Let’s introduce: How brilliant is dark social!

Let’s introduce: How brilliant is dark social!

Sounds too skeptical? Well, dark social is not a malicious trick that hackers use. It is clearly not negative terminology. It is definitely not related to dark sarcasm. What is it then? It is a brilliant and unavoidable way through which a brand can get unlimited personal shares. Thus, by “dark” it means hidden coverage.

According to a report from RadiumOne, 90% of content sharing is on dark social channels.
Let’s briefly tell you about it. Suppose you saw a stunning dress while scrolling through your Instagram feed. Within a second you screenshot it and send it to your sister( through WhatsApp message) or forward it to her on Instagram direct. She is planning to buy a dress for a big party that’s coming through her way. If she loves it, she ends up buying it. This is a perfect scenario of how dark social works. Inescapable, right?
Dark social is like an online version of ‘word of mouth’ publicity. Let’s call it ‘message from the inbox.’ It brings an enormous amount of traffic to a site. It happens because the content that a person receives in a personal message is selected content.
No one ignores the suggestions of a good friend and hence, what ultimately reaches a website is a focused visitor and a potential buyer (instead of just a casual visitor on a browsing visit).

Thus, through such shares in a private group, message, or email, it falls out of the tracking systems of social media. Not even the best web analytics programs can track it.

Though websites are unaware of the source of traffic, traffic is what they need. In order to keep getting such traffic, a website should create content that is worth being shared in a personal message. Dark social begins exactly where an instantly relatable post gets shared in a personal message, the moment it is seen by a user.

Here are the tips that make your content socially shareable in darkness

• Trial and error: Social media is a place constantly evolving. Experimenting with various strategies on social media is a trait of a good marketer. Thus, it is perfectly fine to work out various techniques before settling on one. You never know the most absurd ways might work in the most amazing manner.
• Short links: Short links can be easily copied and henceforth easily pasted which makes it convenient for users to share in personal messages. Link management platforms like Bitly can be used for providing an alternate short link for an originally long link.
• Make sure that the post DOESN’T LOOK LIKE AN ADVERTISEMENT: The moment a post appears to a person like an advt. that very moment it has the chances of being scrolled away by the user and hence, killing all the chances of the post being shared. Thus, make the post connect with the user.
• Keep yourself in the place of the user while curating: What do you like to see on social media? Say, humorous posts catch your attention instantly. So, associate humor with your product’s social media posts. The intention with which it is shared might not be to make a person buy the product but, just light laughter. Serves the purpose, anyway.

In a nutshell, dark social is becoming extremely popular when it comes to the spread of various posts on social media because of its effortlessness. Sharing posts and links in the form of a message have seeped in our social media activities that we don’t even realize how it helps the brand too. On the other hand, for a company, it improves the efficiency of the paid social media visibility by multiplying the number of shares though on a personal untrackable network.

Image Source: Google Images