Technology

Dark Social and Its Impact on the Brand

Many folks are unaware of under the radar social media sharing, and not knowing that the analytics and profit potential could take a hit.

One does all the right things to boost online visibility and tries to go viral, such as regularly posting content on all major social media sites, buying likes on Instagram & other platforms and even starting a company blog. Actively monitoring traffic to see how successful social media efforts are so that can be used as insights to more accurately target the efforts.

But despite all the traffic analytic insights are gathered, the process still could take a hit. That’s because people are not taking account of social media sharing that goes under the radar. If your business is in a non-technical field, then it’s wrong to expect that you have heard of dark social sharing. Being unaware of this phenomenon can prevent you from fully profiting from your social media efforts and flourishing business.

What exactly is Dark Social?

Dark social was coined by Alexis C. Madrigal in The Atlantic in 2012, referring to Web traffic that can’t be tracked through World Web analytics programs. That’s because this traffic stems from people sharing content privately rather than publicly through the social media sites from which traffic can be measured. Private sharing is done by copying and pasting the content, or the link to the content, and sharing it through email or mobile messaging apps such as WhatsApp.

Links shared don’t have identifiers, known as referral tags, attached to the end of the URL. Without these tags, you are completely in the dark if you’re trying to determine where the social media traffic for your content is taking place.

It’s pretty easy to confuse it with “Dark Web” refers to some kind of diabolical digital place to avoid and all the illicit material that may or may not be attributed to it.

Many social media marketers don’t realize how big of a deal Dark Social is and its importance on the social media sharing pie. In fact, 84% of consumer outbound sharing from a business’ or brand’s website happens via private, Dark Social channels.

What’s to worry about?

Backing the entire marketing budget on just 16% of all quantifiable data, the rest is complete guesswork.

The prevalence and usage of such private channels which also happens to be growing at an annual rate which means dark social will not only continue to exist but thrive. Stringent privacy laws combined with an active user base in the hundreds of millions are a marketer’s worst nightmare. We have to accept that there are some things we’ll simply never know, or have access to.

  1. It gives the user a sense of privacy; there are times when one prefers to share content with their extremely close friends or other like-minded people. These private moments allow them to freely express themselves without having to worry about the judgment of strangers.
  1. Relationship building made greater by the instant nature of the messages. Sharing content directly onto the social accounts just doesn’t have the same personal touch and intimacy that a direct message does. When it comes to what users are most likely to share on private messaging apps, personal photos, like holiday snaps, top the list, along with other entertaining content. Links and addresses to websites to recommend products or brands score high too, being shared by one in two. The content is personally classified as bad and good news for brands by the consumers.
  1. Dark Social gives a sense of Social Currency. In the digital age, link sharing is perhaps the most common form of social currency used daily by the coveted millennial and consumer groups. People share links with their friends as an entertainment source, to feel helpful & knowledgeable, and to stay up to date with current affairs.

Impact of Dark Social on Your Brand

Social attribution or assigning credit to social efforts will only grow important. Businesses want to track where their dollars are going and be able to show what they get out of social. If owners want to make the best possible decision, they need numbers that tell the truth without obfuscating anything.

But rather than thinking about it as something which is not doing well yet, think of all the future potential. Dark social is an area and way of the potential for brands, and marketers should start to leverage it where they can. The biggest part of this is making sure you’ve got access to the right data. You can only make informed decisions about where to spend your dollars if you know what’s working and what isn’t.

Can it be measured?

There are tools available that can help shed light on dark social. For starters, simple optimization adjustments to campaigns and content can help provide insight into the percentage of traffic that’s being assigned an incorrect source.

This can be done with the help of Google Analytics, where you’ll need to create a new dark social segment in conjunction with your other measurable traffic sources. Tangible data from social metrics such as mentions and social shares are easily definable and measurable and will give you and a solid understanding of how your content is being shared.

If you’re looking for accuracy, it’s possible to delve even deeper:

  • Bitly or Owly link shorteners can provide you with measurable data for up to 30 days upon link creation. These links can track and compile live click data, geolocation, where the link was created, and much more.
  • Optimize your native share buttons with the availability of various online tools such as to help manage and track whether people have shared your content in private channels.

Wrap up

Dark social isn’t going anywhere in the future, consumers are always going to have a preference for sharing with their friends and family privately. And while it does bring challenges for brands across industries, there are things they can do.

Interacting directly with consumers in these spaces is one approach. Creating more relevant, shareable content that encourages sharing with friends and family in these private environments is another.

What’s essential in both these cases is that the privacy of consumers is respected, above all.

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