It was an interesting several days of discussions at the IIW this week in Mountain View.  The event brought together individuals who have been passionate about driving user-centric identity for many years, as well as some of the newer players in the space who bring a more corporate perspective, trying to balance business model with user control.

At a high level, there was much continued discussion on the concept personal data stores (PDSs) which would be completely controlled by the End User and fully portable.  Two key challenges remain with this vision: 1) the major identity providers who have the critical mass of users and data, such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, PayPal, etc., are not (yet) interoperable or provide the End User a “copy” of their data, and 2) there is no obvious business model for PDSs that doesn’t include these providers.

At a more technical level, our team had the following key takeaways:

• Google is continuing to do great UX research in the authentication space, and they are toying w/ the idea of using the identity selector concept coded directly into their login page to help users choose the identity they’d like to use to access Google properties.
• #2 OAuth + Standards: There remains LOTS of discussion and opinions about the OAuth 2.0 specification. Some companies (most notably Facebook) implemented OAuth 2.0 while many people feel OAuth 2.0 draft still needs work. Some discussions touched on using OAuth 2 together with SAML. And others about using OAuth 2 for Native Apps. But for all these standards, one person noted there’s always a tension between ease of implementation and security.
• OpenID Connect and OpenID Artifact Binding (AB) may converge at one point, but not in the short term.
• The goal is for JSON Tokens to support integrity checking; integrity checking and confidentiality; non-repudiation; non-reputation and confidentiality; and authenticated public key encryption.

Adding links to other posts as they emerge:

• Mike Jones’ notes from #IIW session w/Microsoft,Google,et al. re: JSON token standard that will inevitably affect OAuth2
• IIW workshop official notes
• IIW Fascinates Me by Darius Dunlap, November 11th
• IIW OAuth Enterprise BOF: Session Management by Phil Hunt, November 10th
• Internet Identity Workshop #11 by Franco Travostino, November 8th
• Google, Dogs, ponies and relying parties by John Fontana, November 8th
• WS-Trust and SAML and OAuth, oh my! by Pat Patterson, November 4th
• Monica Wilkinson’s Activity Streams 101 session at IIW as told by Kevin Marks by Mark Krynsky,  Nov 10th
• Internet Identity Workshop Wrap Up by Jan Rain November 5th
• Essential Characteristics of a Personal Data Store by Phil Windley, November 2
• Activity Streams 101 Session at IIW by Monica, November 2

When it comes to real, authentic identity in a business context, LinkedIn is a force to be reckoned with.

Click Image to Enlarge

Based on data across our B2B clients, we’ve seen LinkedIn’s share of social login grow from 3% in July 2010 to 20% in January 2011.  We’re seeing increased adoption of social login on a wide range of B2B sites from financial news sites to industry organizations to software companies.

The Wall Street Journal’s Liz Gannes of AllThingsD published an article about LinkedIn’s footprint in a B2B context, stating “Indeed, people do seem to be separating their online professional identities from their personal identities more than they used to, now that the tools are available. Web users increasingly use LinkedIn to sign in to business-oriented sites.”  Some of the client data she shared, along with our latest Infographic include LinkedIn’s share of Social Logins for some notable clients including:

• Stock market news site SeekingAlpha, for which LinkedIn comprised 26.6 percent of social logins in January
• The Harvard Business Review which saw 20% of social sign-ons from LinkedIn users, and
• Industry group the Internet Advertising Bureau, with 14%

The infographic also describes the demographic and business breakdown of LinkedIn users, by age and gender but also by Job Function, Industry and Company Size.

We believe much of the increase in adoption of LinkedIn as an identity provider by users, as well as businesses, is their incorporation of social tools. Although LinkedIn has always had the professional social graph, they’ve really made some great moves over the past year especially to encourage more communication and collaboration among people using the service.LinkedIn users can share content from sites in the same way they can to Twitter or Facebook, and LinkedIn publishes shared content in a prominent feed. In a cursory review of  articles in Mashable’s Business and Marketing section, LinkedIn consistently has more direct shares from the site than Facebook, a surprising finding given how recently they have added these features.

We’re continuing to monitor these subtleties in Identity use and application of social features. Do you use LinkedIn as your identity of choice in a B2B context? Let us know, we’d love to hear about it.

Update: commentary from other news sites:

PCWorld:

Indeed, now that LinkedIn is enjoying increasing prominence as a sign-in tool among users of business sites, small and medium-sized companies should make sure they’re incorporating the professional social network as fully as they can. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Integrate
2. Participate
3. Collaborate
4. Generate

ReadWriteWeb:

“So, if you’re thinking of taking your site the way of eHow and forsaking all other logins for the one, true Facebook login, you might want to take a gander at the following graphic and see where your visitors lie. Maybe you should be working on that LinkedIn presence a bit more and Facebook a bit less.”

SocialTimes:

“Across Gigya customers, BB sites with significant LinkedIn registration include MBA-Exchange.com, Seeking Alpha, Harvard Business Review and the Internet Advertising Bureau. Other large sites which are not strictly B2B, but have a significant amount of LinkedIn connections using Gigya’s platform, are Answers.com,Ask.com and Reuters.”

In commemoration of Data Privacy Day, we’re exploring the implications of social data as both an instrumental marketing tool and a privacy concern for businesses.

Trust is paramount for any business looking to establish a loyal customer base. A study from the SDA Bocconi revealed a direct correlation between customer trust, advocacy, and spend.

Below are three simple principles that businesses can live by to establish trust and credibility.

1. Communicate the terms of use early on.

For businesses that offer social login, it’s important that users understand exactly how their information is being shared and used. By integrating a security seal into the sign-in process and displaying clearly how users’ information will be used, companies communicate that they’ve taken precautions to fully inform and protect customers against privacy violations. For instance, Gigya offers a SocialPrivacy seal for businesses that states how user information will be used and ensures that its corresponding web properties are meeting standard data protection practices. Initial tests reveal that users are responding positively to the seal: a reported 15 percent more people sign in with social login when the security seal is displayed.

2. Show that data privacy is a priority.

By demonstrating an awareness of and respect for customers’ privacy rights, businesses assure users that their information is valued and protected. One way of communicating a commitment to data privacy protection is to appoint a dedicated privacy professional such as a Chief Privacy Officer to oversee the management of users’ personal information. Companies should also hold themselves accountable to a privacy policy that outlines the terms of usage for sensitive data. The privacy policy should be displayed on the company’s website and open to public access.

3. Let users make their own choices.

Give customers the space to decide for themselves which social networks they want to connect their accounts to and the option to revoke permissions at any time. Empowered customers translate to loyal users, so it’s important to establish a foundation that supports personal decision-making.

As more and more businesses exercise discernment and responsibility when handling user data, the hope is that users understand just how their profile information is being protected and leveraged to provide direct value for them. After all, big data is something to be respected, not feared.

To learn more about why customer trust is so important for businesses to establish, read the first part of this series here.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

In commemoration of Data Privacy Day, we’re exploring the implications of social data as both an instrumental marketing tool and a privacy concern for businesses.

As more and more users sign in and input personal data into social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, these sites accumulate mountains of actionable insight into their users’ backgrounds, interests, and purchasing habits. Businesses that tap into this user data can better understand their customers and gain a huge leg up over their competitors.

Sounds like a marketer’s dream, right? There’s a catch: Social data comes hand-in-hand with big responsibility. More specifically, businesses with access to social data must exercise transparency over data usage and make it a priority to uphold users’ privacy rights.

Users are both concerned about their privacy and generally uncomfortable with the idea of handing over personal data to corporations. In the wake of these concerns, it’s increasingly important for businesses to communicate clearly with their online audiences about how their personal information is being stored and leveraged.

Big Data can be Tricky

As social data continues to increase in volume, businesses can analyze and utilize user information to create relevance, context, and personalization around their marketing efforts. At the same time, though, consumers are often left in the dark about what corporations can and will do with their personal data. A study of over 2,600 U.S. consumers revealed that 40 percent of consumers choose not to sign in using their social identities because they are unsure of how their personal information will be used. When users opt out of social login, businesses miss out on valuable opportunities to glean from a rich, existing well of behavioral and demographic data about their customers.

It All Starts with Trust

How can businesses optimize their marketing strategies by reducing user apprehension towards data sharing? The key is transparency and integrity, according to Gigya CEO Patrick Salyer (@patricksalyer). Rather than approaching personal data sharing as a take-all relationship, corporations need to respect user information by protecting it and using it appropriately. Businesses also need to offer value for users who share personal data.

“Promise your users that you’ll do the right thing by offering a ‘virtual handshake,’ where users grant you access to their data in exchange for value (often personalization or ease-of-use) and transparency,” Salyer advises. “Building and maintaining trust with customers is critical for any business, big or small, on or offline. It’s not just ethical to be transparent about how you use your customers’ data – it’s good business.”

Building customer trust takes time and effective communication. Read on to learn about best practices.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

Earlier this week, we wrote about the value of respecting user privacy laws and dispensed a few tips on how businesses can establish customer trust. Continuing the theme of data privacy, we’re looking at two companies that ran into privacy violations in the past to glean insights on how businesses can avoid similar mistakes and better communicate a commitment to transparency and integrity when handling users’ data.

Even in an age where users purposefully store and share personal photographs on Instagram, post life updates in real-time on Twitter, and announce wedding engagements over Facebook, data privacy is still a subject of much contention and controversy. When using social data to better understand their users, businesses walk a fine line between leveraging this data to create personalized online experiences and respecting their users’ privacy. By investigating companies that have failed to protect and use social data with discernment in the past, businesses can learn to become more responsible with the information entrusted to them.

Instagram’s Revised Privacy Policy Sparks Negative Online Buzz

In December 2012, Instagram released an updated privacy policy that appeared to grant Instagram the rights to sell users’ photographs without their permission. Legions of disgruntled users took to social networks to express their disapproval with the changes and egg each other on in protest against Instagram’s new terms of use.

A few days following the initial change, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom published a blog post apologizing for the ambiguities of the newly drafted privacy policy and expressing his commitment to “modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos.” More specifically, Systrom clarified that Instagram has no intent to declare ownership over their users’ photos or sell them to third-party advertisers and promised to remove the ambiguous language from the policy.

Lesson Learned: Make Privacy Simple

Legal documents are confusing and easily misinterpreted. Make it your duty to demystify them for your customers, particularly if your business is planning on rolling out significant changes to its privacy policy. One way to reduce ambiguity surrounding privacy policy changes is to release a blog post outlining the changes in user-friendly terms in conjunction with the revision. Though Systrom’s blog post does clarify Instagram’s new privacy policy, it showed up a few days too late for Instagram to avoid the backlash from news and social media outlets.

Also, it’s crucial to listen and respond to customer questions and complaints in a timely, sensitive matter. Systrom’s public response, which was released to counter the wave of negative buzz over Instagram’s privacy policy, can be effectively summarized in the title of his blog post, “Thank you, and we’re listening.” Responding effectively to user feedback, Instagram demonstrates a consideration for its customers by inviting them into the product and policy modification process.

To continue reading, click here.

The rise of digital, mobile and social technologies has enabled consumers to connect at the speed of real-time. In a world where topics are trending one minute and old news the next, brands must pay close attention to what consumers are thinking, needing, and wanting right now.

40% of consumers buy more from retailers who personalize the shopping experience across channels (Monetate). Providing consumers with tailored content and products that speak to their individual wants and needs is key in standing out in a sea of competition and engaging and converting today’s connected consumers.

Every day marketers are faced with countless opportunities to create hyper relevant messaging and experiences, but don’t know how to strategically collect, analyze and act on all this real-time data. Here are three bases you should cover to ensure you’re reaching the right audiences with the right messages at the right times.

Be Social

Too many businesses are still relying on passe marketing tools and techniques like cookie retargeting and Excel databases that weren’t made to keep up with the speed and breadth of today’s data. Social media has been the catalyst for 1:1, real-time interaction, so marketers looking to reach consumers with the most timely and relevant messages possible must put social at the forefront of their marketing strategies.

Enabling users to login to your site or app using their existing social media accounts gives you permission-based access to a wealth of social data, including users’ relationships, interests, entertainment preferences, and more. Not to mention, while 65% of US consumers delete their cookies (MediaPost), users keep social identities for years and update them on a regular basis. Be sure to leverage a robust database that can store both structured (email addresses) and unstructured (favorite sports teams) data, as well as provide automatic user record updates.

Be Everywhere

Today’s tech savvy marketers often focus their strategies on the latest and greatest gadgets, but if you thought traditional mediums like billboards were dead, the classic BMW-Audi billboard feud should have made you think again. Creating relevant and timely campaigns across both traditional and emerging marketing channels is a modern must – so much so that 53% of Millennials say their favorite brands offer omni-channel experiences (Apparel).

This requires a single unified view of identity, both for the brand and the consumer, but only 18% of marketers routinely have a single view of customers (Teradata). Maintaining a consistent brand voice and message across channels is necessary to create trustworthy, cohesive customer experiences. Having a single view of consumer identity across channels and devices is key in reaching customers with the right messages, on the right platforms at the right times.

Be Actionable

As Facebook’s VP of Infrastructure Engineering Jay Parikh so eloquently put it, “If you aren’t taking advantage of the data you’re collecting, then you just have a pile of data.” Caught up in the recent big data hype, many businesses are now sitting on mountains of useless data – in fact, while 78% of marketers feel the pressure to become more data-driven, only 33% are consistently and strategically leveraging consumer data in their marketing efforts (Teradata).

For data to be actionable, it must be made accessible to the individuals responsible for driving marketing performance. Marketers and IT must work together to put a strategy and platform in place for managing data in an actionable manner so that marketers can leverage these insights to make decisions quickly. This intelligence must also be able to be passed to marketers’ existing platforms and solutions to create data-driven, personalized campaigns across channels.

Reaching consumers with the right messages at the right times is no longer an art – it’s a science. Marketers looking to convert today’s connected consumers must update their strategies and tools to succeed at the speed of real-time.

The digital universe is projected to reach 40 zetabytes of data by 2020 (EMC). There are over 6 billion mobile devices in use across the globe (Digital Trends). And every minute, Facebook users share over 680,000 pieces of content (Domo). But as devices get smarter, more data becomes available and consumers look to connect in new ways, a single golden thread presents the possibility to tie everything together: IDENTITY.

With the ability to tie all user activity and personas across channels and devices back to a single, unique fingerprint, identity is undoubtedly shaping the future of our digital world. Let’s take a look at 3 of today’s top digital trends, how identity holds the key to their future development, and what your business can do to improve identity collection and management.

Trend #1: Omni-channel Experiences

Over 20% of consumers age 18-49 visit websites from 4 different devices each week (Experian), while 67% of online shoppers admit to having recently made purchases that involved multiple channels (Zendesk). Today’s always-on consumer is constantly connected, often via multiple devices at once, and expects modern brands to be fully present across all channels.

So how does a brand know that Sally just spent 15 minutes browsing sandals on her tablet, has now switched to her computer, and intends to make a purchase in-store? And how does it make this a seamless process that keeps Sally coming back? With access to Sally’s identity, the brand can greet her by name when she returns to its site via desktop, presenting her with a list of recently viewed items. It can then email her a coupon for summer footwear to be redeemed in-store.

To Do: Implement a flexible database that can capture and aggregate consumer identity data across devices. Choose a solution that integrates with other third-party marketing platforms so that you can provide consumers with cohesive messaging and experiences across channels and campaigns.

Trend #2: The Internet of Things

As consumers continue to build their arsenal of smart gadgets, they will look to leading brands to enhance connectivity and improve user experiences. Case in point? The number of connected devices across the globe reached 8 – 10 billion in 2012 (Forbes), and is expected to grow to more than 25 billion by 2020 (Information Management).

The wristband that measures your activity level will soon be a dime a dozen. But the one that evaluates your heart rate and adjusts the speed of your treadmill based on the ideal rate for your fitness profile? That’s golden. Not only does identity effectively customize connected experiences, but central identity between devices takes the Internet of Things to a whole new level, enabling them to communicate with one another and create a personalized lifestyle.

For Example…When consumers use their social identities to login to Dick’s Sporting Goods, they are able to create personalized, virtual Gift Lockers featuring their favorite items. Items can be added not just by browsing online, but by taking photos of items in store or scanning catalog QR codes via mobile phone. These users can then seamlessly share their favorite shows with their social networks from any device.

Trend #3: Social Commerce

Although 74% of consumers state that social networks influence their purchase decisions (ODM Group), 88% of marketers still have an unclear view of social ROI (Webmarketing123). As marketers attempt to attribute traditional KPIs like traffic, registrations and revenue to their social marketing efforts, the sheer number of anonymous user interactions across today’s plethora of networks makes this nearly impossible.

Accessing and authenticating consumers’ social identities is key to effectively driving and measuring social commerce. Users’ social profiles contain a wealth of data that can be used to reach them with more timely and relevant messaging across channels. Establishing social identity also enables brands to tie social activity like sharing, leaving comments and taking part in gamification directly to on-site behaviors like checkouts and repeat visits.

Take Action: Give users the option to login to your site or app using their existing social identities, and get permission-based access to their social data in return. Leverage a database that has the power to link and consolidate data from users’ social accounts across networks for a complete picture of social identity.

As channels and devices continue to expand and diversify, identity is quickly becoming king of the digital world. Insight into consumer identity gives businesses the ability create the types of connected and personalized experiences that build authentic consumer relationships and grow value over time.

For more insight on taking an identity-centric approach to customer management, download Making Sense of Consumer Data: A Guide to Responsible Data Collection and Application.

Twenty years ago, there were about 3 million devices connected to the Internet. By the end of this decade, Gartner estimates that there will be 26 billion devices on the global network.

This can only mean one thing: We’re living in the Internet of Things.

With anything and everything — including trees, insects, pill bottles, and sinks — going online, Cisco projects the Internet of Things to be a $14 trillion revenue opportunity. Helping people remember their daily medicine with light-up bottle caps and preventing illegal logging and monitoring traffic in real-time are worthwhile goals. But they are point solutions. They don’t resonate in our lives in ways that make it impossible to imagine how we lived without them.

In order for the Internet of Things to truly work, context about ourselves (think interests, location, intent) is required. Here are some reasons why the Internet of Things will only come to fruition in identity is incorporated into the user experience.

Technology Gets Personal

A wristband that measures your steps and heart rate is a helpful fitness tool. However, if that’s all it does, then it is nothing more than a tool, no matter how many other devices it can connect to. But what about a wristband that knows the wearer’s identity, understands his fitness routines, and tells the treadmill to speed up or slow down based on the wearer’s heart rate and exercise goals?

This sort of personalized connectedness delivers true value and breeds customer loyalty by tapping into each user’s unique situation and background. And it all starts with a deep understanding of of users’ identities.

Devices Communicate with One Another

In the Internet of Things, devices need to participate in a constant conversation with one another, their owners’ social feeds, and outside field of interest. Any device which relies on a one-time data dump will quickly become irrelevant. Connected devices need to be able not only to verify identity but also be flexible enough to grow and adapt as new channels and data points emerge.

Products Understand Context

The Internet of Things should model the kind of tailored, identity-driven recommendations today’s consumer is accustomed to receiving from leading brands like Amazon, Netflix and Spotify. To compare and contrast, let’s say you have a refrigerator that reorders eggs when you run out. Such a feature would be helpful, but likely would not deliver enough value to gain widespread adoption. However, if your refrigerator automatically shops for a recipe you just pinned, and recommends three new options for dinner based on what you have in the house and your dinner party, that’s extraordinary.

These intuitive, data-driven experiences are shaping the Internet of Things, and it’s up to businesses to start leveraging the first party (permission-based) customer insights to wow users with incredible experiences.

Concluding Thoughts

The Internet of Things must move beyond technological advancement into the realm of personal experiences to thrive. That future is up to each of us, as we decide whether to put people at the center of the Internet of Things or only focus on the technological aspect. Without personal identity and context, the Internet of Things will never move past a novelty to a necessity.

Bombarded with upwards of 500K marketing messages each day (Fast Company), modern consumers have become masters at tuning brands out. Along with the ability to hold a perfectly cohesive conversation while watching TV and tweeting away, consumers seem to have evolved with digital times by developing the ability to look straight through your “native” ad.

To stand out and stay top-of-mind, marketers must update their strategies and tools to enable authentic communication and relevance in real-time. Here’s how you can create meaningful conversations that effectively drive customer acquisition and engagement.

Know Your Customers On a Deeper Level

Would you rather have a conversation with your best friend, or a total stranger? Personally, I would pick my best friend – she knows all about me and the things I like to talk about. Not surprisingly, this sentiment rings true when it comes to brand/consumer dialogues: 73% of consumers prefer to interact with brands that use personal information to make their experiences more relevant (Digital Trends).

How do you do that? By establishing a clear view of consumer identity. Social login gives consumers an easy way to register for and login to your site or mobile app using their existing social media identities. In turn, it gives brands the ability to request access to specific data points that will better inform their content marketing strategies, including users’ locations, relationships, favorite brands and hobbies.

With the ability to tie all consumer data and activity to a single user profile, businesses are able to create highly relevant, personalized messaging and experiences across channels and devices. Knowing your customers translates into more authentic consumer conversations that drive conversion and lifetime value.

Invest in Boosting User-generated Content

One of the biggest mistakes brands make when engaging consumers is being too loud. In fact, the most effective user conversations take place when your brand is seen and not heard! Marketers should strive to put themselves at the center of consumer discussion, but let their customers do the talking. Why? Millennials state that user-generated content is 20% more influential, 35% more memorable and 50% more trustworthy than other media (Social Times).

Create opportunities for consumers to provide feedback about your brand, product or content by providing conversation vehicles like comments or reviews. Not only does user-generated content drive conversion rates by building brand trust and product discovery, but it also improves SEO performance by putting your business into fresh, searchable terms that your customers actually use. Make sure this content is sharable across social networks to give awareness and referral traffic an extra boost.

In today’s over-crowded marketing landscape, it’s no longer enough to be the loudest, most eye-catching or ubiquitous brand. It’s the businesses that truly get to know their customers that will be heard and initiate the types of conversations that lead to conversion.

Each time a consumer registers for a website or mobile app, creates a social network profile or makes an online purchase, a new identity is created. Amidst the flood of identity-data pouring in across channels, businesses are beginning to realize that to maintain an accurate and structured view of their customers, they must develop a consumer identity management strategy.

However, many businesses are failing to rise to this challenge as they attempt to turn their existing, internal identity access management (IAM) solutions “inside out” and use them for external purposes. But employee and customer identity management require two totally separate solutions that speak to disparate goals, requirements and capabilities.

Let’s examine the reasons why traditional IAM solutions cannot be used for consumer identity access management (cIAM) purposes, and 3 key database requirements for effective external data management.

Greater Scalability

As one of the most successful companies in the world, Facebook boasts over 7,000 employees worldwide. Now, compare this to Facebook’s 1.32 billion monthly active users, who generate over 2.5 billion shares and 2.7 billion Likes every day.

While even the world’s largest businesses manage thousands of employee identities at the most, customer identities can range well into the billions. Think about it: how effectively can a system built to handle 7,000 identities scale to manage over 1.3 billion?

The flood of consumer channels and devices has resulted in an overwhelming volume of identities and data that internal legacy systems simply weren’t made to handle. An effective cIAM solution is built from the ground-up to scale to manage hundreds to billions of customers and the countless exabytes of data they create – all while maintaining security standards from both a data collection and storage perspective.

Data Normalization

Traditionally, internal company and employee data is collected and stored in a structured and controlled manner, with your business identifying and defining necessary fixed fields and models.

In contrast, your customers are constantly creating new types of data from continually diversifying sources. Essentially, every new unstructured data point can mean a major update to your legacy solution, and with 90% of today’s “big data” being unstructured (BusinessInsider), this is a “big problem.”

Businesses cite the inability to automate structured and unstructured data quickly and effectively as one of their biggest challenges (Kapow Software) – a challenge that can be solved by adopting a consumer identity database built to manage and consolidate the volume and variety of consumer identity-data.

This database should have the power to reconcile both structured and unstructured data without the need to preconfigure database fields, and automatically index any type of data thrown your way, including social, transactional and behavioral. Combine this with the ability to integrate with your existing third party marketing platforms and business systems, and your business has an organizational game-changer: a single source of customer truth.

Automated Privacy Compliance

Perhaps the most crucial difference between internal and external identity management comes down to privacy. Internal data privacy is managed centrally and based primarily on policies put into place by the business itself. Not to mention, when an employee creates data during work hours, on a business-owned device or within a company application, this data indisputably belongs to that business.

However, as a consumer moves across the Internet on an owned device leveraging services and applications for personal use, this data belongs to her. Any business looking to access this data must do so in a transparent and permission-based manner and adhere to the countless privacy policies upheld by lawmakers and third-party identity providers.

As you begin to incorporate registration systems across your external facing sites and apps and focus on customer identity, make sure that you choose a provider that can take on managing these privacy updates. Your cIAM solution should provide automatic, real-time API updates to reflect policy and account changes, such as auto-deletion of non-basic account information when application permissions are revoked.

For more information about developing a cIAM strategy, watch our webinar, “Customer Identities Are A Whole Different Bunch,” with special guest Andras Cser of Forrester on demand.

Face it – it wasn’t all that long ago that you were super excited about your Motorola Razr, the word “tablet” referred to a stone slab and there was nothing “smart” about your TV. Now, with everything from our toothbrushes to our thermostats connected to the Internet, 46% of consumers say they use multiple connected devices to accomplish a single task.

The burgeoning omni-channel landscape is changing the way that your customers interact, look for information and make decisions on a daily basis. Businesses looking to stay relevant and top-of-mind must rethink the way they structure their user experiences and manage customer data in response.

As channels continue to fragment and connected devices multiply, customer identity is becoming increasingly central to creating meaningful experiences that transcend touchpoints and grow relationships. Let’s take a look at 3 omni-channel trends and how focusing on customer identity enables businesses to build meaningful, unified customer journeys across every screen along the way.

Mcommerce

Not only does mobile usage account for 21% of all Internet usage (Google), but 32% of all online purchases are made over mobile devices (BusinessInsider). And according to international investment bank The Goldman Sachs Group Inc, worldwide mobile commerce sales will account for almost half of total web sales by 2018.

One of the biggest challenges for marketers when it comes to offering meaningful and effective mobile commerce experiences is that they lack a single view of their customers, and are dealing with a mountain of disorganized data created across devices. Much of this stems from marketers’ continued reliance on third-party tracking cookies to learn about their customers; these methods of consumer tracking are prehistoric compared to today’s mobile landscape, and simply do not function across devices.

Marketers are turning to first-party identity data to create individual, complete profiles of users across devices. Letting site visitors self-identify via registration and login is key in gaining the single, permission-based customer view necessary to provide shoppers with a personal, consistent cross-channel user-experience.

Consider the following user experience examples both with and without identity:

The Internet of Things

The number of connected devices across the globe is expected to grow to more than 25 billion by 2020 (Information Management). In fact, Cisco projects the Internet of Things to be a $14 trillion revenue opportunity (Washington Post). But the real value here isn’t in your TV’s ability to connect to the Internet – it’s the possibility of each of your devices connecting to each other by recognizing your unique identity, and effectively communicating to provide you with a totally personalized lifestyle.

Embracing the Internet of Things means making sure that permission-based consumer identity is at the core of each of your products and services, as well as keeping your eyes peeled for ways to add value to the customer experience by connecting with other devices.

Sleep Number is a great example of a brand that has taken something ordinary – sleeping – and turned it into a connected, personalized experience. SleepIQ technology not only measures your sleeping patterns through your mattress, but it also connects to the SleepIQ mobile app. The app tracks factors that may affect your sleep, like diet, caffeine intake or having a sick child, and recommends mattress settings to help improve your sleep quality.

TV Everywhere

With the popularity of DVR and streaming services and devices like HBO GO and Apple TV, it’s undeniable that today’s audience has vastly different consumption habits compared to prior generations. The proliferation of connected screens means viewers no longer have to be tethered to a couch in front of a television to enjoy their favorite programming.

TV Everywhere (TVE) is an identity-based solution that enables television broadcasters to stream their content on any supported device, such as a PC, tablet, or smartphone. TVE facilitates communication between a user’s cable provider, who provides the authentication and authorization for viewing content, and the content provider that owns the programming.

When paired with an identity management solution, networks can tailor the TVE experience viewers by informing the site or mobile app experience with past behavioral data. For instance, you can look at a user’s most frequently watched shows, favorite programs, and more, to serve him new, relevant programming recommendations.

Undoubtedly, modern marketers will face the ongoing challenge of navigating new connected devices and customer expectations as the omni-channel landscape continues to evolve and expand. For more information about putting customer identity at the center of your multi-channel strategy, download our free omni-channel toolkit.

The concept of digital identity has evolved significantly over the last 15 years. Though traditional registration forms that require usernames, email addresses, and passwords are still mainstays across the Internet, we’ve also seen the proliferation of simpler, more modern methods of authentication.

Social login, for example, has been widely adopted by both businesses and consumers. Allowing users to verify their identities and log in to websites and mobile applications using existing profiles from networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn not only creates a more streamlined experience for consumers, it also enables marketers to capture and leverage rich, first-party social identity data.

Users clearly enjoy the ease and speed of social login — Facebook Login was used more than 10 billion times in 2013 alone (Facebook Newsroom). Organizations also understand the value of the identity data housed within social profiles — hundreds of thousands of websites and apps across the Internet now employ some form of social login (Datanyze).

As the evolution of digital identity continues, we’re seeing even more unique and integrated means of online verification. Let’s take a look at three interesting methods of identity authentication in use today.

Apple Pay

When Apple introduced the iPhone 5S, the company introduced a new hardware feature called Touch ID. Touch ID allows users to unlock their smartphones, tablets, and certain operating system applications using just a fingerprint. A year later, when Apple unveiled the iPhone 6, we saw the introduction of Apple Pay, a mobile payment system.

The combination of Touch ID, Apple Pay, and Apple’s native Passbook app effectively digitizes a user’s entire wallet and identity as a consumer, using biometrics and NFC technology to authenticate shoppers at the point of sale. Goods can be purchased using only a smartphone, without the need to swipe a credit card.

Twitter Digits

In late 2014, social networking company Twitter introduced Digits, a tool that allows users to sign up for mobile apps and authenticate their identities without the need to create new login credentials. Rather than creating new usernames and passwords, consumers can log in using their cell phone numbers — an identification mechanism they already use every day.

With Digits, online accounts are tied only to mobile phone numbers, eliminating password fatigue for users, and reducing the amount of spam or inactive accounts businesses have to deal with. An individual signs up using his or her phone number, receives an SMS code, enters the code into the verification field, and the process is complete.

Log In with PayPal

As eCommerce and mobile commerce continue to grow (Internet Retailer), we’re seeing more and more consumers leverage authentication solutions from payment providers. PayPal, for instance, has its own third-party identification solution for websites and apps called Log In with PayPal.

Log In with PayPal allows consumers to log in to web properties using their existing PayPal credentials. This option streamlines checkout processes and provides enhanced merchant experiences as most shipping and payment details are stored within PayPal.

Consumer identity, as well as the means to verify consumer identity, are becoming increasingly important across the Internet, and businesses need to be adequately prepared.

In order to successfully embrace and prepare for the continued evolution of digital identity, brands need a customer identity management solution in place that is capable of normalizing both structured and unstructured consumer data, as well as maintaining compliance with the ever-changing APIs of third-party identity providers.

To learn more about how concept of identity will continue to diversify, download our free eBook, “The Evolution of Consumer Identity.”

– Reeyaz Hamirani, Corporate Communications Manager
@Reeyaz21

The post 3 Examples of the Evolution of Identity appeared first on Gigya's Blog.

As the Interactive portion of SXSW 2015 comes to a close, we’d like to take a moment to thank all of our guests who came out to the third annual Gigya Grill. This year, we took over the La Sol y La Luna restaurant in Austin for three days of networking, great food, and fun. From Casino Night with a live DJ to the Matt Wilson Band and an award-winning gelato station, we hope our attendees had as much fun as we did.

We also hosted an insightful panel discussion entitled Exploring the Future of Digital Identities. An amazing collection of marketing experts discussed how identity is shaping the way businesses understand and build meaningful relationships with their customers. Moderated by Dave Scott, Gigya’s CMO, the panel featured Peter Scott, Vice President of Emerging Media at Turner Sports, Chris Schlosser, Vice President at MLS Digital, and Gigya’s CEO, Patrick Salyer. For those unable to attend or catch the live stream, you can watch the recorded panel discussion here.

Here’s to another successful year at SXSW! We’re looking forward to bringing the Gigya Grill back to Austin for SXSWi 2016, and hope you’ll join us!

The post SXSWi 2015 Recap: Highlights from The Gigya Grill appeared first on Gigya's Blog.

As Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Unfortunately, as organizations grow, consumer channels multiply, and Big Data gets even bigger, many companies fail to heed these words of wisdom. 

Consider the following statistics:

• Just 17% of marketers say their mobile strategy is fully aligned and integrated with their overall marketing (FierceCMO)
• Fewer than 1 in 20 marketers claim that their marketing technologies are fully integrated (Signal) 
• Less than 25% of CMOs believe there is adequate collaboration between marketing and IT (Accenture)

Let’s dig a little deeper into these three stumbling blocks, how they affect business performance, and what marketers can do to get past them. 

Siloed UX Across Devices

With mobile web usage having officially surpassed desktop usage for the first time early last year (Search Engine Watch), marketers already know the importance of connecting with consumers via smartphones and tablets. However, 83% of consumers say that a seamless experience across devices is important (ExactTarget), requiring marketers to go beyond basic “mobile friendly” experiences. 

Unfortunately, this is where the silos set in and marketers fall short. Modern brands must strive to provide users with cohesive journeys as they use multiple devices both simultaneously and sequentially. 

The key to doing this successfully? Identity. By asking a user to register and log in across devices, marketers can maintain a single view of the user’s profile and activities, making it possible to create experiences where each device picks up where the last one left off.

Siloed Data Channels

Marketers are implementing a growing number of technologies in an effort to reach their customers across touch points, including email, advertising, social, and more. In fact, according to a recent survey, 53% of marketing departments use five or more marketing technology solutions, while 15% use ten or more (EContent). With each adoption comes yet another source of user interaction and insight. 

In theory, this sounds great, but the problem is that none of these siloed systems “talk” to one another, with only 24% of markers claiming to have a clear understanding of their customers across channels (Experian). This leaves marketers with multiple, disparate views of the same exact customer, making it nearly impossible to provide users with relevant experiences and accurately attribute ROI. 

Leading brands like Learn Liberty are adopting database solutions that break down data silos by consolidating unlimited volumes and varieties of data across marketing platforms. By housing customers’ permission-based social and on-site behavioral data in an advanced database built with a dynamic schema, Learn Liberty is able to export this information directly into its email automation system of choice, Marketo, using a direct integration. The ability to generate more relevant and timely Marketo campaigns from these insights has resulted in a 152% boost in site referral traffic from email marketing.

Siloed Business Departments

Traditionally, IT and marketing have functioned in two separate spheres of the organization, with IT knee-deep in algorithms and APIs, and marketing laser-focused on crafting the perfect banner ads and email campaigns. But as businesses face increasing pressure to become more data-driven, marketers place a growing burden on IT to turn customer data into actionable insights. 

Days are often spent working overtime to crunch numbers and create reports for marketing managers, sales teams, and C-Level execs to quickly digest, many of which are outdated well before completion. 40% of CMOs believe their companies’ IT teams don’t understand the urgency of integrating new data sources into campaigns to address market conditions, while 43% of CIOs say that marketing requirements and priorities change too often for them to keep up (CMO.com). 

However, as customer data becomes the linchpin of business success, and CMOs’ technology budgets surpass those of CIOs, there is an unprecedented need for these two departments to collaborate and work closely together. Marketers must turn to IT to implement a dynamic, consolidated customer data management solution that gives them a single view of customers across channels. This solution must also have the power to turn Big Data into digestible, actionable insights for use across marketing platforms and campaigns. Helping marketers manage customer data more effectively ultimately reduces maintenance burdens for IT, leaving developers with more time to focus on innovation.

As customers continue to demand more personalized, seamless experiences, silos within organizations will become increasingly detrimental to marketing success. For more information about how your business can function as a whole rather than “the sum of its parts,” download our white paper, “Achieving A Single Customer View: The Holy Grail for Marketers.”

The post 3 Silos That Stunt Marketing Success appeared first on Gigya.

To reach customers with a level of relevance that grows conversions and loyalty, marketers must understand their users. We’re not talking about observing anonymous on-site behaviors and researching general browsing habits – we’re talking about really learning who they are.

Prompting users to self-identify by registering and logging in on your sites and applications is necessary, but easier said than done. Here are three strategies to help you convert unknown users, eliminate reliance on anonymous data and get to know your customers more granularly.

Create Points of Engagement

Requiring users to identify themselves and provide you with their personal information requires some incentive. The ability to seamlessly and directly interact with your brand and site community encourages users to not just register for your site, but also to log in and engage time and again. Consider these notable engagement statistics:

• 32% of companies using ratings & reviews saw a registration conversion increase of more than 50%
• 30% of brands using comments were able to boost registrations by 25-49%
• 30% of companies using gamification improved registration conversion rates by upwards of 50%

Engagement is only as valuable as the insight it generates. Providing site visitors with ways to interact directly with your brand results in a greater quantity and quality of data to guide the creation of personalized user experiences, more focused content strategies, lucrative product roadmaps and much more.

Implement Single Sign-On (SSO)

Driving registration flows across a single web property can be difficult, but for brands with multiple domains, this challenge can be two, three or even ten times more difficult. Single Sign-On (SSO) allows users to authenticate just once and move seamlessly across your web properties.

SSO syncs logged-in states as users navigate from one of your web properties to another, or to a third-party application that sits within your site. Allowing users to leverage the same identity across domains facilitates a single, complete customer view, as well as simplifies back-end identity data management for enterprises.

For example, as properties of a larger parent company, Food Network, HGTV and DIY Network enable users to log in on just one of these sites, and then unlock the ability to navigate across all three properties while maintaining their logged-in states.

Link Anonymous Data to Known Users

By employing cookies across web properties, brands have compiled masses of anonymous user data. While this data gives some insight into behavioral trends for site visitors, it fails to uncover the interests and identities driving these actions. What’s more, device-specific data is becoming increasingly unreliable as users connect and share across a growing number of mobile devices.

Integrations between identity management solutions and DMPs or automation tools make it possible to link existing, anonymous consumer data to known user records once a user registers on-site. When a user registers, your site can send the now authenticated user’s site ID to your DMP, and the known user is synced to the DMP against the anonymous ID and data on record for that user. Moving forward, the user’s identity data can be passed directly from the identity management platform to the DMP and attributed to the correct user based on the site ID match – even across devices and domains.

User anonymity is a major stumbling block for many businesses. To read even more tips about turning anonymous site visitors into known customers, download our Social Login 101 white paper.

The post 3 Tips to Turn Anonymous Users into Known Customers appeared first on Gigya.

Balancing data privacy while providing consumers with personalized experiences has always felt like somewhat of a paradox for marketers. Though this balancing act may seem arduous, the variety of marketing technologies and data-driven strategies available today make it entirely possible.

In order to better understand the current state of data privacy and personalization, Gigya commissioned a consumer-facing study with OnePoll to collect the perspectives of 2,000 US and 2,000 UK male and female adults ages 18 and older.

The study, which is conducted annually, examines consumer attitudes around data privacy, the prevalence of social login, and the importance of personalized marketing. The 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization revealed continued explosive social login use, driven by an aversion to completing lengthy registration forms and having to create more usernames and passwords. Most notably, the report highlighted a clear evolution in the concept of digital identity, Identity 3.0, which is characterized by increasing acceptance of next-generation authentication methods like biometrics. Predictably, the study also showed heightened demand for data privacy and more relevant marketing communications, which consumers believe can be achieved through business transparency and personalization.

Key findings from The 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization showed:

• The move toward Identity 3.0 is in full swing. Adoption of next-generation authentication methods is growing steadily, with 59% of US consumers acknowledging a willingness to register or log in to a website or mobile application with an existing identity from a payment provider such as PayPal or Amazon.

   

• Biometric technologies are emerging as popular options for authentication. The study shows 41% of US consumers have a high level of comfort logging in to a site or mobile app using a thumbprint or face/eye scan.

   

• More than 90% of US and UK consumers are at least somewhat concerned about data privacy and how companies are using customer data.

   

• Irrelevant marketing communication is another issue plaguing consumers. Per day, 30% of US consumers and 35% of UK consumers receive between one and three irrelevant messages. Even worse, 17% of US consumers and 14% of UK consumers receive more than 10 irrelevant messages per day.

   

• 88% of US consumers have logged in to a website or mobile application using an existing social network identity, an 11% increase over last year’s findings.

For even more interesting statistics about data privacy, Identity 3.0, and how brands can build trust with consumers, download the complete study here.

– Reeyaz Hamirani, Corporate Communications Manager
@Reeyaz21

The post New Study: The 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization appeared first on Gigya.

Balancing data privacy while providing consumers with personalized experiences has always felt like somewhat of a paradox for marketers.

In order to better understand the current state of data privacy and personalization, Gigya commissioned a consumer-facing study with OnePoll to collect the perspectives of 2,000 US and 2,000 UK male and female adults ages 18 and older.

The study, which is conducted annually, examines consumer attitudes around data privacy, the prevalence of social login, and the importance of personalized marketing. The 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization revealed continued explosive social login use, driven by an aversion to completing lengthy registration forms and having to create more usernames and passwords. Most notably, the report highlighted a clear evolution in the concept of digital identity, Identity 3.0, which is characterized by increasing acceptance of next-generation authentication methods like biometrics. Predictably, the study also showed heightened demand for data privacy and more relevant marketing communications, which consumers believe can be achieved through business transparency and personalization.

We’ve compiled highlights from the study into the infographic below:

To see even more interesting statistics about data privacy, Identity 3.0, and how brands can build trust with consumers, you can download the complete study here.

– Reeyaz Hamirani, Corporate Communications Manager
@Reeyaz21

The post Infographic: The 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization appeared first on Gigya.

The results of Gigya’s 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization report reveal that, while social login usage continues to skyrocket, consumers are also showing a marked interest in next-generation authentication methods to meet growing demands for privacy and personalization.

Join us as Gigya’s Craig Ferrara discusses the rise of Identity 3.0 and what it means for businesses, including:

• Apple IDs as a potential new form of third-party digital identity
• Consumer interest in biometrics
• Using social identities to connect the IoT

About Our Speaker

As Gigya’s Director of Creative Services, Craig manages the Creative Services and User Interface Design team. Craig is responsible for designing the look and feel of the integration of Gigya’s technology, as well as providing consultation that Gigya offers clients post go-live to improve analytics and adoption. 

At the end of the webinar, you will have the opportunity to submit your own privacy, personalization, and Identity 3.0-related questions to Craig.

The webinar will be held on Thursday, July 30th, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. PT. Please click here to register.

We hope you can join us!

The post Live Webinar: Balancing Privacy and Personalization with Identity 3.0 appeared first on Gigya.

With consumer data pouring in across mobile, social, email and wearables — just to name a few of today’s consumer channels — it can be excruciatingly difficult for marketers to navigate the Big Data landscape. 

First and third-party data are two distinctly different classes of information that are traditionally juxtaposed against each other. So how are marketers to decide which of these two data types will best serve their respective businesses? Let’s explore the differences between the two, how they’re collected and why marketers should be using first-party data to improve their campaigns.

What is Third-Party Data?

Third-party data is information collected about unspecified consumers who are not necessarily a company’s own customers. Businesses purchase this information from data brokers who scour disparate and unrelated sources, such as government lists, voter documentation, questionnaires and surveys, to compile data sets. Typically, third-party data is aggregated from online tracking cookies, email lists and data marketplaces.

Here are some examples of third-party data points collected by data brokers:

• Employment information
• Credit score
• Allergies and ailments
• Home address
• Birth date
• Voter registration information

Evidently, companies can access a lot of information just by purchasing third-party data from data brokers. But how accurate is this data and how does it impact marketing campaigns? Third-party data is prone to three major inaccuracies:

Lack of Relation

First, data brokers create inaccurate consumer profiles by piecing together data from unrelated and unaffiliated sources. It’s like trying to complete a customer puzzle with a bunch of different pieces from different sets: there’s no way to flawlessly and fully complete it. This lack of relatedness among various sources can lead to some stretched and inaccurate conclusions. For example, just because an individual types “cute dog photos” into a search engine doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she is a dog owner.

Out-of-Date

Second, third-party data can be severely out-dated, as it can be bought and sold for many years without any real updating. This means major life-changing events, such as moving or getting married, can go overlooked by companies using third-party data. Consequently, brands relying on third-party information risk exposing their customers to irrelevant experiences, and no one likes irrelevant experiences. In fact, in a recent survey, when asked about their reactions after receiving irrelevant information or product recommendations from a company, 47% of US respondents and 44% of UK respondents claimed that they ignored all future communications from the business.

No Cross-Device Accuracy

Lastly, traditional third-party tracking cookies, one of the most well-known and widely-used forms of third-party data, only monitor device-specific behaviors. Heavy reliance on tracking cookies results in an inability to understand users’ cross-device activities, which is especially vital to grasp as the average US consumer owns four devices (Nielsen), more than 20% of consumers between the ages of 18-49 visit websites from four different devices each week (Experian) and 46% of consumers use multiple devices to accomplish a single task (MarketingLand).

With so much room for error, marketers who rely heavily on third-party data to understand and reach their customers are setting themselves up to deliver ineffective campaigns and waste marketing spend. The inability to know exactly who they’re reaching prohibits them from adequately measuring and optimizing their campaigns.

So, how should businesses move beyond third-party data to improve the success of their marketing efforts? Leverage first-party customer data.

What is First-Party Data?

First-party data is data collected by companies directly from their customers. It’s collected from interactions and behaviors across devices, websites, mobile apps, registration fields, subscription data, social networks and more.

Here are some first-party data points about an individual that can easily be obtained by companies via permission-based methods such as traditional registration forms, progressive profiling or third-party identity authentication:

• Relationship status
• Purchase behavior
• Favorite brands and companies
• Favorite TV shows, musical artists, etc.
• On-site actions and activities

With such a large quantity and extraordinary quality of accurate, rich information, marketers can create personalized and relevant marketing campaigns to better appeal to their current and potential customers and see conversion rates skyrocket.

Marketers, ask yourselves, when creating your marketing programs, would you rather use anonymous data collected from various sources, or permission-based, first-hand data gathered directly from your actual and potential customers? 

To learn more about the hidden costs associated with third-party data, check out this free white paper.

The post The Three Major Inaccuracies of Third-Party Data appeared first on Gigya.

Think for a minute about all the identities people have online – the apps, the emails, the e-commerce sites, cloud accounts, streaming video, and the bills paid electronically. Conservative estimates say average users have 20 to 25 digital identities. For some double-thumbers, it‘s more than twice that. Sometimes, we even have more than one identity…

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