• Growth Elements
  • Posts
  • What is Dark Social & How to Leverage It with Private Communities for Virality

What is Dark Social & How to Leverage It with Private Communities for Virality

Author

Chintankumar Maisuria
March 13, 2025

Read time: 4 minutes.

Welcome to the 102nd edition of The Growth Elements Newsletter. Every Monday and sometimes on Thursday, I write an essay on growth metrics & experiments and business case studies.

Today’s piece is for 7,000+ founders, operators, and leaders from businesses such as Shopify, Google, Sage, Hubspot, Zoho, RateGain, Zaggle, Servcorp, and Apollo.

Today’s The Growth Elements is brought to you by:

Cold Email Setup Offer

We sent 10,000 cold emails per day, and scaled a B2B offer to $108k MRR in 90 days. Now, you can have the same system set up (completely done-for-you) inside your own business - WITHOUT going to spam or spending thousands of dollars.

Thank you for supporting our sponsors, who keep this newsletter free.

If you rely only on Google Analytics or social media dashboards to track engagement, you’re missing a huge chunk of reality.

Most content sharing today happens in places where tracking is hard; this is Dark Social.

Dark Social refers to content being shared privately, outside the visibility of traditional analytics.

This includes:

  • WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal messages

  • Slack and Discord discussions

  • Private Facebook Groups & LinkedIn DMs

  • Email forwarding and direct referrals

A RadiumOne study found that 84% of content sharing happens via Dark Social, yet most brands have no strategy to capitalize on it.

The solution? Private communities.

[1] Why Private Communities Are the Key to Dark Social Growth

Brands that understand Dark Social don’t try to fight it; they build invite-only communities to turn it into an engine for organic virality.

Why Private Communities Work:

  • Trust & Exclusivity: A closed community builds authenticity, making members more likely to engage and share.

  • Dark Social Amplification: High-value discussions naturally spread through private channels.

  • Referral-Driven Growth: Peer-to-peer recommendations inside private groups convert better than cold traffic.

  • Zero-Cost Virality: Dark Social sharing compounds network effects, reducing reliance on paid acquisition to some extent.

Example: Notion’s exclusive Friends of Notion Slack group turned power users into evangelists, fueling adoption through word of mouth.

[2] How to Leverage Dark Social & Private Communities for Virality

Rather than chasing vanity metrics, brands should engineer their growth strategies around Dark Social.

Here’s how:

[a] Build a Private Community as a Dark Social Hub

Traditional social media isn’t enough. You need an owned space where your audience connects and spreads influence organically.

Best Platforms for Private Communities:

  • Slack / Discord (for SaaS, B2B, and high-value networks)

  • WhatsApp / Telegram (for high-engagement niche audiences)

  • Private LinkedIn / Facebook Groups (for professional communities)

Key Actions:

  • Provide insider access to exclusive content, discussions, and events.

  • Position your community as a collaborative space, not a marketing channel.

  • Encourage UGC (user-generated content), AMAs, and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

Example: Figma’s private Friends of Figma Slack group became a hub for designers to share workflows, building organic adoption through Dark Social virality.

[b] Engineer Content for Dark Social Sharing

Content designed for Dark Social thrives when it’s effortless to share in private settings.

What Works Best?

  • Bite-sized insights that solve specific problems.

  • High-value PDF guides, templates, and checklists.

  • Private-access webinars & invite-only deep dives.

How to Optimize for Dark Social:

  • Use UTM tracking in PDFs, newsletters, and gated content.

  • Create referral-based sharing incentives (e.g., VIP access for users who invite others).

  • Add one-click “Share to WhatsApp / Slack” CTAs in strategic places.

Example: Lenny Rachitsky’s newsletter drives Dark Social virality by offering exclusive subscriber-only AMAs inside his private Slack group.

[c] Incentivize Private Referral Loops

Dark Social isn’t trackable like paid ads, but it’s infinitely more powerful when designed to fuel itself.

How to Create Dark Social Referral Flywheels:

  • Make access invite-only so users feel they’re part of something exclusive.

  • Offer referral rewards (VIP content, premium features, or exclusive perks).

  • Embed “Share with your team” buttons optimized for private channels like WhatsApp and Slack.

Example: Superhuman’s invite-only email onboarding created elite demand, making private referrals a primary growth channel.

[3] How to Track & Measure Dark Social Impact

Since Dark Social traffic doesn’t show up in standard analytics, you need alternative ways to track its effectiveness.

How to Measure Dark Social Growth:

  • UTM Parameters: Add unique links to track how PDFs, reports, and emails get shared privately.

  • Custom Redirect Links: Use Bit.ly or Rebrandly to see how often links are copied and pasted.

  • Dark Social-Specific CTAs: Include WhatsApp/Slack share buttons on key content.

  • Onboarding Surveys: Ask new users directly: “How did you hear about us?”

Example: ConvertKit discovered that over 60% of high-LTV referrals came from Dark Social by tracking hidden UTM links inside exclusive reports.

Final Words

  • 84% of social sharing happens in private channels. Brands ignoring Dark Social are missing the real conversation.

  • Private communities act as organic growth accelerators, turning engaged users into referral drivers.

  • The smartest brands engineer content, experiences, and incentives for Dark Social sharing, making it a predictable growth lever.

That's it for today's article! I hope you found this essay insightful.

Wishing you a productive week ahead!

I always appreciate you reading.

Thanks,
Chintankumar Maisuria