What's so important about a yearbook? Why do I need one? It costs a lot to buy a book full of pictures I can get with my phone. These are the questions students will ask because they have high-quality cameras in their pockets with hundreds of photos, most shared across social media, and stored in the cloud. It just doesn't seem important to them.
Advisers know that changing this mindset and paradigm is a challenge and they are willing to tackle it! The ultimate goal is to get a yearbook into the hands of every student. Although students think that their memory will last forever and that they won't forget anything, we know better. They will forget significant events and people in a year or two, let alone 10-20 years from now.
Advisers know that changing this mindset and paradigm is a challenge and they are willing to tackle it! The ultimate goal is to get a yearbook into the hands of every student. Although students think that their memory will last forever and that they won't forget anything, we know better. They will forget significant events and people in a year or two, let alone 10-20 years from now.
You and the staff create a unique environment to promote the yearbook and to be its biggest advocates. How? Social media, flyers, announcements, newsletters, word-of-mouth, posters, skits, and pop-ups to show previous yearbooks and give hints about this year's amazing book.
The most important messages you need to communicate are the timelines:
1) Day 1 year 1 is the day the yearbook is dispersed and friends sign it.
2) year 5 is when you start getting wedding invitations or you send one out. The yearbook is pulled out and you look up names and faces preparing for the reunion.
3) Year 10 baby showers and announcements begin to arrive in the mail or your inbox and you pull out the yearbook to go down memory lane.
4) In Year 20 your children are entering high school or are graduating. They will want to purchase their yearbook. Pull out yours and let them see what your high school years were like, and what you did to create the yearbook.
5) Year 30 and you may have grandchildren by now.
6) Finally, 40-50 years after buying your yearbook, your 50th reunion will happen. When you browse the frayed yearbook pages, familiar young faces will be staring back at you. Many classmates will have passed away, and others will have moved to other parts of the country. The yearbook is one of the last things to tie you to your past and the present.
Tell students that spending $50, $75 or $100 will be worth every cent they pay. Years from now they will agree that it is the best money they ever spent.
Yearbooks carry on your legacy, and we’re here to ensure it lives on for years to come. We offer resources to complement your instruction and enrich your yearbook staff’s learning. Our website, www.unitedyearbook.net , and our newsletter, podcast, and blog, are tools available to you as you move forward in the new year and complete the book. Schedule your yearbook 1-on-1 consult here.
Copyright © 2025. TSE Worldwide Press. All Rights Reserved.
Editor: Donna Ladner obtained a B.A. in Education and a minor in English from California Baptist University, and a M.S. in ESL from USC, Los Angeles. After she married Daniel, their family moved to Indonesia with a non-profit organization and lived cross-culturally for 15 years before returning to the U.S in 2012. Donna has been working as an editor and proofreader for TSE Worldwide Press and its subsidiary, United Yearbook since 2015.
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