Have you heard of the password fatigue syndrome? It is one common aspect of the internet life. It has led to many website abandonments in the past. But thanks to social media login integration, market executives have discovered a ‘Newfoundland’ of increased customer engagement and conversion rates.
Social media login is one of the top tools for websites to simplify their registration forms and checkout pages.
Why are social media logins important?
With the growing number of websites, an average person holds at least 26 different accounts. Users have to remember as many as 19 passwords, out of which at least one login detail is bound to be forgotten. This gives rise to frustration, which ultimately leads to website abandonment.
Based on observation, e-commerce sites are probably the most affected platforms. The reason being that when it comes to retail markets, customers have plenty of options. The e-commerce market is huge and apparently the World Wide Web has over 12 million online stores. So there are plenty of competitors out there who are vying to grab your customers’ attention. Whether you shorten your registration form or change the text on your Call-to-Action button, social logins are a must if you want to generate more ROI and fix issues like desertion of shopping carts.
Social logins give users the choice between signing up with their existing social account IDs and filling out the registration form. This makes things easier because it prevents customers from abandoning your site and speeds up the registration process.
Customer engagement and website conversion are interrelated. Here are some social login behavior trends explaining why businesses need them –
- 2016 is the age of social media multi-screeners and people use more than one device to access information on the internet. Social media logins offer hassle-free sign-ins that would otherwise become difficult if a person tries to avail information from a site over smartphones and tablets.
- Social media logins provide marketers access to accurate data about age, address, gender, preferences, social relationships and other demographic data.
- Better data leads to better marketing strategies
- 86 percent of users get irritated if they have to create new website accounts
- 77 percent of users prefer social media logins
- 92 percent abandon a site instead of recovering or resetting their login info
- 88 percent enter incomplete or incorrect data on the registration forms
- Social media logins prevent bad login practices like, using the same password for multiple accounts, which makes a user account vulnerable to hackers and cyber theft
Social media login integration should, therefore, be part of your web design.
To optimize your business efforts, it is important to consider which social platforms have the highest number of relevant users. Of course, this calls for some market research and understanding of user behavior. However, here is a general overview to show you which social media logins are preferred the most by users –
(Source)
Factors to consider when selecting Social Media Logins
The key to successful business is always striking the right chord. The following factors should determine the choice of social media logins for your site.
#1 – Device Preference
Integration of social media logins hugely depends on the type of device that your customers use. If you thought smartphones are the most preferred choice when it comes to logging in, then you are in for some disappointment. PCs continue to dominate when it comes to choosing a device to log in.
(Source)
Social media login integration in mobile apps has picked up and hence is an important trend to look out for.
#2- Age Demographics
Social activities may vary from person to person. The chart below displays social login activity according to different age groups –
(Source)
Social login activities are significantly higher (38 percent) among age groups of 18 to 25 years while they are lower (11 percent) among age groups of 50 years and above.
#3 – Customer Verticals
Customer verticals are an important consideration when it comes to creating your business strategies. It means targeting your audience according to the type of customers they are. Despite the fact that Facebook and Twitter are some of the most popular social media platforms with the highest number of social logins, they certainly do not cater to all businesses.
Volkswagen, for instance, is one of the biggest car makers in the world and LinkedIn is their preferred social media platform. That’s because LinkedIn connects working professionals. The chances of finding genuinely interested customers, who can afford their brand, are higher on a professional social network. You will need to evaluate your customer verticals before deciding which social media logins to integrate into your site’s registration form.
Social Media Logins based on your industry
More than 60 percent of customers use their Facebook account to sign into retail sites. Take a look at some of these charts that measure the different social media login trends across different industries.
A. Media Sites
(Source)
B. Gaming and Entertainment
(Source)
C. Music
(Source)
Facebook is the dominant social media login in the three industries mentioned above.
However, if you have a business related to photography or graphic design, then integration of social media buttons like Pinterest would work better for you. The message stands clear – look where your target audience is.
Important social login trends in the third quarter of 2015
- Mobile faces a slight decrease in social logins (26 percent), which indicates a shift in user behavior
- Facebook is now the dominant social media login among online users and has an increased share across different verticals – Entertainment, Media, B2B and Customer Brands.
Making the Best Use of Your Social Login Data
Social login data improves your business strategies by allowing you to target your audience more accurately than ever.
It gets you instant access to rich psychographic, demographic and social graph data of your target audience. Leverage this information for content personalization, tailored segmentation and product recommendation to generate increased ROI and better brand management across different social platforms.
Implementing Social Logins the Right Way
Social media login integrations help to add user decision points and minimize barriers to site entry.
However, if a site is unable to improve its failed-login-led-site-abandonment rates even after adding the social login buttons on the registration or sign-in forms, then chances are that there could be other factors that are affecting the site’s conversion.
Mailchimp, for example, witnessed a 66 percent drop in failed login attempts. However, according to them, it was not the result of social login integration. As Aarron points out in his article on MailChimp – the big drop in login failure was mainly caused due to copywriting improvements and better handling of the errors.
Based on this, it seems reasonable to point out that B2C companies are more likely to benefit from social media login integration than B2B companies. Social media connections have helped the retail industry generate higher sales both online and offline. Nearly 40 percent of all sales the retail industry makes are generated via social media channels.
A social media login must be integrated as an option and not as a requirement. There are instances when a person is more comfortable with setting up a separate account from a site or an app than using an existing social login ID. Choice of registration options may vary from person to person and you must keep both the options open. Remember, the goal is to ensure successful user sign-ins that would help move the conversion into real-time ROI.
Social Media Login is one of the key tools to establish customer trust instantly. It has become an integral part of our daily lives. As speed and convenience are paramount, social media logins seem to be the standardized option for every registration or checkout process. It makes user experience simple!
However, don’t go on implementing them just because they are now being used on every website and application registration page. It’s best to consider your business goals and your audience first. To conclude – Use them only if they serve your business purpose.