‘Companies should embrace social logins’

When you want to onboard a customer to your online store, app or online community, you want them to register. But that’s something not every customer likes to do. Difficult forms with too many mandatory fields push people away. Social logins however are convenient and easy to use. More companies should embrace social logins, says the CEO of Veridu.

It seems websites have a love-hate relationship with social logins. While one company believes strongly in this form of single sign on, another company wants nothing to do with certain login options. But Rasmus Groth, CEO and founder of Veridu, believes companies who don’t use social logins will miss out on a huge amount of business.

“Giving users the opportunity to sign up and log in using social media should be mandatory”, he tells us. “Conversion rates are something every online business owner is constantly trying to improve — often by removing form fields or making buttons brighter, but they are missing out on an easy fix that gives them more data and makes their users happy.” And that easy fix would be social logins. “Online users are more likely to sign up when they don’t have to create an account or remember a new password. So social login has made the user’s life a lot easier and businesses more prosperous.”

But it’s not only a convenient solution for consumers, companies could also benefit from this, as it authenticate users. A white paper from Ping Identity shows that six in ten people can’t remember all of their passwords, while 61% reuses their passwords on multiple websites. A one-click single sign on authentication process could provide great convenience to most users. “And on the other hand, single sign on has another great benefit”, Groth says. “A study from Janrain in 2013 showed that 88% of users admit to entering incomplete or incorrect data in registration forms. By letting consumers use single sign on, you are ensured to getting correct data.”

According to Groth, whose company create alternative ways for people to verify themselves online, internet users are enjoying the benefits of social login, “as almost 9 out of 10 state that they are bothered by having to create new accounts on websites.” When it comes to the different forms of social logins, Facebook is the most populair choice, followed by Google, Twitter and further down the line LinkedIn.

‘Social logins improve the mobile experience’
Groth thinks social login also improves the mobile user experience, something that’s getting more important now more consumers like to browse websites using their smartphone or tablet. “It’s especially tiresome to fill out a form on your mobile device. Companies that add social login to their services make it as easy as clicking a button to sign in with Facebook. In the United Kingdom alone, IMRG states that 40% of all transactions are moving mobile. This calls for a frictionless mobile experience.”

Groth knows for sure: social logins are here to stay. “Any business can significantly improve registrations by giving their users the choice to sign up more easily.” Of course, he will say this as Veridu is a company that’s all about social logins. Veridu, headquartered in London with another office in Copenhagen, analyzes the online footprint that every user of online services leaves behind. Using advanced algorithms the company calculates a score that shows how trustworthy any internet user’s profile is.

More time spent on sites after social login
Another thing that hasn’t been mentioned by Groth but that could also convince companies to embrace social logins, is research from 2012, that shows users spend 50 percent more time on sites when they’re logging in through social networks. That’s four more minutes with a social login than with a standard login.