Social sign-in: a better way for your website?

Got a registration-required area on your B2B website? …or maybe you’re thinking of adding one?

Then you may want to take note of a recent trend manifesting itself in the B2C world, which is:  allowing users to sign on with their favorite social media profile (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).  Called social sign-in, it’s supported by research described in a recent post by Martin Meyer-Gossner on SocialMediaToday.  The survey of over 600 online consumers found that…

• 75% said they don’t like online registration;  and when confronted with such a requirement, may simply leave the site and not come back again.
• More than three-quarters admit to putting incomplete or incorrect information in online registration forms.
• Only 25% are likely to hand over their (real) information when asked to register.

But on the other hand…

• 66% agreed that signing in with their preferred social profile is a viable solution to the problem that “should be offered”; and
• 42% feel that companies offering a social sign-in option “are more up-to-date, innovative and leave a positive impression, compared to those which do not offer this capability”.

Wow!  Sure, you might argue that this is purely a B2C phenomenon;  but we all know that B2B buyers are people, too; and that trends that start in B2C usually find their way to B2B in some form reasonably soon.  There’s little doubt that B2B visitors feel just as frustrated by that pile of login IDs and passwords that they can’t remember or track.

So this starts to look a lot like another trend not to buck.  And wouldn’t you really rather have your company perceived as “more up-to-date and innovative?”  Case closed.