PLUS to your normal yearbooking effort starting next year.
Once again our awesome Jostens tech team created Yearbook+ from the ground up, not some sharing with some third party company. And this great addition is so cool, Jostens has even applied for an official U.S. Patent for it so copying competitors can't try their own ripoff version.
And it's not yet another new "app." Check your device - how many apps do you have on there that you never even use? Dozens? Hundreds? We all do. And then apps have to be constantly upgraded, fixed, and changed when Apple or Android or whoever comes out with a new operating system version. Yearbook+ is web-based using a simple QR code - ANY device at ANY time in the future will be able to use it without anything special needed.
For decades the "holy grail of yearbooking" has been - how can we cover every student in school? EVERYONE. For the yearbook staff it's always been a difficult effort, especially in large schools with so many people. How can you possibly cover them all and tell stories about everyone?
The obvious and really only answer - give each student the chance to tell their OWN story. Now that will never happen in your book alone - think about it, that would be one HUGE book for probably a ridiculous price. Few people would buy one and no one would want to tote that book around.
But your yearbook will always be the key element, never going away and kept for a lifetime, so what can be added to give everyone the chance to tell their own stories for all to see later? Enter Yearbook+.
No, we're definitely not asking students to write stories about themselves, that will NEVER happen. But nearly everyone has pictures or selfies, probably tons of them right on their own device. And in yearbooking, pictures are the number one way to tell stories.
With Yearbook+ EVERY student in school will have a chance to select up to 10 pictures of themselves and easily upload them via your school's own QR code and our web-based tool. Their images will then be linked to their portrait photo in the book - folks later will be able to use their device, snap a shot of someone's portrait photo and that student's selection of images will appear on the screen as a slideshow or flip through them yourself.
And students will also be able to upload other images they've taken - at a sports game, the winter dance, on a school field trip, hanging with friends, fun at lunch, anything. Every image uploaded will be moderated so no inappropriate images will be accepted. Those images can then become a part of a slideshow for that particular page or subject, with one image on that page or spread marked with an icon so readers later know to snap a pic of that image to launch the slideshow.
Now this isn't Facebook - no liking or commenting on images. It's simply many more images of people, events and groups to help tell more stories of the people of your school year, now in some cases told BY the people themselves. Will everyone in school participate? Probably not, there will always be people who won't be interested. But we think the great majority WILL be interested...and then perhaps later the rest will see what's going on and decide to join the party.
And it's all tied to your yearbook - students will need to have their own copy to make the magic work. With this incredible new service (and it's FREE by the way,) we think you'll get more students interested and ultimately sell more books. More sales for you = more $$$$ for your effort, something EVERYBODY wants.
For Jostens schools stay tuned for more details on Yearbook+ in the coming weeks and get ready for the fun to begin.
And if you're NOT currently a Jostens school - imagine being able to use amazing tools like these above with YOUR yearbooking effort. Easy to use and fun yet sophisticated. At Jostens we're back to innovating again - our new Layout Pro Flash-less page creation tool, easier ways to sell and promote and distribute books, these great new tools mentioned above, and more to come.
Imagine being able to create a better yearbook and experience for yourself and your kids, truly revolutionary new ways to tell stories and all for YOUR audience no matter the school. Interested? Let's talk about it - contact your Jostens representative today, you won't be disappointed.