Dark Social: The Far Side Of Digital Information Sharing

Alexis Madrigal, senior editor at The Atlantic, has just coined what might prove to be a very much discussed term amongst social media naturals for quite some time to come;

enter the Dark Social side of online sharing.

Because yes, we’re all very much impressed with the sharing numbers we see from various social networks, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn included. But how much is socially shared in channels we cannot measure, that we cannot see?

How much is shared via email, instant messages and direct messages? How much is shared on darknets, BBS networks and untraceable forums? According to Alexis Madrigal at the Atlantic, quite a lot.

Here’s the summary from the Atlantic article:

1. The sharing you see on sites like Facebook and Twitter is the tip of the ‘social’ iceberg. We are impressed by its scale because it’s easy to measure.

2. But most sharing is done via dark social means like email and IM that are difficult to measure.

3. According to new data on many media sites, 69% of social referrals came from dark social. 20% came from Facebook.

4. Facebook and Twitter do shift the paradigm from private sharing to public publishing. They structure, archive, and monetize your publications.