'Net Features : Janrain

Google+ Sign-In Available at Janrain and Gigya

Allison Howen — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:15:00 GMT

Social sign-in has been a helpful feature to site owners and visitors alike – it enables visitors to log into a website with existing social profiles, while also increasing engagement levels and enabling site owners to gather valuable information from their site’s new members.

In fact, many developers already use platforms like Janrain and Gigya to implement social sign-in for networks like Facebook and Twitter on their site, and now, both Janrain and Gigya are adding Google+ sign-in to their product suites.

"Google+ Sign-in is a major innovation in social login," said Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya. "By adding it to Gigya's Social Login, we're able to help our clients quickly implement the technology so that their users can seamlessly discover and download mobile content and apps and engage with brands across devices."

This update allows clients of Janrain and Gigya to not only add a new trusted authentication to their apps and sites, but also offers a feature that promotes mobile application discovery. For example, when users log into sites via Google+, the site can prompt visitors to download related Android apps with over-the-air installs, which helps to increase content and brand engagement across devices. Moreover, consumers who sign-in with Google+ will be able to share content to Google+ through a new Interactive Posts feature.

“Consumers place a significant amount of trust in their online identity providers, which is why social login is so popular. We’re pleased to see Google trending in a positive direction,” said Larry Drebes, CEO of Janrain. “The integration of Google+ Sign-In is a significant milestone in our efforts to offer the broadest range of technology support so our customers, such as NPR, HSN and Universal Music Group, can capture key profile data that allows them to improve customer engagement and marketing.”

The Benefits of Social Login

Allison Howen — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Is your website’s long membership registration form negatively affecting your marketing efforts? According to a new study, it could be.

The Consumer Perceptions of Social Login Study, which was conducted by Blue Research and commissioned by Janrain, reveals that 98 percent of consumers claim that they have been mistargeted by marketers. However, this is typically not the fault of the marketer, because 83 percent of the survey respondents also admit to giving false or incomplete information when registering at a website.

One way that marketers can avoid obtaining false information from consumers is by offering social login on websites. This is because social login allows site owners to collect more accurate date that is derived from social profiles. Not only can this feature improve a brand’s marketing efforts, but also traffic and engagement metrics. In fact, the study found that 92 percent of consumers have left a website instead of resetting or recovering their login information, and 64 percent of consumers who frequently leave sites when login information is forgotten think that social login would be a helpful feature.

That being said, another reason why consumers prefer social login is because it helps personalize their online experiences. According to 67 percent of the respondents, social login’s ability to deliver a more personalized experience, which includes delivering relevant ads, is highly attractive. Moreover, 65 percent of consumers agree that they would be more likely to return to a website that remembers them without a username or password.

However, for companies, one of the biggest benefits of offering social login is its potential to help acquire new customers and increase conversions. This is because social login not only makes it easy for consumers to register on a website, but it also makes it easy for site visitors to share content with their social network – which provides brands with free word-of-mouth advertising. For example, 78 percent of the survey respondents say that they have navigated to a website as a result of a mention from someone within their social network, while 72 percent have considered purchasing a new product or service after viewing a positive comment or message from someone within their social network.

Now for the biggest surprise of the study – most consumers would prefer to use their Pinterest credentials when signing up for social login. While this social network has seen a lot of success over the last year, it is a bit of a shocker that more people would choose to use their Pinterest account for signing into a website than the world’s number one social network – Facebook.

Collect Email Addresses via Social Sign-In

Allison Howen — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:47:00 GMT

Collecting email addresses just got a whole lot easier, especially for B2B marketers.

Silverpop is to thank. The company announced an enhancement to its Social Sign-In feature, which is built through a partnership with social identity and user management solutions provider Janrain.

The enhancement gives Silverpop customers the ability to collect email addresses when an individual registers for an offer using existing LinkedIn credentials. This is an especially valuable feature for B2B marketers, who are more interested in interacting with potential buyers via their professional email than a personal account, as well as for marketers who want to target communication based on recipients' professional backgrounds.

"Social Sign-In benefits both buyers and marketers, making registration processes simpler, thus decreasing the possibility of form abandonment while also getting the marketer closer to the social behaviors of each contact" said Bryan Brown, director of product strategy at Silverpop. "For B2B marketers, while the information collected from social networks like Facebook and Twitter is certainly valuable, the likelihood of attaining a contact's business email address is low. With LinkedIn accounts, individuals are more likely to include their business-related information. Having this capability is a giant leap for B2B marketers in general, and Silverpop customers in particular, as they can take advantage of this enhancement right out of the gate due to our existing strategic partnership with Janrain."

Social sign-in is becoming an increasingly popular feature because many people are too frustrated by online registration processes to create new user accounts, or simply don't want to remember another password. However, Janrain has found that companies can achieve an increase in conversion rates when they provide users with the option to "sign in" using social credentials.

"The increase in form completions and conversion rates has an obvious benefit to marketers, but so does the ability to connect users to their social profiles, providing additional, highly valuable insight about their site visitors," said Tore Steen, vice president of business development for Janrain. "Through Janrain technology Silverpop customers now can collect verified emails and other permission-based profile data only available from LinkedIn for use in their email and marketing campaigns."

Chores Rank Higher than Passwords, Study Says

Allison Howen — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Is solving world peace easier than remembering passwords?

While the answer to that question should be obvious, a new study from Janrain and Harris Interactive reveals that 38 percent of adults sometimes think it would be easier to solve world peace than attempt to remember all of their passwords.

The 2012 Online Registration and Password study finds that 58 percent of online adults have five or more unique passwords associated with their online logins, and 30 percent of people have more than 10 unique passwords that they need to remember. All of these passwords have led to an increasingly common problem – Password Fatigue.

“With all of the different websites consumers log into on a regular basis – from email and social networks to online banking and e-commerce sites - it’s no wonder people are struggling to remember such a large number of passwords,” says Larry Drebes, CEO of Janrain. “What’s surprising is that consumers think cleaning their bathroom, or in the extreme cases, trying to solve world peace, sounds preferable to adding yet another password to the list.”

While most consumers know that it’s important to create a variety of strong passwords to protect their identity online, the problem is coming up with different logins – and then actually remembering the passwords for the appropriate sites.

In fact, the study shows that recalling complicated passwords when needed tends to be when people run into trouble, with 37 percent of survey participants claiming that they have had to ask for assistance in recovering their user name or password for at least one website each month. This had led to 38 percent of survey respondents claiming that they rather undertake household chores, like doing the dishes or even cleaning the toilet, than have to create another online identity.

However, it is important to note that frustrations don’t only lie with having to create a new user name and password, because the majority of respondents are also irritated with having to enter their personal information when registering to websites. This could be because most people don't know how sites use their information – for example, 62 percent of the survey respondents would be willing to enter more personal information if they knew how the site or brand was planning to use it.

So, with 84 percent of people claiming that they dislike being asked to register when they arrive at a website, what are site owners to do? The best option is to offer social login, which enables site visitors to register to a new website through an existing social profile. This not only benefits the consumer who doesn’t have to create and remember a new username and password, but also benefits the site owner who can leverage the data that is already connected to the visitor’s social profile.

Another option is to create shorter registration forms. The study reveals that 44 percent of respondents find online registration forms to be too long, which can potentially lead visitors to not only abandon the registration process, but also abandon the website altogether. But if your marketing department can’t go without the personalized data that is captured from the registration process, you can always clearly outline what the requested information is being used for.

Social Sharing Comes to GraphicMail

Allison Howen — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT

GraphicMail’s services just got a whole lot more social.

The email marketing provider has teamed up with social login provider Janrain to launch a free social sharing widget that is currently in beta. The widget allows subscribers to share, forward and comment on newsletters via the browser view, as well as offers social login as a direct way for consumers to signup for newsletter mailing lists via a social account containing the consumer’s email address.

"Our social login and sharing widgets can do a lot to help email marketers acquire more subscribers because of how easy it makes list growth and sharing newsletters to social networks and directly with friends,” says Josh Baumrind, Director of Business Development at Janrain. “Comments placed by subscribers help marketers define their brand ambassadors, or key social influencers; which gives you valuable clues on how to improve on messaging and drive campaign virality.”

According to GraphicMail, social media marketing is more than just another messaging and customer collection channel. This is why the company is aiming to make this channel an integral part of client engagement, interaction and list growth throughout all digital marketing communications.

“With GraphicMail’s social sharing people will talk about your newsletter content, your offers and events on their social networks, and this can really accelerate your brand’s growth and boost the amount of new sign-ups you get for your campaigns,” says Barbara Ulmi, Head of Marketing at GraphicMail. “Within our application, GraphicMail calls Janrain's social sharing and commenting tool the ‘browser widget’, and our widget for social sharing is supported by other email-social features that we have recently brought to market, notably the Social Subscribe form.”

Dive into Social to Increase Email Newsletter Subscriptions

Allison Howen — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:30:00 GMT

GraphicMail is diving deeper into the social marketing pool with its new email subscribe tool, Social Subscribe.

The email marketing solutions provider has partnered with Janrain to offer social sign-up into its clients’ newsletter sign-up forms, which will make it easier for consumers to sign up for newsletters, help marketers grow their email lists and provide businesses with a better understanding of their customers’ interests.

GraphicMail's integration of Janrain Engage enables marketers to virtually meet subscribers during the registration process because consumers can sign up for newsletters with an account from more than 25 social networks and email providers, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace.

It simplifies registration, eliminates the need for users to remember passwords and accesses rich profile data from a consumer's account that can be used to offer more relevant messaging. Janrain Engage also drives word-of-mouth advertising and referral traffic because it enables users to share content directly from a company’s site to their social networks.

“Successful communication, in any business and via any channel, is all about knowing your customer,” says Barbara Ulmi, marketing director at GraphicMail. “In digital marketing, you won’t often find that new contacts are willing to sit down and manually wade through filling in long, detailed subscription forms to help you capture all their relevant personal information.

"Often, forms are discouragingly long and passwords eventually get forgotten. Now you can increase your newsletter subscriptions by offering Social Subscribe and get heaps of additional user data for more targeted sending," she aded. "This, in turn, is likely to increase your open and click-through rates, improve website conversion rates and even sales derived from promotional mailers.”

Get Social with New Janrain Tools

Allison Howen — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:20:00 GMT

There is a bundle of new announcements coming from user management platform Janrain today, including new platform capabilities that will enable businesses to better acquire, engage and monetize online visitors, as well as new social extensions that will make it easier for merchants to incorporate social features into their e-commerce sites.

With the new updates, businesses will be able to gain better insights into social profile data and improve targeting, which will help them grow their audience. In addition to those updates, Janrain is also launching integrations and partnerships with Demandware, Magento, Certona and 500friends, as well as support for various other e-commerce solution providers.

“We want to provide the best solutions to help brands leverage the robust set of data available on their users that in turn enables them to provide a better online experience to those customers,” says Larry Drebes, CEO, Janrain. “Leading e-commerce platforms and major retailers across a variety of industries are recognizing the benefit that providing personalized experiences has on bolstering user engagement and purchases.”

The social commerce extensions include social login, social sharing and social profile data collection and storage, while the new platform capabilities include targeted sharing for refer-a-friend campaigns, deeper analytics, improved targeting capabilities, government support and expanded identity provider support. Additionally, the Janrain and 500friends partnership will enable 500friends' social loyalty clients to leverage social login and social profile data collection and storage capabilities, which will help retailers create and maintain relationships with customers.

Facebook Dominates Social Login

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:45:00 GMT

Social login platform Janrain has released some interesting information which analyzes social login and social sharing preferences for online users from the over 365,000 sites using its Engage platform.

As you might expect, Facebook is the most popular option, coming in with a majority of usage at 45 percent - but don't count out Google, Yahoo! and Twitter. The Janrain research indicates that Facebook's share of social logins has increased considerably over the past two years at the expense of Google (and by the looks of it Yahoo!) but as Google+ continues to scale up, that trend seems to be reversing slightly (see graph).

JanRain also analyzed four industry verticals (media, entertainment/gaming, retail, and music) and found similar "arcs" but there are some consistencies across all verticals.

The e-commerce/retail vertical in particular is quite interesting. While Facebook's dominance has declined moderated from 49 percent to 42 percent during the past two quarters, there appears to be a uptick in the most recent quarter. Google seemed to peak in the fourth quarter (coninciding perhaps with the release of Google+) but is has since fallen off. Yahoo fared best in the e-commerce vertical but its slide since 2010 is quite apparent.

Consumers Want Social Login Capabilities

Allison Howen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:45:00 GMT

By now, most business owners realize the important role that social media plays within their business plan. But new research suggests that business owners should enable social to play an even bigger role, by becoming the login option for customers on a website.

Ninety percent of consumers will leave a website if they forget their user name and password according to Janrain’s Social Identity study, which was conducted by Blue Research. Additionally, 86 percent of people are bothered by the need to create new accounts when registering on a website, with 54 percent deciding to either leave the site or not return.

The problem with the traditional registration process is that it requires visitors to create new usernames and passwords, and consumers are getting frustrated with remembering many different identities.

The study reveals that 77 percent of respondents claim social login is a good solution that should be offered. Furthermore, social login can help a business through word of mouth marketing. Other findings reveal that 78 percent of social login fans have posted a message to their social networks about a product or service that they liked and thought others should know about or purchase, and 83 percent of consumers say that they are influenced to consider buying new products or services based on positive comments or messages from people in their social network.

“The findings of the survey show that social login continues to dramatically increase in favor among consumers as they realize the benefits of using an existing identity in order to bypass the traditional online registration process,” says Paul Abel, Ph.D., Managing Partner, Blue Research. ”Failing to offer social login is a missed opportunity for businesses to improve ROI of online properties, as fans of the service are more likely to register on the site, influence their friends through social networks and more likely to return to a site that offers them a personalized experience.”

Social Log-in Tools from Janrain

Allison Howen — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:35:00 GMT

Social log-in and sharing tools are great solutions that can provide websites with increased registrations, conversions, higher social sharing rates and demographic metrics.

Janrain, a user management platform for the social web, is a provider of social log-in tools. Their Engage platform provides social login and sharing capabilities as well as user profile data, mobile support and social analytics to their clients.

Janrain partners with major social networks so that social network users can take their identities with them across the Internet, instead of creating a new identity at every site.

Because of the social-log in capability, Janrain can analyze data about users, so that clients can tailor their email and mobile marketing to specific consumer demographics.

Companies that have worked with Janrain to provide users with the social sign in option have seen an increase in registrations, conversions and social sharing of content rates.

For example, GraphicMail, an email and mobile marketing service provider, has noticed increased conversions within the last eight months, which is when they implemented Janrain’s hosted social login solution.

Aside from GraphicMail, websites such as LadyGaga.com, Kodak and NPR have used Janrain to increase user’s online participation and registration rates.

“In today’s marketplace, integrating social media into a multichannel marketing strategy is becoming an increasingly essential component of nurturing leads and driving conversions,” says Nicholas Eckert, GraphicMail co-Founder. “Understanding that developing a trusted online relationship with every subscriber is a crucial step in building customer loyalty.”

Janrain Engage is free for the basic package, with other pricing models varying from $10 a month to more than $2,250 a year.

Janrain's Sharing Widget