Definition:
Dark social is the sharing of links and content through private channels whose origin is not correctly identified by web analytics tools. It can occur when someone shares a link through messaging, email or a group conversation.
The difficulty lies in identifying where the visit originated, not necessarily in measuring what happens afterwards on the website. A tool can record the visit and its interactions without knowing which conversation the link was shared in.
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Private sharing can help distribute content without appearing as social media traffic in web analytics reports. This limits the information available to assess how content circulates among people.
For example, someone may copy a product URL and send it via WhatsApp. If the recipient opens the link and insufficient information about its origin is transmitted, the visit may be recorded as direct traffic.
However, not all direct traffic comes from dark social. It may also include visits from an address typed into the browser, bookmarks or other situations where attribution information is missing. Its volume alone cannot determine how much content has been shared privately.
UTM parameters identify the source, medium and campaign associated with a tagged link. They can help measure links distributed through email or sharing buttons, provided those parameters are retained and the implementation collects them.
They cannot reconstruct the entire sharing chain. If someone forwards a tagged link, its parameters may still indicate the original campaign rather than the channel used for the latest message. Nor do they reveal the content of the private conversation.
Links can be shared in various private spaces. The information that reaches the destination website depends on the application, the browser and how the link is opened:
- SMS and messaging applications: individual conversations or groups on services such as WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram. When a link is opened, a referrer identifying where it was shared may be missing.
- Email: personal messages or group exchanges. The origin may be lost depending on the email client and the link used; not all services behave in the same way.
- Private messages within other applications: conversations on social networks or collaboration tools. Knowing the application does not mean that all visits from its messages can be attributed correctly.
Private browsing and HTTPS are not social sharing channels. Nor do they automatically remove all origin information: whether a referrer is sent depends on the policies of the website and browser and on the browsing context. A visit without a referrer therefore does not prove that a private conversation took place.