What is dark social?

What is dark social?

Dark social is activity that takes place on private channels that can’t be tracked by analytics programs like Google Analytics. This includes things like direct message (DM) and email forwarding, as well as Messenger, txt msg and WhatsApp sharing.

The main problem with dark social is that it makes it difficult to attribute credit when someone purchases something after seeing it shared on a private channel. This is why it is “dark” — because marketers can’t see what’s happening in the shadows.

This lack of visibility makes it hard to properly attribute value to different marketing channels, which can make it difficult to justify budgets and make informed future decisions. However, there are ways to get around this problem

There are a few ways that marketers can adapt to the rise of dark social:

1. Create content that is easy to share: Make sure your content is easily shareable via messaging apps and email. This includes using short URLs and creating summaries or excerpts that can be easily shared.

2. Use data from dark social interactions: Use data from dark social interactions to better understand your audience and what type of content they're interested in. This data can also be used to improve your overall marketing strategy.

3. Reach out to influencers: Work with influencers who have large followings on dark social platforms like Telegram or WhatsApp. These influencers can help you reach a larger audience and promote your content through these private channels.

While it’s difficult to measure dark social exactly, there are a number of ways we can get an idea of how much dark social traffic is taking place.

One method is to look at the referrals that come through to your website from social media sites. If you see that a large number of referrals are coming from sites like Facebook or Twitter, but you can’t identify which specific links they came from, this is an indication that dark social is at play.

Another way to measure dark social is to look at the amount of direct traffic that comes to your site. Direct traffic is when people type your URL into their browser or click on a bookmark, without coming from another site. If you see that a significant amount of traffic is coming directly to your site, it’s likely that some of this is due to dark social.

You can also use Google Analytics to set up Goals for your website, and track how people are reaching these Goals. This can help you to see how much dark social traffic is taking place, as well as which channels

Andy Alagappan 832.677.4620, Data-driven inbound marketing?(epromotionz.lpages.co)