Readers Create a Pinterest Spring Garden/ How we did it

When I asked the features staff for a way to get our readers involved on our San Jose Mercury News Pinterest page. Bay Area News Group Home & Garden Editor responded immediately: Spring is coming, let’s ask our readers to pin photos of their flowers on the first day of spring. Joan and Online Producer Natalie Martinez quickly went to work:

Here’s how we did it:

1. Created a board for readers to pin their photos.

2. Hit a roadblock. Although Pinterest allows you to open your board for others to pin, the permissions must be given one by one, name by name.

3. Did a workaround. We built a blurb into our website telling readers to email their photos to Joan.

4. Promoted it. Designer Mike Mayer created a print promo for the top of Page 1, combining it with our Happy Spring greeting. We also did the usual: Twitter, Google + and Facebook.

5. Click Here to see what it looks like.

The photos are still rolling in. Happy Spring!