Wow…! 87% of us… prefer to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or another form of social login to sign up for new retail, travel, music or other media sites, that’s not what I was thinking, and you probably did not expect that either. What’s even more amazing is the fact that the usage of social login grew with 10% over the past 12 months (from “Social Login Trends Across the Web for Q3 2013, by Michael Olson, October 2nd 2013, janrain.com). Social login offers huge guest connect and engagement opportunities. So what are hotels and hotels chains doing with this?
Having a quick look around at some well known hotel or hotel chain websites (of which some claim they are socially active), I could not find a hotel web site or mobile guest app for that matter, which had social login enabled. That to me is…. hotels missing out on a big opportunity to create a closer connection (albeit virtual) and more engagements with their guests. Connecting with guests is what hotels are looking to do, the more hotel and staff can connect with their guest, the more positive the guest will be about his or her stay. Social login offers the guest an easy way to login to a hotels loyalty website or mobile app, it provides the hotel with more data (even a picture) of the guest that can be used to provide the hotel with a better experience..
For Hoteliers (and digital marketers):
“Social login helps solve the challenge of how to collect more accurate data on your users while increasing registration conversion rates at the same time. Social login shortens the registration process to a single click and gives you instant permission-based access to rich demographic and psychographic data on your users. This social profile data can be utilized for content personalization or product recommendations and more tailored segmentation and targeting.” (from “Social Login Trends Across the Web for Q3 2013, by Michael Olson, October 2nd 2013, janrain.com). It is A) great convenience to offer the on the go guest and B) provides the hotelier with a photo, correct first name, last name, personal, birthday, email and professional information of the all important guest.
And here’s another thing: websites that enable social login convert up to 8.5% more visitors to subscribers, which in hotel terms, can mean up to 8.5% more new loyalty members.! (How Social Sign-On Increases Conversion, Eloqoa blog, January 2013.)
By Jos Schaap, CEO-Founder at StayNTouch
