Social media is a great way for entrepreneurs and small businesses to engage with their customers by sharing useful contentcompany updates, promotions and answers to questions. Most importantly, customers can easily share this information with their network of friends and family.

For many small businesses, this helps generate ea a significant part (over 40%) of their annual income. While most social media platforms are equipped with tools and buttons for easy sharing, more and more consumers are turning to a practice known as dark social.

Dark social refers to the sharing of online and social media content through private communication channels such as email, instant messaging or encrypted applications such as WhatsApp. While you might think all stakes are equal, dark social is creating headaches for entrepreneurs trying to optimize marketing efforts. Globally, about 70% of all social media shares happens through dark social channels, simply by copying and pasting the link in messages. As the traffic from these sources is huge, it becomes impossible for traditional analytics tools to track.

Despite these challenges, dark social sharing can provide many benefits for business. Since links are shared directly from a trusted source like friends or family, recipients are more likely to trust the link and click. For this reason, every small business owner must learn how to maximize the impact of tapping this hidden audience. Here's how:

Related: Most small business owners rely on word of mouth referrals. Here are 3 ways to get them.

1. Create content specifically for dark social

Since click-through rates are higher with dark social sharing, content should be tailored to encourage this level of private sharing with friends and family. First, dark social content needs to be mobile friendly as most internet usage now happens through mobile devices. The most successful content will include things that evoke emotions or encourage discussion.

For example, content that brings back feelings of nostalgia may be popular with older audiences. Don't be afraid to think outside the box to make the content visual or entertaining. Short video reels (like TikTok videos) and infographics make for great dark social content.

2. Use UTM parameters

Unfortunately, inbound traffic from links shared through dark social channels is often recorded as direct traffic, meaning analytics tools can't tell the difference between a visitor who clicked a link or typed in the URL in their browser. One solution is to incorporate UTM parameters, or Urchin tracking modules, into your links. In short, these are small pieces of code added to the end of a URL that provide additional information to web analytics tools. These UTM parameters can be used to identify the resource as a particular campaign or specific location on your website.

The only problem with UTM parameters is that the URL can get quite long. This increases the risk of the user not copying the full URL, leading to a broken link. To solve this, you can use tools like Bitly to shorten the URL and make it more user friendly.

3. Provide more sharing options

In some cases, you can actively encourage dark social sharing by providing additional sharing options for your audience. For example, you can add a quick link at the bottom of your content that makes it easy to email a friend with the link. Content that contains a clear CTA (call to action) directing the viewer to forward the information or send it to a friend is more likely to be shared.

Offering exclusive or limited-time offers is another way to foster an environment where people want to share your content. For example, some brands may offer a shared discount code that encourages people to pass on the savings and promote the brand to others. This is especially powerful with closed content (such as e-books or webinars) as it provides a sense of exclusivity.

Related: How to create shareable content

4. Use social listening tools

The thing about private communication is that it's private. Understanding how consumers feel about your product and brands is difficult when their conversations happen “behind closed doors.” To get the most out of your dark social endeavors, sometimes you have to feel consumer sentiment.

While you can't track dark social networks directly, you can use tools like Brandwatch to help monitor trends, specific keywords, hashtags, and brand mentions in real time. Not only can this provide valuable insights into the types of conversations being held in private channels, but it can also be segmented into useful demographics and geographies.

Dark social will continue to be a challenge for small businesses looking to use social media and understand their customers. But it shouldn't be an obstacle. Since dark social is more impactful and meaningful than direct messaging from the company through advertising, embracing this trend can significantly increase business reputation and sales.