Time to use social logins on your #highered websites? #hesm #heweb

Forgot yor password(s)?

Authentication and identification of active campus network users have always been at the core of the IT applications necessary to run a university.

If you can’t log in, you can’t get your email, register for your course, pay your bills, etc.

You feel helpless.

That’s why most institutions have strived to offer integrated and secure single sign on (SSO) solutions to current students, staff and faculty. The technology doesn’t get in the way and memory is used for things more important than remembering multiple passwords.

Today, students expect a frictionless sign-on process on campus.

Strangers again? Not with social logins!

Unfortunately, things get complicated once they graduate, leave their alma mater and lose their school account. As students transition to their next step in life and join the ranks of alums and potential donors, technology does get in the way.

If they don’t register or update their contact information upon graduation, they are treated again as they were once as prospective or admitted students — like strangers to the university in need of new credentials.

While the place where they spent the last 4 or more years of their life doesn’t recognize them anymore, they still can use their Facebook, Gmail, Twitter or even LinkedIn credentials on many mobile apps or websites of organizations including Chegg, Harvard Business Review, Airbnb or Run Keeper among many others.

Called “social logins,” this option is increasingly available on the web.

With the dramatic increase of social media use and the multiplication of personal connected devices, most people are always logged into their favorite social media accounts. Since social platform login sessions are not set to expire quickly and log out links are well hidden on Facebook, Twitter and the likes, it takes only a click to register or sign in with social logins available on other websites.

This convenience has transformed social logins into a low-key but universal version of the good old SSO.

51% of social media users have said yes to social logins

In October 2013, Blue Research surveyed 600 US social media consumers on behalf of one the social login integrated solution providers, Janrain. The findings confirmed the ubiquitous nature of social logins as 88% of surveyed consumers had come across a site offering the option to log in via a social media account.

According to the same survey, 51% used the option including 5% relying on social logins all the time. Half of the people who didn’t use social logins explained they didn’t trust websites to use their information appropriately – which is a moot point in the case of institutions of higher education.

Early adopters of social logins in higher ed

Stanford Alumni Association started to offer social logins on its website in February 2013. The goal was to ease the user experience.

“Forgotten usernames and passwords are the top online customer service issues for our alumni,” says Adam Miller, SAA Director of Digital and Data Services.

Offered by Gigya, the social login solution not only provides a frictionless authentication process through Facebook and Twitter, but it lets alums import the data – including the photo – they choose from their social profiles.

The convenience of the data import has had visible results making Stanford alum online directory more visual by increasing the number of profile photos listed. Regular logins are still far numerous, but social logins have increased steadily. “In the longer term, we hope this integration with the social web can actually enhance and expand the alumni experience across our digital offerings,” adds Miller.

Other large institutions including the University of Arizona, Michigan State University, Brigham Young University and George Mason University use social logins powered by Gigya according to Victor White, Director of Marketing Communications at this company that processed 800 million social logins in 2013.

iModules, a Constituent Engagement Management provider, launched its social login solution, iModules Connect, in 2008.

Yet, only 30% of its 800 client institutions have implemented it so far. “Awareness continues to build and this is a discussion we have (…) with our clients,” says Susan Scholes, VP of Marketing at iModules. Because social logins require a secure web connection via SSL, any implementation needs to involve – and get buy-in – from IT. While this specific solution doesn’t pull any data from Twitter, Facebook or Google+, it can import information from LinkedIn profiles and allow alums to share on Facebook news related to their activity on the alum website.

The Office of Alumni Relations at Carnegie Mellon University, an iModules client, will launch social logins this fall. “We have been waiting to launch an independent presence on Facebook before rolling out our social login options for our alumni website,” explains Timothy Seidel, Associate Director of Alumni Communications at CMU. The plan is to pull any data made available by LinkedIn as the platform should have the most up-to-date information about alums.

At Carleton College for the alum website and Duke University on online giving forms, the integration of social logins has been developed and implemented in-house.

Web content management systems often used in higher education like WordPress and Drupal do have “social logins” plugins as well.

Paying with data

Social media logins help constituents by offering convenience of use. They can also provide rich demographics data to alum professionals, fundraisers or college marketers.

However, such convenience always comes at a price. Today, this price is paid in data: users are also identified as constituents of your school by the chosen social platform – it’s a 2-way street.

Will this price of convenience change tomorrow?
Is the same bait-and-switch approach used for Facebook page updates in the future of social logins?

Only time will tell, so make sure your school adopts a multi-platform strategy.

[An edited version of this column was published in the July issue of University Business.]