[TrendTalk] Illuminating dark social

In recent times, user activity has shifted towards "ephemeral social communication apps" such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, which, along with email, fall within the realm of dark social.

I first wrote about 'dark social' in 2013 in a social media research report 'Socialising Enterprise', when digital strategists were just beginning to realise how much of user behaviour is not measureable at all online. Guess what: it is increasing, creating a headache for marketers in the future.

To quote Mediapost, "Dark social is the sharing activity that is somewhat invisible to traditional analytics. It's the culmination of referrals and sharing of content that originates from instant messages, emails containing links, and most recently, the rise of ephemeral social communication platforms such as Snapchat, WeChat and WhatsApp.

Some of the things we write these days feel like they come straight out of a Star Wars movie script. The dark social badlands are only an evil incantation for digital marketers who want to measure everything in an effort to track consumer patterns and social sharing. It's great for users who don't want to be tracked or advertised to.

realcg via 123RF

Mediapost quotes a RadiumOne study (download free), as saying that advertisers can still harness and activate dark social data to engage with audiences outside of their owned media properties - if they have the right diagnostic tools.

The stats from RadiumOne show us that:

• 84% of people share content online globally.

• 32% of people who share content online will only share via dark social.
• 69% of all online sharing activity takes place via dark social globally versus 23% via Facebook.
• 36% of dark social sharing takes place on mobile devices globally.

• 72% of users simply copy and paste long URLs and email or text the information.

Dark social strategy

Mediapost warns marketers that there is an over-reliance on retargeting because there are these conversations happening off the radar. Marketers need to "crack the code" with dark social in 2015 exactly because of the rise in those apps that allow users to have these conversations 'off the grid', so to speak.

It's why Facebook incorporated sharing functionality with WhatsApp - with 400 million users sending 50 billion messages a day - and they bought it. They had no choice. Mediapost also references brands like FTW, a USA Today sports site, which introduced a WhatsApp sharing button to its mobile experience recently and saw content shares from WhatsApp users climb.

As the fastest growing social app with 100 million active users, 60% of whom post 22 times a day, SnapChat also needs to be considered in 2015, reports Mediapost. There are many other such social sharing apps coming - new variants, hybrids of hybrids, even some from the big brands, like Apple's AirDrop, for youngsters - there are steps brands can take to build a dark social strategy.

Mediapost recommends:

• Consider your integration options from the apps themselves - the data and analytics they have.

• Use advanced Google Analytics to track long-form links.

• Really understand how content is shared and by whom in these dark social badlands.

RadiumOne weighs in on the content strategy side with these key points:

• Be visible within the dark social properties by connecting with audiences outside of your owned media properties.

• Brands need to operate and execute campaigns across all channels, dark social included, as consumers do.

• Marketers need to work with those digital companies which can provide the tools to gather and activate social data in real time - not in days, weeks or months.

It is possible for advertisers to find and convert new customers and publishers can find new audiences, within dark social: "Wrap and track all branded sharing content, including native content, using tools that protect sharing data from being sold or used by competitors. Make sure the data is actionable for targeting prospects on the open Web and mobile."