Today, every click, every share, every like seems traceable.
But there is a hidden part of internet activity that remains invisible to marketers and analysts.
Dark Social.
This term might sound mysterious, but it refers to an everyday aspect of our online interactions.
Understanding Dark Social is crucial if you’re aiming to get a complete picture of how your content and products are shared and discussed.
So what exactly is it?
Dark Social meaning
Dark Social refers to the sharing of content through private channels that are difficult or impossible for web analytics tools to track.
So, channels like Instagram DMs, WhatsApp conversations, and private emails.
Everything that goes on in encrypted communications and other locations where regulation limits third-party participation and knowledge, that’s Dark Social.
Dark Social examples
Imagine you come across an interesting article online.
Instead of sharing it on your public Facebook profile, you decide to send the link to a friend through a WhatsApp message.
This act of sharing is a form of Dark Social. Other examples include:
- Emails: Forwarding an email with a link to multiple colleagues or friends.
- Private messaging apps: Sharing content through apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, or Signal.
- Direct messages on social media: Sending links through direct messages on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
When these interactions happen and you send a link to someone, the website receives traffic from an unknown source.
It is typically recorded as "direct" traffic in analytics tools, which is why it’s challenging for marketers to trace the origin of the share.
Why Dark Social matters
Dark Social is a blind spot in understanding how content circulates and influences audiences.
Knowing where your traffic comes from helps you allocate resources, tailor content strategies, and measure the success of campaigns. When a big portion of this traffic is untraceable, it becomes harder for you to achieve these goals.
Studies have shown that Dark Social shares can account for up to 84% of all shared content online.
Ignoring this could lead to a limited understanding of user behavior and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
There are three main points where Dark Social matters to businesses:
- Attribution Challenges: Without knowing the true source of traffic, it’s difficult to measure which efforts are working. This can lead to misallocated budgets and missed opportunities.
- Content Strategy: Understanding what content resonates and encourages sharing is crucial. Dark Social can hide these insights, making it harder to improve content strategies.
- Customer Insights: Typically, you and your business strive to understand your customers better. Dark Social makes it challenging to grasp customer journeys fully because the paths of influence aren’t as clear or visible.
Addressing Dark Social challenges
Although Dark Social cannot be fully tracked, you can take steps to reduce its effects and gain better insights:
- Enhanced UTM tracking: The Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) is simple code that you can attach to a custom URL to track a source, medium, and campaign name. Use UTM parameters to tag URLs shared in newsletters or campaigns. This can help distinguish some traffic sources more accurately.
- Advanced analytics tools: Consider investing in robust analytics platforms like Google Analytics 360, Adobe Analytics, or Mixpanel. These tools often use algorithms to infer the likely sources of visits. You can use them for features like attribution modeling to understand the full customer journey, custom segmentation, and predictive analytics.
- Surveys and Feedback: Directly asking users how they found the content can provide valuable insights. Surveys and feedback forms can help fill in some gaps left by Dark Social. Hearing about recommendation origins and influence patterns from customers themselves can be highly valuable.
- Social Listening: Monitor social media platforms for mentions and shares, even those in private groups or forums. This can provide clues about how and where content is being discussed. While you can’t access private conversations, monitoring tools like Brandwatch, Hootsuite, or Sprout Social look out for any public hints about what goes on behind closed doors.
- Community Building: Fostering a strong community around your brand can encourage more public sharing. Engaged communities are more likely to share content within traceable channels, providing better visibility. These efforts can also include finding brand ambassadors in ordinary customers who can recommend your services to their private networks. Cover both fronts.
The future of Dark Social
As messaging apps and private sharing continue to rise in popularity, Dark Social will represent a higher portion of the pie.
By understanding and harnessing the power of Dark Social, you can stay ahead of the curve and engage with your audience in spheres others have no access to.
So, adapt by investing in advanced analytics tools and social listening strategies to uncover valuable insights from private conversations.
The advantages of using AI for Dark Social analysis grow by the minute, so stay on the lookout for platforms that incorporate it to aggregate data, make predictions, and recognize patterns.
For more insights on artificial intelligence in Dark Social, check out this week’s episode of TOP CMO with Netlify’s CMO!
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