Offering Social Media Sign-on for Your Guest WiFi Network

Today’s consumers don’t leave home without their smartphones, and they expect robust WiFi wherever they go—stores, coffee shops, restaurants, heck, even the waiting room at the vet’s office. And when they snap a pic of their huevos rancheros or a selfie with their labradoodle and sign into your guest WiFi network to share on social media, there is an opportunity for your business to harness that social media moment. Adding a social media sign-on to your WiFi network’s  captive portal is a super convenient, one-click way for customers to get connected.

Typically, a captive portal asks for a customer’s name and email and presents a usage agreement that the user would agree to before being allowed to connect. By adding a social media sign-on option, the customer would be asked if they wanted to connect to your guest WiFi through a social media account they’re already logged into, bypassing the steps above. It’s simple, convenient, and quick.

SecurEdge Cloud allows you to customize your captive portal to include a social media sign on. It’s just one of the features offered by SecurEdge that can help take your customer engagement to another level.

A recent study showed that 77% of the U.S. population has some sort of social media account. So the odds are really high that your customers are using social media to some extent, and that means there’s potential to tie their social media activity into their experience with your product or service.

If you’re an IT manager or decision maker, you should consider adding a social media sign-on option to your guest WiFi network because:

It’s easier for guests:

(See “simple, convenient, and quick” above.) The genius of offering a social media sign-on for your captive portal is the “already-ness” of it. Your customers already have social media accounts. They are already logged into those accounts of their phone. And if they’re accessing your guest WiFi, that means they have already set foot in your location. You’re not really doing anything cutting-edge or new here; you’re just piggybacking on the way your customers are already interacting with social media to make it even easier for them to log into your WiFi network. Rather than take the time to type in their name and email address to access your guest WiFi, they can simply click through their social media account and get connected faster.

It’s an easy way to collect important user demographics:

From social media, such as preferences and location history. When a customer connects to your guest WiFi through a social media account, they give permission for information to flow from their social account to your business. With a targeted strategy for making the most of the data your business collects, you can learn a lot about your customers and how they are spending their time and dollars. You can use data to better understand your customers, anticipate their needs, and reach them with the best possible product offering.

It allows your business to create more personalized experiences:

For their guests. When your customers connect to your guest WiFi using a social media sign-on, you can direct them to your business’s social media sites where you can offer promos, discounts, and offers that will delight them and drive sales.

Let’s Get Social

If you have questions about maximizing your guest WiFi access through a captive portal? SecurEdge can help. Contact us today to learn more.