Dealing with engagement, referral traffic and general audience activity is a full-time social marketing job. Some brands might feel like they can barely keep up as it is and that’s even before taking “Dark Social” into account.
Wait – what’s “Dark Social?” Here’s some background on this trend, which continues to wreak havoc on marketers’ bottom lines.
According to research by RadiumOne, 59 percent of all shared content takes place on so-called “Dark Social.” This includes emailing or texting links to videos, blog posts and news articles found on social, or including them on message boards or other content-sharing posts that aren’t traditionally thought of as typical social media.
Shine a light on social activity
There’s some disagreement over how much of this figure is activity brands aren’t currently quantifying. ChartBeat believes at least 20 percent of RadiumOne’s 59 percent is from mobile social apps, most of which is Facebook. Still, there’s a not insignificant sum coming from sources that can’t be closely monitored – so how can brands deal with “Dark Social?”
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Encourage other ways to share – Social buttons already tempt users to post blog content on social media, but even heavy Facebook users might not share stories on their News Feed often. Consider including calls to action such as “Email to a friend” in case readers are wary of social posts.
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Create UTM codes – Google Analytics gurus know that adding this tracking code to the end of URLs powers online data collection – but they can also add them to links shared on social to track clicks and traffic. If a person clicks on an email link with a unique UTM code in it, it will register with Analytics and marketers can follow the buyer’s journey better.
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Offer traditional social benefits – Part of the reason people may not want to share content on social media is because they don’t want to give brands the satisfaction. Maybe they had bad experiences in the past with overly pushy calls to action for sharing, or they share via texting and don’t like a company’s overall mobile experience.
“Dark Social” naturally has a scary-sounding name, but all “dark” refers to is its unknowable nature. With a healthy social media marketing strategy, strong Google Analytics and a solid grasp of user preferences, brands can bring their data into the light and understand where they get traffic – and where they should focus going forward.
