dark social

English

Etymology

From dark (“hidden, secret”) +‎ social (“relating to social media or social networks”); compare Dark Web (“the portion of the Deep Web hosted on restricted networks”).

Coined 12 October 2012 by Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic (see quotations), in reference to Internet traffic (clicks) from hyperlinks send via private messages that are thus invisible to most analytics programs.

Noun

dark social (uncountable)

1. (Internet, marketing) Interactions via the World Wide Web that cannot be publicly viewed, tracked or logged, such as private messages, texts and e-mails.
   • [2012 October 12, Alexis C. Madrigal, “Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     This means that this vast trove of social traffic is essentially invisible to most analytics programs. I call it DARK SOCIAL [author's capitalsation]. It shows up variously in programs as "direct" or "typed/bookmarked" traffic, which implies to many site owners that you actually have a bookmark or typed in www.theatlantic.com into your browser. But that's not actually what's happening a lot of the time. Most of the time, someone Gchatted someone a link, or it came in on a big email distribution list, or your dad sent it to you.]

   • 2016 February 16, Jack Simpson, “The rise of dark social: Everything you need to know”, in Econsultancy‎^[2]:

     According to a RadiumOne study, almost 70% of all online referrals come from dark social globally. For the UK, this figure increases to 75%.

   • 2019 March 25, John Glenday, quoting André van Loon, “63% of people prefer to share content on 'dark social' channels”, in The Drum‎^[3]:

     This shift in consumer behaviour underlines how much marketing now comes through social media, and specifically dark social.

   • 2023 August 18, Rebecca Kowalewicz, “Understanding And Utilizing Dark Social In Marketing”, in Forbes‎^[4]:

     Dark social has a profound impact on social and digital marketing strategies. It evades the reach of standard tracking tools and obscures a significant portion of consumer behavior and interaction, leading to incomplete or skewed data on customer engagement, the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and even conversion paths.