A response to the dark social topic.
If you want to catch up:http://www.futurebook.net/content/5-things-publishers-need-know-about-dark-social
Dark Social
Admittedly at first I was very intrigued by the term “dark social”. I have been intrigued before by the word dark in front of words like matter and energy. Right now I’m thinking of ways to add it to other elemental words to spark delight and terror in my childhood self.
My history with social is that of a practicer of admittedly failed personal campaigns and social business digital experiences and activation, much more successful in the latter. (My hobbies are weird and altogether uninteresting.) But my insight in to the technical and strategic aspects of sharing make me a highly targeted digital asset.
What is social?
We initially think Facebook or Twitter, but that would be wrong. Those are merely tools.
Social is defined regularly as a gathering, a group, or a crowd. It is an attribute that defines a species of highly evolved organisms. I know that seems like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I want you down there in the mud. Get dirty. Your going to have to let go of your iPhone for a second to get through the rest of this.
Social is a verb in this context. It’s an act that we engage in when we are at our extremes. Sometimes more loudly, more noisy, more destructively, but we all do it. Think of a high schooler getting in to college and wanting to tell everyone about the awesome news. Think about the kids that can’t afford it and want to be mad at the world. Remember bullying? Now it’s gone social; but no, now it’s gone digital. Don’t get that point mixed up. We have been social for years. Long before the internet and the smartphone. Long before Facebook or Twitter.
These new tools that help us today, just enable us to reach farther, faster.
Who gives a dam, get back on point! Dark Social specifics.
A poor name, but a catchy hook! It does draw us in and quickly evokes context.
It is the unknown, the unmeasured influence that we all feel when we go about our day. You could think of it as gossip, or that elbow nudge to pay attention to a particular moment. It’s unquantified as of now. Think of it today as the subtle influence of society, trends(oooohs & ahhhhs), and the general things that we chat about.
We used to call it word of mouth, but then we thought because its online we could just call it social. Wrap that in a nice bow and we figured it out. Unfortunately that doesn’t cover the holes in the data that simply can’t follow into the digital black holes. These are the emails and text messages that lay outside of easy tracking metrics. (Which we can still track by the way.) But it still does include all traditional word of mouth that may lead someone directly to your content that we may not be able to track.
How do we track Digital Dark Social?
If it’s digital it can be tracked in some way. There are invisible footprints that hook right back into GA. It’s really about link strategy and preplanning. It’s about separating message for different modes of communication. Use bitly links for mobile, make it easy to share via email from your site with a tracking id. And give your SMS different targeted/trackable shortened links. The end game is pretty easy, get an analytics person worth their salt and target your message.
But in all honesty… The true consumer of the dark matter web sphere chatter is the small marketer who doesn’t have access to the people or tracking tools. And if your that person then stop wasting your time trying to illuminate that segment of your analytics dashboard. Instead find ways to generate more of it.
We’ve all heard of A-B testing. It’s time to dust that off and get back in the game. Check your year calendar and align digital and traditional marketing techniques that align around up coming events. This will help maximize different marketing opportunities (which is how you probably are thinking anyway, right?) and try your print flyers at an event, think outside the box and get a funny mobile campaign going.
PS. I have ideas.
How do we create more Dark Social Content?
You have to create custom content that draws people in on a communication channel that fits their needs. Think about Redbox here for a second. With a credit card swipe and a email you can rent moves anywhere. Add in the text message deals and we are really pushing the conventions of “Social” communication. Multi-channel, easy access with apps and the kiosk. Red Box wins because I have a multi-channel relationship and it all feels good.
Think of the annoying emails that pile up from Gilt, Fab, and Groupon. They get annoying because they come into my email and only invite me to buy there(semi-targeted) goods. These are deal sites that imagine it’s consumers have a endless supply of cash and are available 24-7 to buy their crap. They have to go beyond these generation 1 ideas. Sure it draws attention from investors and gives the teams valuable marketing data, but over time that fades. Look at Groupons 6 year run.
Let’s wrap up.
Dark social is a weird term for the unknown inbound links. Now you know that they are there you can be more link-tracky in the future, but don’t get too bent out of shape about your past data. It’s there it happen and you’ll never get anywhere.
Instead start tomorrow with more targeted link tracking and think about this instead. Why do people google the keywords that they do when looking for your company? How do they remember more often to just type it directly in the url? What can you do to help shape that thinking? We are worried about were links are coming from, who cares as long as they keep coming. Instead I propose that we focus our attentions on making smarter marketing campaigns and creating more compelling content that is there when the consumer needs it. And by all means have fun.
