A Brief Guide to Facebook Single Sign On

More brands are jumping on the Facebook bandwagon to tap into the size and strength of the world’s most powerful social network. Some are literally merging their existing presence into the platform, and single sign on is the option many are using to handle the integration process.

With Facebook arguably being the hottest thing going in cyberspace, it just may be the best way to put this increasing popular feature to use.

What is Single Sign On?

Single sign on or SSO, has recently become a bit hit in the business community. Often used for integration with websites and software applications, it basically provides an easy way for a user to access multiple sites or applications using a single account, which in this case, is the user’s Facebook account. The beauty here is all in the convenience as the user can simply log in once, and access all the resources they have been authorized to touch without having to log in to individual systems. SSO is so popular, that it is the only option for connecting on some sites.

Benefits of Facebook SSO

For the business owner, the allure of the Facebook single sign on option is the precious user data connected to the platform. When a visitor signs in, the site owner gets basic information such as a username, email address, birth date, and profile photo. Some of the details from the user’s profile are private, but they can be obtained by optimizing the sign-up process on the backend. For example, if you want the user’s location, you can set up your form to request extended permissions and fetch the requested information from their profile once they give authorization.
What is so great about Facebook’s single sign on method is that it gives site owners access to a wealth of data, while keeping the user in control of the information they share.

Once everything is up and running on your site with Facebook’s SSO, you can use the platform’s analytics tool Insights to track and measure activity. Insights allows you to easily to keep up with this activity by the domains or applications you have integrated with Facebook, delivering rich, detailed information regarding how users are interacting with your content. The cool thing about this aspect is how it serves up data regardless of where the sharing originated. For instance, if a user shares your website URL in a status update, that activity is included in the data available for your domain and can be integrated with the information you have on your existing systems.

Conclusion

Using the single sign on option is a risky move for a business, mainly because of the potential privacy concerns involved. In order to ensure that the cons of this convenient method do not outweigh the pros, you need to have a solid authentication system in place. Facebook’s SSO is as viable an option as any these days. Whether it is integrating your website or mobile apps, this flexible feature can provide a simple way for your visitors to connect with the same peace of mind they enjoy when already logged in to their favorite social network..