Dan Mandle

Senior editor at The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal, last year published a blog post about social media and its impact in generating web traffic: “Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong.”

With approximately 5,400 Tweets; 4,600 Facebook Likes; 1,200 shares on LinkedIn; and 1,100 +1s—to say nothing of the blog commentary and other related discourse in digital channels—it’s fair to say that “Dark Social” was a sticky idea that went viral.

To me, the main point of the post is that today's web analysts are decreasing the perceived value of social interactions in their reporting by relying on tools that track visits by referral sources—tools that invariably allocate otherwise socially driven traffic coming from, say, instant messenging and email to generic sources such as “direct” means.

Other, more general implications include:

1. The notion that optimizing for social media means more than looking at Facebook and Twitter. The content itself has to be appraised.
2. Formal social networks have brought a form of structure to social interactions that did not previously exist (in as simple a format).
3. Along with the structure of formal social networks there is not only a loss in privacy, but a gain in social record keeping.

There have been plenty of counterpoints to the Alexis piece. For instance, the notion that the web has only been social since the rise of social networks (ca. 2005) ignores the fact that the Internet—of which the worldwide web is a part—has been social since its inception. Is anyone up for a dial-up chat on a local bulletin board service (aka BBS)?

Regardless of semantics about the Interwebs, I was intrigued by the notion that our analyses might be downplaying the true role of social interactions simply on account of our toolsets.

I therefore replicated the Chartbeat methodology Alexis outlined in “Dark Social” and ran a test of the site Colle+McVoy launched earlier this year for the Pedal Minnesota campaign (www.pedalmn.com).

Methodology

• Exclude Sources (relevant to the site I analyzed)

• Specific media vendors/partnerships (i.e., exploreminnesota, bringmethenews, tuneupstation)

• Exclude Media (relevant to the site I analyzed)

• CPC, organic, email

• Exclude Landing Pages (clearly not “Dark” in their nature)

• Home page (i.e., /)
• Main section header pages (i.e., /map/|/events/|/resources/|/pedal central/|/contact/|/partners/

Results

My results reflected the general patterns Chartbeat isolated with traffic data to The Atlantic. At first glance, this might suggest we need to be more thorough with any site reporting that requires us to be 100 percent certain about all socially derived visits. However, owing to other truths about site analytics and methodologies (deactivated cookies, for instance, decreasing what we can actually report as full and complete records), we will never be 100 percent certain about all such visits.

Analysts working in agencies should keep this in mind. As much as we'd like to report firm campaign results to our teammates and, ultimately, our clients, courtesy of web analytics tools that purportedly count unique visitors to your properties and tally the sources of their arrival to those properties, we need to be transparent about the fact that—unless we're pulling server logs—our data is always going to be directional.

Jen Stack

The Twin Cities is getting its own Nuit Blanche and we couldn’t be happier. We fully embrace and support our amazing local arts community, but we think it deserves a lot more attention. That’s what the international Nuit Blanche movement is going to bring.

Nuit Blanche (literally White Night, All-Nighter or Sleepless Night in French) is an annual all-night or nighttime arts festival that opens museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions for free and provides space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, performance art), themed social gatherings and other activities.

This Saturday, June 4, the Twin Cities is joining the movement by hosting Northern Spark , the area’s first ever, all-night long arts festival transforming the cities’ urban landscapes into a Twin Cites' wide art gallery. More than 60 regional and national artists together with the Twin Cities’ arts community will display new art installations at public places and unexpected locations throughout the cities. Directed and produced by Northern Lights.mn and funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board, Northern Spark takes place from sunset on June 4 (8:55 p.m.) until the morning of June 5, 2011 (sunrise 5:28 a.m. ).

While there are lots of events and places to visit, below is a quick rundown or cheat sheet of key events from our friends at Pop Fizz Daily:

8:55 p.m. : At Upper Landing Park in St. Paul, Philip Blackburn has composed a car horn fanfare. It will be accompanied by the lighting of Jim Campbell’s "Scattered Light" . More than 1,600 suspended LEDs encased in standard light bulbs are programmed to play a video. Then follow "Nightmare" (The eerie and unexpected vision of a white horse galloping on the Mississippi at night, produced by towing a video screen on the river) as the horse begins its trek.

11 p.m. : We’ll head back over to Minneapolis. There will be 10 art projects on the Stone Arch Bridge, such as "MURMUR," which are select photographs that will be projected in large scale on the Gold Medal Flour silos, and "Ceil," a laser that sweeps across the Mississippi River to create a canopy.

12:30 a.m. : Snack time! There will be food trucks scattered throughout the city and free coffee at Black Dog Cafe .

2 a.m. : We’ll also be dropping by the Walker Art Center , which will have galleries open until 6 a.m. and a lawn full of projects such as "The Shape of Night" (2 a.m.), you can bring your sleeping bag and be documented creating your own special sleeping position.

2 a.m. : Swing by MCAD, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, the Soap Factory and Soo Visual Arts Center . See listings here .

4 a.m. : Feel the heat at a bonfire in Loring Park .

5:30 a.m. : A pancake breakfast will be served at Intermedia Arts .