Social Network (Facebook, Twitter) Sign In Support
One of our main focuses for version 4 is tighter integrations with popular Social Networks like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. In addition to the "Like", "Share" and "1+" buttons available on messages, it is even more important to
streamline the Registration / Login process with these Social Networks.
The Growing Problems with online community
Most forums are set up so that visitors (non-registered users) can only access public forums with limited access privilege (read-only, e.g.) The main incentives for visitors to join are having access to private content and being able to interact with others (posting / private messaging).
However, these incentives can sometimes become more like hindrances and can cost forum owners new signups in the long run:
- Hassle of registration: The process of registration often involves filling out a form, making sure email and passwords are filled in correctly, and then checking inbox to verify the email address. So users are being bumped between their browser and email application -> essentially this is a multi-step process involving multiple software people find confusing and become reluctant to joinjust to avoid the hassle.
- Identity disconnect: Many people already have multiple online accounts with various sites, and potentially several different passwords and different emails to remember. Some people won't even remember their user name after a while let alone passwords (not to mention the pain involved in password recovery)!
The solution is simple and its benefits are obvious
The answer to the above problems is simple:
leveraging visitors existing online accounts! Why not let the visitors solve these problems painlessly themselves?
People already have established social accounts they regularly use and have gone through the pain to verify their emails. By linking their forum presence to their social network accounts, we solve 2 problems for your visitors:
- They don't have to go through the pain of registration again;
- They don't even have to remember their username and password!
The process goes like this:
When you click on the
Log In link as a visitor, you will see an inline login form with Facebook and Twitter icons appearing right beside the regular login box. If this is the first time, simply click on the network of your choice and Facebook / Twitter will ask you whether to allow account linking, choose
Confirm and your forum presence will be created right away! The whole process
takes less than 30 seconds. From now on, when you want to log in, simply click on the social network icon and you will be logged in right away. This takes about 1 second and it is so much easier than typing in user name and passwords!
What this means to your visitor is: no more registration, and no more remembering user name and password.
And for you as an owner of an online community: you have just eliminated one of the biggest barriers to entry for your online community.
Of course, we also support
a host of other social networks with exactly the same process. See this figure for the additional networks we support.
Thanks again for your time today and I will show you some of the exciting UI enhancements for V4 next time!