Logins has become a central part of
our lives – from email to banking, social media to any interaction with a
service online. A login has become a
central part of our lifestyle, yet it is difficult to remember the various
passwords and logins we are expected to create to keep our identities safe from
hackers.
Social media has taken advantage of
this need for logins and created a symbiotic system with online services and consumers. Using social media accounts as the base of a
login means that people do not have to remember what email, login name or
password they used for that particular service.
It is very convenient, especially on the mobile platform, to sign up for
a service simply with one touch of a button as opposed to filling out a whole screen
of information. The social media login works
for the service because it makes signing up significantly easier for
consumers. Easier signup means less
barriers to overcome for consumers who will be more willing to share their
information. It also means they have
greater access to our information than we probably would have shared with them
otherwise.
Finally, using social media as the
sign up is great for that service as well.
It keeps the site extremely relevant in everyday life, and would make
switching costs to another social media type much harder. Consumers are fickle and lose interest for
the “next big thing.” Casual gaming is a
perfect example of the capriciousness of consumers. Games constantly have the attention of
millions of people, only too quickly to fade to the cemetery of irrelevant
games. Social media giants such as
Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Yahoo are fighting to remain relevant in
consumers minds. Connecting logins with
each of these services is a great way to make sure there are huge switching
costs to not use the service anymore. In
addition, using these sites as a login provides additional data about consumers
that can be capitalized on by these social media titans. When using these sign-ins, we forget how much
more data we are providing to these services.
Perhaps however, this does not matter with the rest of the information
we are already providing for them. Social media services, such as Facebook, are
trying to clarify the amount of information we are providing to the new services
when we give them access to our Facebook accounts. It is important to remember this data does
not just go to Facebook, but in many cases we are giving away a lot more
information about ourselves to new digital services when we sign in via
Facebook than we would ever allow signing up for the service separately.
This blog is based on the Mashable article: http://mashable.com/2013/10/29/facebook-dominates-social-logins/?utm_medium=feed
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