Primary Social Sharing Channel By Select Countries, October 2014 [CHART]

Dark social accounted for 69% of the total content shared via the source’s Po.st platform globally. Facebook grabbed just 23% of shares, and all other social media took 8%.

Other research indicates that beyond social sharing, consumers just prefer more private methods of communicating. September 2014 polling by Gallup found that text messages and emails were more popular forms of communication than social media messages. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of US consumers had sent or read a text message in the day leading up to the study, and 70% had sent or read an email. Meanwhile, 55% had posted or read messages on Facebook, Instagram or another social network, and just 13% had used Twitter to communicate.

Email remains more widespread in the US than social media. This year, eMarketer expects 226.6 million US internet users to send an email at least monthly, representing 89.6% of internet users and 71.1% of the population. Meanwhile, 173.2 million consumers will log on to social networks via any device once a month or more—68.5% of internet users and 54.3% of the population. Read the rest at eMarketer.