Digest...

Everyone seems to be talking about dark social these days. The term, coined by Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic, refers to social traffic from previously untrackable sources, such as links shared via emails, messaging apps, and some mobile applications. This is opposed to traffic from open social platforms - Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. - which is easily tracked.

 

Why all the excitement? For one thing, dark social traffic is estimated to be three times larger, by volume, than standard social media traffic. If that seems hard to believe, just think about how often your friends and relatives send you links over email. But it’s the quality of dark social traffic as much as the quantity that has so many marketers paying close attention.

 

At the moment, we’re still very much in the early days of dark social tracking. But, according to Bancroft, brands at the cutting edge of dark social are already gaining an edge in their respective markets. "The future of dark social could be huge, potentially a bigger, higher-quality market than the existing social world we already know," says Bancroft.

 

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