Understanding Dark Social Networks

Written By

HBI Communication Helga Bailey GmbH

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