If you’re like most website owners, you might not know that enabling WordPress social login can help you increase your website’s user engagement. And it all has to do with users forgetting their account passwords.
For those unfamiliar, there’s a thing called “password fatigue” and your website’s visitors or customers might be suffering from it. It’s one of the main reasons for activating the WordPress social login feature.
Put simply, any site that requires users to log in and register also prompts them to create a new user account. There are two main issues with that:
- The user either uses a weak password to create their account which increases their chances of having their account hacked.
- You force users to create a strong password on registration which most users will forget (was it “pizzaLover4ever” or “qwerty2020” ).
The good news is that you can use the Profile Builder Pro WordPress plugin with the Social Connect add-on to enable the WordPress social login feature on your website. This way, users can sign in using their Google account or social network accounts like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. In this article, we’ll explain when you should use WordPress social login and how to set it up on your own website.
Let’s put everything into context before we begin!
How passwords impact user engagement
Websites and online stores that require users to create a new user account with a username and password ask for a bit more involvement. In other words, there is definitely more work for the user to:
- Come up with a username/password combination
- Remember the username/password when they visit the websites later on
- Reset their password if they forgot it or its username
So, at the end of the day, your users will either (a) stop visiting your website or (b) provide fake information that’s not relevant to your site. The easiest way to overcome this issue is by using a social login plugin and allow users to log into your website using their social media account or Google account.
When to use WordPress social login on your website
There are various cases when using WordPress social login makes sense. Some that come quickly to mind are:
- Allow only logged in users to comment but without the hustle of registering a new account similar to how Disqus does it.
- Encourage forum participation by making it easy to log in with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn.
- Offer bonus content to logged-in users without having to fill in a lengthy registration form.
- Gather relevant social information when users register with one of the social login providers.
It’s no secret that users want a fast and easy way to register and log in on a website. Ideally, it should be allowed without having to worry about remembering yet another username/password combination. The easiest way to do this is with login information from social networks.
Introducing the Social Connect add-on for Profile Builder Pro
The Social Connect add-on for the Profile Builder Pro plugin lets you enable social login on your WordPress website.
This WordPress social login plugin can be used to allow users to login using a variety of social accounts including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Although some solutions allow users to login using their Yahoo, Windows Live, Tumblr, or Foursquare accounts, the most popular social login options are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
In addition to this, it’s fully customizable which means you have the option to choose which form to display the social buttons on, where to position the buttons, and how big (or small) they should be. The social login plugin also lets you edit the text that appears on large-sized buttons or add a heading before small-sized buttons. It adds the social login buttons directly to your forms instead of requiring you to add it to your website separately using a widget or shortcode to your WordPress login page or registration page. This significantly speeds up the user registration process without requiring the user to create a WordPress account.
And the best part is that your existing WordPress or WooCommerce users will be able to link their accounts with the available social platforms. In other words, even if they created an account using their email address and password, they can easily link their WordPress user account with their social accounts. The Social Connect add-on doesn’t, in any way, affect the user’s social profile.
This is a must-have plugin whether you’re running a membership site, BuddyPress-powered online community site, bbPress-powered forum, or a WooCommerce store. It’s also worth noting that the add-on simply enables WordPress social login and doesn’t add social sharing buttons to your website.
How to add Social Login to your WordPress site
Social Connect is a new add-on for the Profile Builder plugin. It allows you to easily set up WordPress social login on default WordPress forms or on the registration and login forms that are provided by the Profile Builder Pro plugin. Once you’ve configured the plugin’s settings, the social login will automatically be enabled on your login and registration forms. What this means is that you don’t have to use a shortcode on your login page to enable the social login feature.
Step #1. Create a social login app
The very first step to setting up WordPress social login on your site is to create an application for each individual social network.
This is also the hardest part of the setup as each individual social network has a different and convoluted setup. That’s why we’ve taken great care in documenting the entire process for you to the best of our ability:
- Facebook – How to create and use a Facebook app
- Google+ – How to create and use a Google+ app
- Twitter – How to create and use a Twitter app
- LinkedIn – How to create and use a LinkedIn app
Simply follow the steps outlined in the documentation for each social login option that you’d like to enable for your website.
Step #2. Enter the social API keys for each network
Using this WordPress social login plugin, you can choose what social networks to enable on your site, that users can register/log in with. Enter the app ID for each social media login option you would like to enable. Also, make sure the checkbox next to the Enable option is ticked.
Once that’s done, your site’s users will be able to log in and register using that social network. The social login options you choose to enable will appear on the login page and registration page on the front-end.
Step #3. Choose where the WordPress social login buttons appear
One of the neat features on offer with the Social Connect add-on is that it lets you choose which forms you’d like to have the social buttons appear on. While normally you want the buttons to appear on your login form, there’s a good idea to have them available in the registration form, as well.
As we mentioned above, you can enable social login on WordPress default forms or Profile Builder forms. While you can allow WooCommerce users to register using their social media accounts, the add-on doesn’t allow social checkout options in WooCommerce.
There’s also control over individual registration and edit profile forms when using the multiple forms modules. In this way, you can have different forms with different information displayed on them. This all depends on the user flow you’re looking to deliver.
Step #4. Allow existing users to connect with one of the social networks
But what if you want to activate the Social Connect add-on and you already have registered users? By adding the social connect buttons on the Edit Profile page, it’s easy for them to keep the same username and just connect Facebook, Google+, Twitter, or LinkedIn to their account.
This way, at a future time, they can use the WordPress social login functionality and all their information will still be there.
Step #5. Setup the look and feel of the buttons
Not every site is the same and having the flexibility to choose how the WordPress social login buttons are styled is important.
The Social Connect add-on is fully customizable which means that you can choose:
- The order of the buttons
- Where they are positioned
- Whether to use big or small buttons
- The labels when using big buttons
- The heading above the buttons
And for developers, you can choose to disable the default CSS entirely so you can style the buttons in any way you want to.
Your users want social login
By providing WordPress social login you’re making it easier for your users to interact and engage with your site. As a result, you’ll experience:
- An increase in sign-ups and registrations.
- Better user retention since they don’t have to remember their username/password combination.
- Authentic data like name and email.
- Increased user engagement.
So, make it easier for users to register on your WordPress site using their social accounts while remaining GDPR-compliant. Give Social Connect add-on for the Profile Builder Pro plugin a shot today!
For Social Connect Add-on to work as expected, you’ll also need to have the Profile Builder Hobbyist or Pro plugin (version 2.3.1 or higher of the plugin supports seamless integration with Social Connect) installed and activated on your site.
Get Social Connect – Profile Builder Add-on
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Hi, I’m Katie from WordPress agency Barn2 Media. The problem I’ve found with social login is when you give people a choice of using social login or registering directly on the website. What happens when they forget they used social login and try to login using another method? I wrote a blog post about this a while back called ‘WordPress, Social Login and the Deadly Embrace‘. Do you have any strategies for dealing with this?
There is a solution for this and we’ve considered this case when we developed the Social Connect addon for Profile Builder.
Basically, Facebook and Google both provide the user’s email address when loggin in (twitter doesn’t). So if you log in with facebook and then with Google and you have the same email address in both social networks, you’re asked to “merge” the two accounts.
Also, there is support for connecting to a social network AFTER creating a normal account.
Obviously no solution is ever perfect, however, there are ways to mitigate.
Finally, there is support for login with email, meaning you can login with the email from Facebook or Google, HOWEVER, you have to reset your password or update your password from the edit profile form after connecting with these two social networks.
Twitter is a bit different since it doesn’t provide the user’s email, however we’re asking for it at various stages of the social login depending of the case.
I don’t believe any solution will ever be 100% bullet proof, but as long there’s a way around these issues for most of the users, it’s better then just social login or just standard login.
Hi,
Social Connect is great for my member’s only site, as many of our members are constantly suffering from password fatigue.
Is there any way to prevent Social Connect from creating new accounts? I want to limit it to just members who already have an account – we collect some mandatory information upon registration, and Social Connect appears to be by pass the need for this (the “deadly embrace” from the previous comment).
Ideally I want Social Connect to only work with existing accounts on WordPress, and not create new ones.
Is this possible?