Dark Social 2018: GetSocial Research Report

dark social whitepaper

In 2018, Dark Social cannot be ignored by marketers.

Private channels are dominating the digital landscape. The way we share information has changed. From public social networks to private messaging apps, email, and mobile applications.

Our whitepaper uncovers Dark Social Trends in 2018. Based on anonymized data from our top 10 clients, it presents relevant statistics and characteristics of the users’ behaviors. 

Furthermore, you’ll find information on: 

  • What is Dark Social
  • What are the Dark Social channels 
  • Why is Dark Social a challenge 
  • The problem with UTM parameters (for more information on this, check out our blog post on the topic)
  • Why is tracking Dark Social important 
  • Use cases 

And more useful information to fully understand the power of Dark Social and the importance of shining light on it! 

Here is a summary of the key findings:

#1 — More than two-thirds (78%) of all website shares are Dark Social shares that happen through private channels.

This means most marketers have no visibility into which links from their websites are being shared and talked about.

dark social shares

#2 — The links on private networks generate traffic back to the businesses’ websites. 57% of referrals come from Dark Social, and traditional analytics either misattribute them to Direct Traffic or to any source based on the initial UTM (even if we copy-paste to a different social network and it changes!).

dark social shares

#3 — 10% of traffic to the website comes from Dark Social, which is a black hole to the majority of marketers.

dark social shares

#4 — Interestingly, 6% of Social Power Users, drive one-fifth of all traffic to the website. Their ability to drive high traffic volumes is incredible. Once marketers are able to identify these users, they can invest in the right 6% of people who can make an impact on the business.

Learn more about Dark Social by downloading the full version of our whitepaper here. Or get a free 14-day trial of our Dark Social Analytics to uncover Dark Social on your website.


Interested in knowing more about Dark Social & Analytics?

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Agna Poznanska was a Marketing Director at GetSocial.

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