Do Pinterest Board Descriptions in Publishing Actually Work?

Despite the buzz, quality and quantity might trump board descriptions for book publishers on Pinterest.

Pinterest Board Descriptions: What Are They?

Many social media marketers recommend adding descriptions on Pinterest boards to help increase content engagement. In fact, one blog says that these Pinterest board descriptions “can be a very easy way of getting more eyeballs on your pin and therefore more traffic to your site.”

Yet, for a social media site that is so purely visual, are these descriptions even necessary?

To answer this query, I looked at the length of Pinterest board descriptions, number of Pins in the board, and the number of followers (both of the account overall and for each board)—for the boards of popular publishing houses Epic Read, HarperCollins, and Penguin Random House.

Spoiler Alert: You Might Not Like the Results

After looking at these Pinterest board descriptions and comparing them to how many followers a board had, my theory was proven correct: the descriptions aren’t effective in increasing engagement. In fact, regardless of if the description tagged another account, if it was short or long, or if it was written in an engaging voice, there was no evident change as to how many followers a board had. The tables below display sections of the data collected from the three accounts:

Forget the Description: Focus on Content

Just because Pinterest board descriptions aren’t as helpful as we hoped, doesn’t mean that marketing your Pinterest boards is pointless. Focus instead on the quality of the board content and subject. In fact, CreativeLive suggests a couple of subjects that are popular—such as quotes, boards with similar products, and a business’s own products, which we see reflected across the three publishing house accounts.