LinkedIn Takes Over as B2B Social Login of Choice

A new report from Janrain shows that B2B logins on LinkedIn increased by 6 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2014, surpassing Google and making it the latest network of choice in the B2B industry.

The total number of logins leaped from 29 percent in the third quarter to 35 percent in the fourth. As a result of the increase in LinkedIn logins, Facebook and Google both lost 3 percentage points.

“We can draw the conclusion that B2B companies are beginning to better understand the benefit of offering LinkedIn as a social login option, an identity provider that passes over a data payload (with user permission, of course) that includes key professional data such as positions held and a verified email address,” says Alexandra Larralde, marketing manager at Janrain.

Facebook is still leading all social sites included within the study with a 43 percent login rate. However, the authors of the report conclude that it is losing ground in terms of B2B, Music and Consumer Branding as a result of Google’s growth.

“We expect the numbers to get even more interesting in the next few quarters, as Facebook migrates to its new app version introducing line-by-line controls and the anonymous login option,” Larralde continued. “It’s also possible that their renewed focus on consumer data privacy will help Facebook regain some of the market share it lost this past quarter.”

But how do these numbers compare to the third quarter? As previous data shows, the race between social sites was closer just a few months ago.

Reflecting on the Third Quarter

In October, Janrain reflected on social login trends for the third quarter of 2014. At this point, LinkedIn, Google and Facebook were all virtually tied in terms of login on B2B sites. Approximately 35 percent of respondents said they logged in with Google. Nearly 25 percent said they did so with Facebook, while exactly 30 percent logged in with LinkedIn.

Yahoo, Twitter and Windows were at the bottom of the list for B2B respondents to the study. Additionally, less than 10 percent of people said they stayed logged in with Twitter in the third quarter. However, social media still seems to be a leader in terms of logins across the board.

“By eliminating the need to create and remember yet another username-password combination, the use of social identities accelerates account creation and login,” says Michael Olson at Janrain. “And, social login’s popularity continues to grow – 90 percent have encountered social login and more than half of those are actively using it. Most crucially, people like it; of those who use social login, 91 percent are satisfied with the experience.”