Offering a social login option to visitors to your brand websites and mobile applications is no longer an option. It’s an imperative.
If you want to meet consumer expectations, increase trust, boost convenience, collect demographic and psychographic data, and increase user registrations, then social logins should be integrated into all of your websites and applications.
In its 3Q 2014 study of social login trends across the web, Janrain found that Facebook is the social login market share leader, and it is extending that lead (up 2% from the previous quarter). Google holds the second spot, but it’s losing ground to Facebook. Other social login options are far behind the two leaders except on business-to-business sites and applications where LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook are much closer in market share. In fact, Google took the top spot on B2B sites and applications during the third quarter of 2014.
The study also found that 90% of respondents have encountered a social login and 91% have been satisfied with the social login experience. However, they want a choice in the social account they use to log into a site with. They want to feel like they’re in control. For example, while Facebook is convenient for many people and integrates directly into applications like Spotify, many people prefer to log in using their Google account simply because all of their Google experiences are so tightly integrated. They’re already accustomed to using their Google IDs to log into Gmail, Google+, YouTube, Android, and so on. For other people, niche social media accounts are preferred for social logins, such as Instagram among younger audiences and Amazon on ecommerce sites. Again, choice is very important when it comes to social logins.
For brand marketers, Janrain identified several key takeaways from the third quarter 2014 social login study:
- Social logins increase user registrations and conversions.
- Social logins provide a wealth of demographic and psychographic data that can be used for future segmentation and targeting in marketing campaigns.
- Social logins improve the user experience by making the registration process quick, easy, and trustworthy.
The results of this study mirror the results of a similar social login study by Gigya that was conducted during the third quarter of 2014. Bottom-line, Facebook is the current social login leader, but that doesn’t mean it should be the only social login option that you provide. Give your audience a choice and let them control their user experience in order to get the best results for your brand.
Image: Pascal Montsma
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
