Understanding Dark Social Networks

Published on 26th November 2024

This insights post is a summary of the blog post published by HBI Communication. View the full post at: Dark Social: Invisible interactions and their importance for your own marketing

In the arena of digital marketing there are tools that are often overlooked: dark social.  Yet, these channels have a huge impact on content distribution. This term sounds mysterious, but it simply describes an invisible (not public) but influential form of online interaction.

What is Dark Social?

If the channel is invisible, that begs the questions: What exactly is dark social, why is it important, and how can it be integrated into your internal marketing strategy?

Dark social refers to the social sharing through private channels that cannot be directly tracked through analytics. Examples would be direct messages via messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat or SMS.  It can also include personal or business emails in which links are shared.

It does also includes social networks or forums that are not publicly accessible, crawled by the internet or have readily available analytics.

 

Why is dark social important?

Dark social plays a crucial role in digital marketing for several reasons:

  1. High reach and engagement
  2. Reliable recommendations
  3. Hidden data

To get more details about the crucial role dark social plays and strategies for using it, visit the full post at: Dark Social: Invisible interactions and their importance for your own marketing

Related Insights

25 Mar 2025

Should Your Organization Move to Bluesky: Navigating the Considerations

With some political and social concerns around the X platform (formerly twitter),…

Leer más

18 Mar 2025

Dealing with the Removal of Meta's Fact Checkers

In the wake of Meta’s decision to eliminate third-party fact checkers to…

Leer más

06 Mar 2025

Using Podcast Sponsorships to Drive Engagement

With the global podcast industry projected to exceed $4 billion in revenue…

Leer más
The Worldcom Group®
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.