4 ways to leverage dark social and private online communities

By Rachel Henry

You’re scrolling through Facebook and come across a hilarious article from The Onion about ways your cat is trying to kill you. You laugh, copy the link and send it over a messaging app to your significant other. 

You may not know it, but every time you read an article or blog online and message the link to someone, you’re participating in dark social. Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds, and you too can leverage private online communities to effectively support your B2B SaaS inbound marketing strategy. 

In this guide to dark social, we’ll dive into:

• What is dark social marketing?

• The importance of private online community engagement

• How to use your team’s insight to leverage dark social

• Why you might want to create your own private online community

• How to test the quality of your marketing content for these channels

What is dark social marketing?

Dark social refers to the “invisible” shares that occur when your content gets passed on through messaging apps, email and text messages. For example, if you read a great article on TechCrunch and send your colleague the URL in your company’s Slack channel, you’ve shared it via dark social. 

In TechCrunch’s analytics, the shared article will show as “direct” traffic to their website. Because channels like Slack are private online communities, it’s hard for marketers to determine the true source of the traffic.

Through dark social, private conversation can drive the narrative about your B2B tech company’s brand. When your audience’s preferences change, it’s imperative that you can pinpoint the source that influenced the change, which can be difficult in dark social circles and spheres of influence. The key is to try to understand your audience’s challenges and goals within their roles at work as deeply as possible. This insight will inform your content marketing strategy. 

4 ways your B2B tech company can leverage dark social

1. Maintain a presence in private online communities

Private online communities like group messaging apps provide niche spaces and work-related resources for B2B tech marketers to connect with their target audiences. Through these channels, you can offer your audience valuable information and tips to support your demand generation and inbound marketing efforts. You can also ask questions and receive feedback from industry colleagues and experts. 

On Slack in particular, you may find your audience flocking to learn the secrets of successful marketers like Gary V. and Guy Kawasaki in the Online Geniuses channel. Maybe they’re looking to drive business growth with Demand Curve’s eight Slack channels. Or, perhaps they’re discovering branding and storytelling ideas to support B2B customer acquisition with Unicorn Think Tank. These are just a few examples of private online communities. Find what’s relevant to your niche to reach your audience.

You can also derive a lot of value from LinkedIn groups, with the added benefit of connecting with like-minded professionals. In the marketing world, you’ll find groups for B2B marketing, automation, social media, search engine optimization and more. Or, if your ideal customer works in finance or IT, find a LinkedIn group that caters to those industries.

2. Draw insight from your team

Ask your team about their experiences with customers to inform your strategy for participating in private online communities. They will provide insight into the problems your audience is facing, and how you can respond to and help solve them.

Your team can also point out any holes in your research, the decision making process for buyers and the post-purchase customer experience. This feedback will help you create a B2B marketing strategy that anticipates and addresses any issues within the SaaS marketing journey, and that lets your team and your customers know they’ve been heard.  

3. Create your own community

Content- and community-based strategies drive engagement with your target audience, but they also provide rich insight into your marketing efforts.

For example, Imperva, a cybersecurity software and services company, built a community with peer-to-peer networking so they could directly receive customer feedback and use it to optimize their product, while reducing buyer questions and improving retention. Creating a community for your B2B tech company’s audience also allows you to easily employ dark social monitoring on your own terms.

4. Test and iterate

Test the kinds of content you share in private online communities and the value you bring to the people there. Consider your B2B SaaS inbound marketing strategy — which uses content to increase brand awareness, build trust and establish an authoritative voice in your industry — to encourage potential buyers to make a purchase. Make sure your content is educational or entertaining to catch your ideal customer’s eye. 

For example, as a B2B tech marketer, you could share original research from a new white paper, or post a video that establishes your thought leadership. Create and share thoughtful and insightful blog posts, which drive organic traffic to your site while also informing your audience about your brand and offerings. See what resonates best with your market and drives the most engagement by monitoring the conversation generated by your posts.

Nail your content marketing strategy

Your B2B SaaS inbound marketing strategy needs to include the active, private online communities that are sharing information about your industry and brand right now.

By taking advantage of dark social monitoring, you can build customer relationships and gain insight into your audience, which will help you generate demand and shape your brand’s reputation.

Are you struggling with how to apply this to your content strategy? Scribe National can help. Explore our B2B Content Foundations package.