Social media is a great way for entrepreneurs and small businesses to engage with their customers by sharing useful content, company updates, promotions and responding to questions. Most importantly, customers can easily share this information with their network of friends and family.
For many small businesses, this helps generate a significant portion (more than 40 percent) of their annual revenue. While most social media platforms come equipped with tools and buttons for easy sharing, more and more consumers are turning to a practice known as dark social.
Dark social refers to sharing online content and social media through private communication channels like email, instant messaging or encrypted apps like WhatsApp. While you might think that all shares are equal, dark social is creating headaches for entrepreneurs trying to optimize their marketing efforts. Globally, about 70 percent of all social media shares happen through dark social channels by simply copying and pasting the link into messages. While traffic from these sources is great, it becomes impossible for traditional analytic tools to track.
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