1 00:00:00,799 --> 00:00:04,560 What even is dark social media and how will 2 00:00:04,560 --> 00:00:08,400 it affect you as a business owner and as a marketer? I'm gonna 3 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:12,160 hopefully answer those questions and at least give you some more to think about 4 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:15,460 in this episode of the Mindful Marketing podcast. 5 00:00:15,975 --> 00:00:19,595 I have to give a shout out to our sponsor, Riverside. Riverside 6 00:00:19,735 --> 00:00:23,415 is the virtual recording studio that I use to record this 7 00:00:23,415 --> 00:00:26,635 Here Right Here podcast. With over 320 8 00:00:27,494 --> 00:00:30,795 episodes under my belt, I know a thing to do about podcast 9 00:00:31,039 --> 00:00:34,579 recording, and Riverside makes it so freaking easy. 10 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,719 I literally just go into my studio, hit record, and after 11 00:00:38,719 --> 00:00:42,399 I'm done, I click magic edit, and voila, it edits the 12 00:00:42,399 --> 00:00:45,940 podcast for me. What I also love is their magic 13 00:00:46,055 --> 00:00:49,894 clips. If you see those vertical videos like reels or TikToks 14 00:00:49,894 --> 00:00:53,515 that I'm posting on social, that comes from Riverside's AI 15 00:00:53,894 --> 00:00:57,335 capabilities, which is just absolutely fantastic. If you love a good 16 00:00:57,335 --> 00:01:01,175 shortcut like me, you gotta check out Riverside. Click the link in my 17 00:01:01,175 --> 00:01:04,819 show notes and use the code D'Raya at checkout for 18 00:01:04,819 --> 00:01:08,420 your little discount. Alright. Let's get into dark social. So first, 19 00:01:08,420 --> 00:01:11,940 let's define it. I have resources for this episode. As always, I'll put the 20 00:01:11,940 --> 00:01:15,725 links in the show notes. But the term 21 00:01:16,105 --> 00:01:19,465 dark social, was first spotted on the 22 00:01:19,465 --> 00:01:22,765 interwebs, and coined by Alexis c 23 00:01:23,145 --> 00:01:26,745 Madrigal in 2012, wrote an 24 00:01:26,745 --> 00:01:30,125 article for The Atlantic all about dark social. 25 00:01:30,550 --> 00:01:34,250 And dark social basically is social sharing, 26 00:01:34,390 --> 00:01:38,010 say content that you share from social media, but it's outside 27 00:01:38,310 --> 00:01:42,150 of measurable analytics. So I'm talking about when 28 00:01:42,150 --> 00:01:45,905 someone texts you a TikTok video, when you DM a 29 00:01:45,905 --> 00:01:49,665 friend with, like, a link to an account that you just found. These are 30 00:01:49,665 --> 00:01:53,345 not public facing ways that we can see if 31 00:01:53,345 --> 00:01:56,670 people are engaging with our content. Sometimes too, when you go in, 32 00:01:57,150 --> 00:02:00,690 to tools like Google Analytics and you see direct 33 00:02:00,830 --> 00:02:04,530 traffic coming in, that direct traffic could potentially be 34 00:02:04,750 --> 00:02:08,290 something that someone shared from dark social. So for example, 35 00:02:08,825 --> 00:02:12,125 I love watching TikTok videos. Now that I have 2 littles, 36 00:02:12,505 --> 00:02:16,345 I, basically text my husband, cute ideas, and I'm like, oh, 37 00:02:16,345 --> 00:02:19,565 we could do this with the girls. And so I'm on Disney 38 00:02:19,865 --> 00:02:23,625 TikTok, which is fun and also overwhelming at the same 39 00:02:23,625 --> 00:02:27,069 time. But we, have Disney on our vision board. 40 00:02:27,290 --> 00:02:31,050 And so I saw this video of these 2 little girls doing, like, 41 00:02:31,050 --> 00:02:34,430 the princess experience, and I texted that video to my husband. 42 00:02:34,890 --> 00:02:38,614 Now it ended there for us, but for someone watching that video, if they wanted 43 00:02:38,614 --> 00:02:42,135 the Disney experience, there's no clickable link in that 44 00:02:42,135 --> 00:02:45,915 TikTok video. In fact, the video was by an influencer. 45 00:02:46,055 --> 00:02:49,595 So or or a content creator wasn't even cosigned 46 00:02:49,735 --> 00:02:53,379 or collaborated with by Disney themselves. And so I would 47 00:02:53,379 --> 00:02:57,220 then go to Disney's website or even go to Google and search the 48 00:02:57,220 --> 00:03:00,900 Disney Princess experience. But tracking is 49 00:03:00,900 --> 00:03:04,500 totally lost in that scenario. And so this is 50 00:03:04,500 --> 00:03:08,235 where the term dark social comes from. It's different from 51 00:03:08,235 --> 00:03:11,995 your traditional social media engagement. Right? So dark social 52 00:03:11,995 --> 00:03:15,615 is on the rise right now. Studies are showing that 53 00:03:15,995 --> 00:03:19,650 particularly with Gen z or as my toddler 54 00:03:19,650 --> 00:03:23,490 has been correcting me now, Gen zed because, you know, we're Canadian and 55 00:03:23,490 --> 00:03:27,170 it's a zed in the rest of the world, apparently. Gen 56 00:03:27,170 --> 00:03:30,930 z, Gen zed, they are into dark social. 57 00:03:30,930 --> 00:03:34,655 And if we think about platforms like the rise of Snapchat, for instance, 58 00:03:35,355 --> 00:03:38,875 Snapchat is a platform that is all about private 59 00:03:38,875 --> 00:03:42,394 messaging. And in fact, it's where Instagram stories came 60 00:03:42,394 --> 00:03:45,995 from. Instagram stories became a thing because Instagram 61 00:03:45,995 --> 00:03:49,739 was trying to steal the idea from Snapchat. And 62 00:03:49,739 --> 00:03:53,519 with Snapchat, you're sharing content. Sure. But it's not 63 00:03:53,819 --> 00:03:57,659 link focused, and it's not really discoverable. The 64 00:03:57,659 --> 00:04:01,340 whole point of it is you're having conversations with your inner circle, with 65 00:04:01,340 --> 00:04:04,945 your friends. And I have friends who use social media 66 00:04:05,005 --> 00:04:08,765 instead of texting, which is wild to me maybe 67 00:04:08,765 --> 00:04:12,525 because I work in social. But I would never message 68 00:04:12,525 --> 00:04:15,930 someone on Instagram and in replace of a 69 00:04:15,930 --> 00:04:19,769 text. I guess I'm the weird guy out in this scenario because a lot 70 00:04:19,769 --> 00:04:23,230 of people do that. Instead of texting, they'll use Facebook Messenger, Instagram 71 00:04:23,610 --> 00:04:26,830 Messenger. But even if we think about other messaging 72 00:04:27,050 --> 00:04:30,715 apps, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, all 73 00:04:30,715 --> 00:04:34,555 of these are examples of dark social. If we 74 00:04:34,555 --> 00:04:37,915 even broaden the term further, we see private 75 00:04:37,915 --> 00:04:41,515 communities, Facebook groups. Even my circle 76 00:04:41,515 --> 00:04:45,190 community could be considered dark social. Any 77 00:04:45,190 --> 00:04:48,870 sort of exchange happening, whether it's a SMS or 78 00:04:48,870 --> 00:04:52,409 email where you're sharing links, that also is considered 79 00:04:52,550 --> 00:04:56,310 dark social. And then anything else like, you're 80 00:04:56,310 --> 00:04:59,590 on a Zoom call with someone and they're like, oh, you've never heard of this? 81 00:04:59,590 --> 00:05:03,245 Here's the link. That could also be considered dark 82 00:05:03,245 --> 00:05:06,625 social. So all of these variety of communication 83 00:05:06,764 --> 00:05:10,604 styles have an impact when we think about tracking. And 84 00:05:10,604 --> 00:05:13,824 that's why they're under the umbrella of the term 85 00:05:14,125 --> 00:05:17,860 dark social. K? Dark social. Now 86 00:05:17,860 --> 00:05:21,460 this is on the rise, like I said, because of Gen z. But this is 87 00:05:21,460 --> 00:05:25,140 actually really important for business owners to understand the impact of 88 00:05:25,140 --> 00:05:28,820 this. Because when we start looking at our content, we 89 00:05:28,820 --> 00:05:32,514 start looking at, you know, engagement on Instagram is down. We start looking 90 00:05:32,514 --> 00:05:35,875 at, you know, video views on TikTok have gone 91 00:05:35,875 --> 00:05:39,655 down over the past year or so, and we start seeing, 92 00:05:40,115 --> 00:05:43,474 you know, all of these metrics kind of taking a 93 00:05:43,474 --> 00:05:47,190 downturn, it may feel discouraging. It may 94 00:05:47,190 --> 00:05:50,169 feel like, what what am I even doing this for? 95 00:05:50,550 --> 00:05:53,849 However, if we think about the lack of tracking 96 00:05:54,229 --> 00:05:57,449 that happens on dark social, if dark social is on the rise, 97 00:05:57,875 --> 00:06:01,495 then a correlation that we could perhaps make 98 00:06:02,035 --> 00:06:05,875 is that engagement may be down. Yes. But perhaps people are 99 00:06:05,875 --> 00:06:09,095 doing other actions instead of liking and commenting. 100 00:06:09,634 --> 00:06:13,060 This has been confirmed by Adam Mosseri, the head of 101 00:06:13,060 --> 00:06:16,520 Instagram. In a recent video, Adam Mosseri 102 00:06:16,740 --> 00:06:20,280 said that there are more people engaging 103 00:06:20,500 --> 00:06:24,180 with DMs, direct messages, in the app than they are with 104 00:06:24,180 --> 00:06:27,885 feed posts. So because of that, Instagram is actively seeking 105 00:06:27,885 --> 00:06:31,585 to amplify content that prompts more sharing behavior, 106 00:06:31,725 --> 00:06:35,565 I e, posts that inspire more users to tap the 107 00:06:35,565 --> 00:06:38,990 send, you know, that little paper airplane icon and forward it 108 00:06:38,990 --> 00:06:42,750 to their friends. K? And to to further this, 109 00:06:42,750 --> 00:06:46,290 he said, you know, don't force it. But when you're making content, 110 00:06:46,510 --> 00:06:50,270 think about making content that people wanna send to a friend, to someone they 111 00:06:50,270 --> 00:06:54,014 care about, and it will help you reach over time. So Instagram, 112 00:06:54,395 --> 00:06:58,074 mega platform, mega, you know, meta sub 113 00:06:58,074 --> 00:07:01,694 brand of a of a platform, which also I'm assuming 114 00:07:01,755 --> 00:07:05,595 is, part of what Facebook and threads is deeming important as 115 00:07:05,595 --> 00:07:08,919 well. Instagram has deemed that sharing 116 00:07:09,139 --> 00:07:12,820 content, sending it, not necessarily sharing it to your stories or sharing it 117 00:07:12,820 --> 00:07:16,180 publicly, but sharing it privately is one of the 118 00:07:16,180 --> 00:07:19,775 best ways to increase 119 00:07:19,995 --> 00:07:23,675 your reach and engagement over time straight from the horse's 120 00:07:23,675 --> 00:07:27,195 mouth, friends. So is, social 121 00:07:27,195 --> 00:07:30,955 sharing important? Absolutely. How does this affect your engagement as a 122 00:07:30,955 --> 00:07:34,449 business owner? Well, you're measuring success differently. 123 00:07:34,590 --> 00:07:38,110 You're measuring success differently. So I talk about this with, 124 00:07:38,590 --> 00:07:42,110 my members a lot. When we look at our analytics for posts, 125 00:07:42,110 --> 00:07:45,729 sometimes we look at a post. Let's say we are, 126 00:07:45,870 --> 00:07:49,595 you know, sharing a Black Friday sale. Okay. We post about 127 00:07:49,595 --> 00:07:53,275 it and then we don't see as much likes. We 128 00:07:53,275 --> 00:07:56,875 don't see as many comments as we'd like and we get discouraged. But 129 00:07:56,875 --> 00:08:00,415 ultimately, when we're talking about Black Friday sale, 130 00:08:00,670 --> 00:08:04,030 we don't want someone to like and comment. We want them to go to our 131 00:08:04,030 --> 00:08:07,650 website and buy the dang thing. Right? And so when they think about 132 00:08:08,190 --> 00:08:12,030 the success of social media, it is not in likes and 133 00:08:12,030 --> 00:08:15,595 comments. It is in people taking action in other ways. And in 134 00:08:15,595 --> 00:08:19,275 dark social, that means sharing. Now for some 135 00:08:19,275 --> 00:08:23,115 brands, sharing privately is actually the thing that we 136 00:08:23,115 --> 00:08:26,630 want people to do. It's the thing we want to encourage. So, for example, I 137 00:08:26,630 --> 00:08:29,990 used to work with a client of mine who was a 138 00:08:30,230 --> 00:08:33,690 almost like a sexual education brand, particularly 139 00:08:34,150 --> 00:08:37,690 for, black and indigenous, people of color. 140 00:08:38,405 --> 00:08:42,184 And when we think about the type of content that they were posting, 141 00:08:42,645 --> 00:08:46,485 it's not often that someone would like and comment on that content. 142 00:08:46,485 --> 00:08:50,245 In fact, those aren't metrics that we would look at for 143 00:08:50,245 --> 00:08:53,970 that brand really at all. Because while engagement, 144 00:08:54,110 --> 00:08:57,250 liking, and commenting is great, sharing and saving 145 00:08:57,870 --> 00:09:01,710 is more likely an action that that audience would take just due 146 00:09:01,710 --> 00:09:05,055 to the subject matter and the nature of the brand. Right? And so when we 147 00:09:05,055 --> 00:09:08,574 think about this rise of dark show social and 148 00:09:08,574 --> 00:09:12,334 people shifting their, social activity and their 149 00:09:12,334 --> 00:09:16,115 behavior away from liking and commenting and towards sharing and saving, 150 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:20,160 we start to acknowledge that sharing and saving are more 151 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:24,000 important, and we don't need the validation from likes and comments when 152 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,620 it comes to social media analytics. I also wanna acknowledge 153 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,754 that some of these shifts, don't just affect gen 154 00:09:31,754 --> 00:09:35,535 z. I think they're they're affecting everyone. And this is just my hypothesis. 155 00:09:35,675 --> 00:09:39,435 But when we think about all of the data privacy breaches and issues 156 00:09:39,435 --> 00:09:43,274 that we've had in the recent history, I 157 00:09:43,274 --> 00:09:46,254 think a lot of people are shying away from putting 158 00:09:47,250 --> 00:09:50,066 I think a lot of people are shying away from putting everything online. My generation 159 00:09:50,121 --> 00:09:53,970 so I'm 35 now. So my generation, we got the 160 00:09:53,970 --> 00:09:57,570 Internet and we're one of the first generations to be using the 161 00:09:57,570 --> 00:10:01,255 Internet quite young. I remember being on forums and things when I 162 00:10:01,255 --> 00:10:04,795 was 14, you know, and we had the family computer in the basement. 163 00:10:05,014 --> 00:10:08,475 Right? And so I remember having 164 00:10:08,615 --> 00:10:12,315 access to the Internet and having access to sharing. 165 00:10:12,570 --> 00:10:15,130 And in fact, I remember there was a, 166 00:10:16,090 --> 00:10:19,930 daily journaling tool that was photo based. 167 00:10:19,930 --> 00:10:23,370 I don't remember the name of it, like Be Real or Be Live or something 168 00:10:23,370 --> 00:10:26,810 like that, where, me and my Tumblr 169 00:10:26,810 --> 00:10:28,985 friends would share, 170 00:10:31,125 --> 00:10:34,105 our lives on this live journaling 171 00:10:34,565 --> 00:10:38,245 tool. And thinking back, it's actually 172 00:10:38,245 --> 00:10:41,524 just wild how much information I would put on the Internet. I would never do 173 00:10:41,524 --> 00:10:45,090 that today. But we kind 174 00:10:45,090 --> 00:10:48,850 of went all out because we didn't fully understand the 175 00:10:48,850 --> 00:10:52,530 consequences of doing that. Plus I was like young at the time. Right? And so 176 00:10:52,530 --> 00:10:56,210 now with all of these privacy breaches and how 177 00:10:56,210 --> 00:10:59,595 our data is being scraped and even things like the rise of 178 00:10:59,595 --> 00:11:03,115 AI and people creating deep fakes of 179 00:11:03,115 --> 00:11:06,175 people. You can, you know, use AI to 180 00:11:07,115 --> 00:11:10,555 video, for voice. People could literally steal your 181 00:11:10,555 --> 00:11:13,780 likeness and do whatever they want with it online. 182 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:18,400 So there's a there's a lack of trust happening with public 183 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:21,860 facing social media right now as well that has to 184 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:25,595 impact, in my opinion, the rise of dark social. The other 185 00:11:25,595 --> 00:11:29,375 thing is I think we are collectively experiencing 186 00:11:29,915 --> 00:11:33,375 a bit of fatigue from social media. So 187 00:11:33,595 --> 00:11:37,350 with the pandemic, which was over 4 years 188 00:11:37,350 --> 00:11:41,190 ago now, almost 5 years, it doesn't feel like it's been 189 00:11:41,190 --> 00:11:44,570 that long. But with the pandemic, we all turned to virtual 190 00:11:44,630 --> 00:11:48,010 connection because frankly, that is all we had. Right? 191 00:11:48,495 --> 00:11:52,195 But I think it we got overstimulated by it. 192 00:11:52,255 --> 00:11:55,855 And now there's a bit of a fatigue for social media, and I'm seeing it 193 00:11:55,855 --> 00:11:59,535 a lot with my business owner friends where we 194 00:11:59,535 --> 00:12:03,160 put so much of ourselves in our business into social media. We're doing we're 195 00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:06,680 checking all the boxes. We're doing everything we're supposed to be doing. And 196 00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:10,280 yet, we feel exhausted by it 197 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:13,740 all. And some days we just wanna log out of everything 198 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:17,805 and disappear. Never log in again. And I think that's 199 00:12:17,805 --> 00:12:21,425 because we give too much to social media and 200 00:12:21,485 --> 00:12:25,185 there's there's that fatigue from it. Right? And and we're craving more 201 00:12:25,645 --> 00:12:29,399 real connection, more in person connection from it. And so those 202 00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:32,620 how these hypothesis hypotheses together 203 00:12:33,639 --> 00:12:37,180 create the perfect storm for dark social to 204 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:40,040 be on the rise. So what are we to do? What are we to do 205 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:43,740 as business owners and as marketers? Well, I think that there's a way 206 00:12:44,035 --> 00:12:47,495 that we can lean into the craving for dark social 207 00:12:48,675 --> 00:12:52,375 without doing the most and doing all of the things. Right? And so 208 00:12:52,515 --> 00:12:55,395 I wanna give an example of a brand that did this. I actually so I 209 00:12:55,395 --> 00:12:59,160 follow this substack of Rachel Carton. It's called 210 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:02,920 link in bio, and it's one of the few substacks that I actually 211 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:06,600 pay for because her BTS roundup I don't know. Are 212 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:10,220 these emails? Are they blogs? I don't know. Posts? They're amazing. 213 00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:14,204 Like, she is, just like on the ground 214 00:13:14,204 --> 00:13:17,885 floor of a lot of things happening in social media. A lot of the things 215 00:13:17,885 --> 00:13:21,345 that she covers are focused on bigger brands, but I 216 00:13:21,485 --> 00:13:25,325 extrapolate from that because, you know, bigger brands have larger teams 217 00:13:25,325 --> 00:13:29,070 and she's interviewing their teams. She's, dissecting 218 00:13:29,070 --> 00:13:32,450 the top performing content pieces. It's just a really fantastic resource. 219 00:13:33,310 --> 00:13:36,130 But I particularly love it be because, 220 00:13:37,070 --> 00:13:39,870 well, I like nerding out about social media and because I get to see them 221 00:13:39,870 --> 00:13:43,714 behind the scenes. So one of the interviews she did with was 222 00:13:43,714 --> 00:13:47,395 with the social media, I don't know, manager or director for a brand 223 00:13:47,395 --> 00:13:51,075 called Topicals, which is a skincare brand. And 224 00:13:51,075 --> 00:13:53,895 they actually created a private 225 00:13:54,435 --> 00:13:57,560 community for their, 226 00:13:58,019 --> 00:14:01,000 customers, and they did it through a custom platform. 227 00:14:02,339 --> 00:14:05,779 The screenshots make it look like social media. Like, it kinda looks 228 00:14:05,779 --> 00:14:09,399 like it could be a Twitter esque style platform. 229 00:14:10,134 --> 00:14:13,355 Anyways, they created this private 230 00:14:14,055 --> 00:14:17,815 space for their customers, and they have 231 00:14:17,815 --> 00:14:21,654 over 9,000, customers in this 232 00:14:21,654 --> 00:14:25,500 space who are happily sharing their experience. 233 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:30,600 Okay? And so what I think is so neat about 234 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:34,280 this is that as a brand, they're leaning into, quote, unquote, 235 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:38,065 dark social. They're creating these separate, like, anti 236 00:14:38,065 --> 00:14:41,665 social media spaces, even though they look a lot like social, private community, 237 00:14:41,665 --> 00:14:45,365 smaller communities, and they're building 238 00:14:45,425 --> 00:14:48,865 trust with their customers and clients all at the same time. K. And so I 239 00:14:48,865 --> 00:14:52,589 read this article and I instantly thought of more brands that I 240 00:14:52,589 --> 00:14:55,730 participate in that do this. So for example, 241 00:14:56,350 --> 00:14:59,949 I wear wigs. I, have alopecia. I've had it since I was 242 00:14:59,949 --> 00:15:03,089 12, so I'm used to this life at this point. 243 00:15:03,790 --> 00:15:07,625 And so I buy a lot of hair replacement products, if 244 00:15:07,625 --> 00:15:11,025 I can put in that category. And one that I 245 00:15:11,025 --> 00:15:14,705 purchased from, they like, I purchased it and immediately I got an invitation 246 00:15:14,705 --> 00:15:18,065 via email, to join their Facebook group. And, of course, as a marketer, I'm like, 247 00:15:18,065 --> 00:15:21,360 okay. Let me see what this is all about. What I loved about it is 248 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,800 it seemed to build camaraderie with 249 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:28,639 customers. Like, they are all taking pictures of their wig, different styles of their wig, 250 00:15:28,639 --> 00:15:32,240 posting in the group, asking people for feedback like, hey. I have this one. Should 251 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,824 I buy that one? And even though I'm just like a 252 00:15:35,824 --> 00:15:39,444 lurker, I don't post, I don't comment, I do anything. For me, 253 00:15:40,064 --> 00:15:43,745 it made me feel safer purchasing because 254 00:15:43,745 --> 00:15:47,370 it's a lot of money to purchase these units. It made me feel 255 00:15:47,370 --> 00:15:50,810 safer because I felt like I was in a community of like minded people. K? 256 00:15:50,810 --> 00:15:54,089 And this goes for many different communities. I read a lot of romance novels. And 257 00:15:54,089 --> 00:15:57,389 so authors often do this where they'll create communities 258 00:15:57,850 --> 00:16:01,695 for their most avid readers. And I'm in a few of those, and 259 00:16:01,695 --> 00:16:05,375 I just love it because I get to fangirl and and freak out 260 00:16:05,375 --> 00:16:08,975 over my favorite characters in the space with other people who are 261 00:16:08,975 --> 00:16:12,530 doing the same thing. And so I think this is such a powerful 262 00:16:12,990 --> 00:16:16,750 strategy to consider as a brand and a business owner because it's 263 00:16:16,750 --> 00:16:20,530 very different from the free Facebook group model of 264 00:16:20,750 --> 00:16:24,210 the olden years. So when I first started professionally 265 00:16:24,430 --> 00:16:28,074 in social media in 2014, is a very common strategy 266 00:16:28,295 --> 00:16:32,134 to create a fee free Facebook group, funnel those people into your 267 00:16:32,134 --> 00:16:35,815 paid product. The challenge with that is you're getting a bunch of 268 00:16:35,815 --> 00:16:39,495 people who aren't really committed to the to the group. 269 00:16:39,495 --> 00:16:42,630 They're just kind of there. And 270 00:16:43,250 --> 00:16:47,090 it's not really clear sometimes who the owner or founder of the group is, and 271 00:16:47,090 --> 00:16:50,630 it just is a very convoluted process to try in 2024. 272 00:16:51,090 --> 00:16:54,930 K? I wouldn't ever suggest a free Facebook group strategy, like, starting from scratch 273 00:16:54,930 --> 00:16:58,765 in 2024. Not it's not really something that I would do. So I think 274 00:16:58,765 --> 00:17:02,065 there are some ways as businesses and brands that we can 275 00:17:02,125 --> 00:17:05,425 lean into the concept of private or smaller 276 00:17:05,885 --> 00:17:09,585 communities of people, especially people who I would consider super fans, 277 00:17:09,950 --> 00:17:13,710 and really encourage the sharing of 278 00:17:13,710 --> 00:17:17,170 our products. Right? We wanna encourage people to get excited 279 00:17:17,309 --> 00:17:20,829 along with us. I do see my membership as a version of 280 00:17:20,829 --> 00:17:24,190 this. It is the main way that people can work with me 281 00:17:24,190 --> 00:17:27,984 now, and it is the most fun for me to be able to work with 282 00:17:27,984 --> 00:17:31,424 people in this way. And it's just a private space, especially for my pro 283 00:17:31,424 --> 00:17:35,024 members. When I think about the the challenges, the comments, and questions that they may 284 00:17:35,024 --> 00:17:38,385 have, it's not something you'd want to post on social media. Right? You wanna have 285 00:17:38,385 --> 00:17:42,060 a space where you're like, hey. So I have this client problem. I need some 286 00:17:42,060 --> 00:17:45,900 help, or I'm thinking about hiring, and I need to, like, draft up a, 287 00:17:46,540 --> 00:17:50,380 you know, job description, or I need to, like, budget for 2025. Like, all 288 00:17:50,380 --> 00:17:54,014 of these things aren't things you'd post on social media. But in a safe space, 289 00:17:54,014 --> 00:17:57,394 in in a space where you can feel, like, trusted, 290 00:17:57,934 --> 00:18:01,695 it absolutely could help. K? So when we think 291 00:18:01,695 --> 00:18:05,375 about marketing and business and dark 292 00:18:05,375 --> 00:18:08,830 social, how do we take that next step? Well, one of the things I do 293 00:18:08,830 --> 00:18:12,429 want you to consider is what does dark social look 294 00:18:12,429 --> 00:18:15,950 like for your community? K. What does dark social look like for your 295 00:18:15,950 --> 00:18:19,789 community? Is it as simple as, Instagram 296 00:18:19,789 --> 00:18:22,030 broadcast channel? Or are you creating, client customer only communities? Are you building spaces where 297 00:18:22,030 --> 00:18:25,524 you're customer only communities? Are you 298 00:18:25,524 --> 00:18:28,965 building spaces where your people can gather maybe even in 299 00:18:28,965 --> 00:18:32,725 person? Are you encouraging people to message you or 300 00:18:32,725 --> 00:18:36,424 to share content? Are you creating content with the purpose of sharing? 301 00:18:36,679 --> 00:18:40,380 I think sometimes as business owners too, we don't create content that isn't 302 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:44,280 designed to be shareable. We kind of create content and 303 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:47,900 hope people will like and comment on it or go to our website and buy. 304 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:51,495 But are we truly creating content where someone goes, oh, this is so 305 00:18:51,495 --> 00:18:54,695 good. I have to share it with my bestie. Or this is great. I have 306 00:18:54,695 --> 00:18:58,375 to send it to the group chat. Right? So how can we 307 00:18:58,375 --> 00:19:01,975 adapt our strategy to build client 308 00:19:01,975 --> 00:19:05,630 customer only spaces? How do we adapt our content to focus more on 309 00:19:05,630 --> 00:19:09,309 sharing versus then public engagement? And then 310 00:19:09,309 --> 00:19:12,850 how do we think about the future 311 00:19:13,150 --> 00:19:16,690 of dark social and the evolution of social media? 312 00:19:17,145 --> 00:19:20,825 Are we too reliant on public facing social media posts? Are we 313 00:19:20,825 --> 00:19:24,585 too reliant on the algorithm? These are all questions that do not yet 314 00:19:24,585 --> 00:19:28,265 have answers, but I wanna prompt you with them to hopefully get you to start 315 00:19:28,265 --> 00:19:31,930 thinking about how dark social can impact you and your 316 00:19:31,930 --> 00:19:35,710 business. Lastly, I want you to think about this. People are talking about you 317 00:19:35,770 --> 00:19:39,610 and your brand no matter what. Okay? So I once 318 00:19:39,610 --> 00:19:43,450 saw this conversation online. I'm trying not to give too much away because it 319 00:19:43,450 --> 00:19:47,125 was in a private community where, an individual was very 320 00:19:47,125 --> 00:19:50,905 upset about a Reddit thread about them. And 321 00:19:51,445 --> 00:19:54,885 I didn't say anything the time. Not my space. Not my not my not my 322 00:19:54,885 --> 00:19:58,585 community. Not for me. K. But my thought was, 323 00:19:59,290 --> 00:20:02,650 people are gonna talk about you anyways. And the fact that they did it on 324 00:20:02,650 --> 00:20:06,410 Reddit just means that more people were jumping into the into 325 00:20:06,410 --> 00:20:10,170 the fray, into the conversation. I don't think that 326 00:20:10,170 --> 00:20:13,725 that's necessarily a bad thing. I think it'd be challenging for sure, 327 00:20:13,725 --> 00:20:16,385 especially if it's factually inaccurate, 328 00:20:18,205 --> 00:20:21,905 or, intentionally, you know, belligerent. 329 00:20:22,125 --> 00:20:25,585 That that can be very challenging, of course. But and 330 00:20:25,810 --> 00:20:29,430 as business owners and content creators, marketers, 331 00:20:29,650 --> 00:20:32,950 we can't really do anything about that. Right? Like, we can't 332 00:20:33,810 --> 00:20:37,430 we can't monitor how people use Reddit. 333 00:20:38,255 --> 00:20:42,014 What we can do is focus in on our 334 00:20:42,014 --> 00:20:45,455 clients and customers who do like us and create amazing product 335 00:20:45,455 --> 00:20:49,215 experiences. We can create amazing marketing experiences. One of my 336 00:20:49,215 --> 00:20:52,835 goals, personally, is when people interact with me and my brand, 337 00:20:53,170 --> 00:20:56,230 that they smile. I don't want them to feel, 338 00:20:57,250 --> 00:21:01,010 overwhelmed. I don't want them to feel judging about themselves or 339 00:21:01,010 --> 00:21:04,770 cringey. I want them to go, That was nice. And 340 00:21:04,770 --> 00:21:07,725 then I want them to feel inspired to go do something about it. And so 341 00:21:07,885 --> 00:21:11,565 can I control if someone goes to Reddit and they go, I purchased this 342 00:21:11,565 --> 00:21:15,345 product and it was terrible? No. I can't control that. However, my hope 343 00:21:16,044 --> 00:21:19,164 is that I've built so much karma and goodwill and put that into the world 344 00:21:19,164 --> 00:21:21,804 that if someone were to go on Reddit and say, I hate this product so 345 00:21:21,804 --> 00:21:25,370 much, that my amazing community would then jump in and 346 00:21:25,370 --> 00:21:29,130 go, well, I liked it. And I had such amazing experience, and here's why. 347 00:21:29,130 --> 00:21:32,970 And so that's my hope. It's I can't control what other people do, what 348 00:21:32,970 --> 00:21:36,650 they share, how they react, but I can control my own 349 00:21:36,650 --> 00:21:40,305 efforts that I put into it. So 350 00:21:40,305 --> 00:21:43,845 the future. I am working on my predictions episode for 2025. 351 00:21:44,145 --> 00:21:47,825 And one of my predictions is that dark social is gonna 352 00:21:47,825 --> 00:21:50,645 become even more important. And not just dark social, 353 00:21:51,210 --> 00:21:55,049 but the community and connection piece of social media. We kinda swung 354 00:21:55,049 --> 00:21:58,429 away from that a little bit. We swung towards broadcasting 355 00:21:58,730 --> 00:22:02,429 and blasting out and shouting into the void and, 356 00:22:03,130 --> 00:22:06,785 we're swinging back. The pendulum is swinging back to connection and 357 00:22:07,405 --> 00:22:10,685 community in such a different way. You know, like, when I started on the Internet 358 00:22:10,685 --> 00:22:14,365 in 2004, I'm an Internet granny, y'all. I've been in here 359 00:22:14,365 --> 00:22:18,125 20 years. When I started back on the Internet in 2004, that was the 360 00:22:18,125 --> 00:22:21,490 point, connection and community. And, really, we were connecting with people we already 361 00:22:21,490 --> 00:22:25,190 knew or were in forums where we had similar ideas 362 00:22:25,250 --> 00:22:28,930 and similar likes. K? Now with the 363 00:22:28,930 --> 00:22:32,470 focus on content discovery, I think it's gonna be very interesting 364 00:22:32,690 --> 00:22:35,674 to see how this shifts the overall 365 00:22:36,054 --> 00:22:39,815 importance or lack thereof on creating content. I think 366 00:22:39,815 --> 00:22:43,174 it'll shift the amount of content that's being created. I think we're there's gonna be 367 00:22:43,174 --> 00:22:46,715 a focus on high quality content. But I will be sharing all of those thoughts 368 00:22:46,774 --> 00:22:50,580 in an upcoming episode. For now, just know that 369 00:22:50,580 --> 00:22:54,260 my advice is to embrace the trend. Think about how you can 370 00:22:54,260 --> 00:22:57,780 layer dark social intentionally into your strategies. So focus on sharing 371 00:22:57,780 --> 00:23:01,320 content, consider building client and customer only groups, encourage 372 00:23:01,380 --> 00:23:05,145 direct messages and emails, and be 373 00:23:05,145 --> 00:23:08,985 nimble. That's been my word so far. Nimble and flexible about the future and how 374 00:23:08,985 --> 00:23:12,585 that may change how you approach your marketing. That's it for 375 00:23:12,585 --> 00:23:16,424 this here episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. Make sure you rate 376 00:23:16,424 --> 00:23:20,210 and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Helps keep us in the top 377 00:23:20,210 --> 00:23:23,590 100 marketing podcasts. I also have to say, 378 00:23:24,450 --> 00:23:27,970 oh, next week, I'm talking with Kate Doster. It was an amazing 379 00:23:27,970 --> 00:23:31,650 interview all about bundles, and it just, like, stay 380 00:23:31,650 --> 00:23:35,475 tuned for that. And then lastly, I've rebranded. 381 00:23:35,935 --> 00:23:39,695 The Savvy Social School is now the mindful marketing labs. If you've 382 00:23:39,695 --> 00:23:43,215 been creeping my website, you saw the change already. You're on my email list. You 383 00:23:43,215 --> 00:23:47,060 saw me hint about it. It is now official. I'm really, really 384 00:23:47,060 --> 00:23:50,900 excited about this shift for me and for my members. And 385 00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:54,340 this episode is an example of why I'm making that shift 386 00:23:54,340 --> 00:23:58,040 because less of a focus on social media content production 387 00:23:58,100 --> 00:24:01,745 and more of a focus on like, like building 388 00:24:02,045 --> 00:24:05,565 virtual digital communities online. Right? And that can happen anywhere, not just on 389 00:24:05,565 --> 00:24:09,185 social as this episode proves. It's not just on social, 390 00:24:09,405 --> 00:24:13,105 it's everywhere. So if that's excites you, head on to my website onlinedraya.com 391 00:24:14,190 --> 00:24:17,389 and check out the Mindful Marketing Lab. I'll be back at you next week with 392 00:24:17,389 --> 00:24:19,169 another episode. Bye for now.