Is Your Brand Shining on Dark Social?

Dark social accounts for somewhere between 60% and 85% of all digital information shared.

What the heck is dark social?  It’s digital content shared in ways that cannot easily be tracked by marketers. It includes messaging apps (like WhatsApp), private parts of social media (Facebook closed groups for example), and ephemeral content platforms (think Snapchat.)

The rise in dark social was initially led by Gen Z on a quest for privacy. Its growth has been supercharged recently by all generation’s desire to re-create the real life camaraderie of small groups during the isolation of quarantine and social distancing.

Personal photos and entertaining videos top the list of the most shared items on dark social. At the same time, roughly 50% of users pass on website links, information about discounts, and product recommendations via dark social, making it very valuable to marketers.

Companies are tapping into dark social in creative ways.  Some are setting up Facebook private groups to gather consumer feedback.  Others are collaborating with micro-influencers (1-10K followers) that have custom-built communities.  Still others are giving shoppers the opportunity to opt in to receive private, truly personalized purchase recommendations via messaging apps.

Sources:  GlobalWebIndex 2019, Media Post 2020, Vogue Business 2020

Photo by Andres Jasso on Unsplash