Use Membee’s Social Login to Tear Down the Login Barrier to Member Participation
Member login has become a dilemma in professional membership management as more and more member benefits took the form of content and features on member organization websites. “We need to place content and features behind login to reserve the benefit for our members but the login prevents the consumption of these benefits by the very …
Member login has become a dilemma in professional membership management as more and more member benefits took the form of content and features on member organization websites.
“We need to place content and features behind login to reserve the benefit for our members but the login prevents the consumption of these benefits by the very people it is intended for, our members.”
That’s the problem with a locked door – it’s locked. There has got to be a better way!
What is Social Login?
It’s simple. It is the ability for the member to login to “members only” content (a content section of your website) or features (the member’s profile) using one of their social network identities (usernames and passwords).
A few days ago, we quietly released a powerful new feature in Membee entitled “Social Login”, that allows your members to login to any “members only” feature or content on your website using either their Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, or LinkedIn username and password. A username and password that they remember and likely use every day (in 2011, 50% of Facebook’s 800 million users logged in each day).
As usual, we have developed detailed “how to” steps on how to plunk this new feature into your website but, in this post, we’d like to focus on why you shouldn’t delay in launching Membee’s Social Login feature. We’ll also quickly touch on seven of the really big capabilities that will have you and your members loving this new feature.
Why Should We Use This Membee Feature on Our Site?
There’s tons of research out there that confirms a lot of the things most of us long suspected about the fundamental member participation barriers created when you place content behind login. We did find one consumer study performed by Blue Research and funded by Janrain that aligns with the member behavior we have witnessed over the years.
The Challenge
The Solution
Let the member use a username and password they remember and take advantage of the following:
Some Highlights of Membee’s New Social Login Feature
a) Support for the Top Five Social Network Identity Providers
The last data we looked at shows Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and LinkedIn accounting for the vast majority of social network identities used by people worldwide. In fact, if your member has a login identity on a social network, chances are, it is one of these – a 93% chance.
Some close scrutiny of the login identity market share data shows a couple of other identity providers ranked ahead of LinkedIn in terms of total share of social network login identities. Remember the goal here – make access to your “members only” features and content as easy as possible for members.
Business people of all types use LinkedIn and business people (and their companies) are members so including LinkedIn despite its lower (much lower, down around 11th place in total share of issued usernames and passwords) ranking is important because it is popular with members. So, we moved it up the list.
b) The Member Chooses the Login They Want to Use
As the consumer research above clearly indicates, the last thing a member wants is another username and password that they need to keep track of.
Giving the member the choice over which of their existing social network login identities they wish to use on your site actually has a positive opposite effect. Having the choice actually encourages participation and consumption of the great member benefits you have secured behind login.
c) It Doesn’t Matter Which CMS You Use to Manage Your Site
Whether you manage your site in WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or one of the other popular content management systems (CMS), you can still use Membee to manage access to “members only” content by utilizing Membee’s recently upgraded “Member Single Sign-On Service (MSSO)” which now fully supports this new Social Login feature. The advantage to members is that they enjoy a true single sign-on experience and only login in to your site once. Whether they access their profile first (a Membee feature) or members only content your web developer has secured using MSSO or in the opposite order, the member only needs to login in once!
d) “Members Only” Features Can Automatically Recognize a Returning Member
The best login is no login at all. If your member tells their social network site to “keep me logged in” then Membee can use this setting to eliminate the need to present the member with a login page.
Instead, Membee will welcome the member back to your site and remind them which social network login they are using to access “members only” content.
In one click of the mouse, the member is authenticated (logged in) transparently and is off to the secured content or Membee feature.
In our example, “Bill” has decided to use his LinkedIn identity to access the “members only” content.
e) The Member Gets Convenience While You Maintain Complete Control 
Even though the member is using one of their social network identities to access your “members only” content and features, you still maintain complete control over the member’s access and you can remove that access at any time.
Technically, when the member chooses to use a social network identity like their LinkedIn ID as an example, Membee is “associating” that social network ID with their identity in Membee. When a member uses their social network identity to access “members only” content, Membee is using their social network identity to look them up in its structure to then determine if the member should or should not have access.
As a result, if you “deactivate” the member’s access in their record in Membee, you are turning off their access regardless of which social network identity they have been using. In our example, deactivating “Bill” will instantly remove his ability to access “members only” content and features using his LinkedIn ID. Bill can access his LinkedIn account normally, he simply lost access to your members only content and features.
The member gets great convenience while you maintain control over access.
f) Not Ready For Social Login Quite Yet?
No problem! Membee’s new login functionality still allows the member to use their email address as their username and lets them setup a password that is familiar to them.
In our example, member “Jane” has complete control over the password she decides to use and if you decide not to accept any of the social network identities for login then those options are not presented to her.
Even with this option, the number of login-related inquiries from members is reduced substantially because they set their password to something familiar to them.
g) It’s a Membee Widget So It’s Easy to Deploy
Since the new login capabilities are configured in Membee as a “widget” that you in turn, drop onto a page in your site, the member gets great capabilities right from your site, not from some foreign page that raises flags and/or prompts questions.
Like all Membee widgets, your web developer can style the widget to use your site’s fonts, spacing, and layout design.
Ready to Get Started?
We’ve worked hard to develop detailed step-by-step instructions to walk you through deploying this great new Membee feature. We have even included steps, complete with screen shots, to complete the one-time setup steps within the social networks themselves that permit Membee to use their user identities for login.
It’s all here, just follow the link below (remember to have your Membee username and password handy):
http://membee.zendesk.com/entries/20662423-social-login-making-secured-access-easier-for-members