I recently wrote about the amount of information that one can gather about users who register for or become members of your website using Facebook Connect. In continuing to read and contemplate writing on the subject I came across a nice article by Augie Ray in CRM magazine. Augie’s article points out that the majority of companies who are using Facebook Connect to allow consumers to connect to their website are doing so without telling the customer what information they are sharing or how the company will use it.

Customers are becoming wary and savvy about the fact that while connecting to a site using their Facebook ID may be high on the convenience side, they may also be unwittingly sharing more personal information and access to their data with that particular company than they would have if they would have signed up in a traditional manner. In a time where Social CRM is about as hot as any area of social software and where companies are beginning to want to capture and utilize the information available about customers and prospects on social networks it is amazing to me that so many companies would rely on Facebook to communicate what information is being shared through Facebook Connect. Let me explain…

Facebook Connect is a wonderful way to lower the barriers and gate to having people become a member of your website. With well over 600 Million members there is little chance someone who wishes to use your website will not have a Facebook ID. In using Facebook Connect as a signup/signon method for your site by default you get access to a bevy of user information (see the image below) but will actually not have requested permission to contact the user or post to their wall etc…For each of those you will need to request special permission.

While the majority of web users used to just click the “Allow” button and were instantly connected to your site, the amount of privacy concerns specifically surrounding Facebook has made more and more users take a close look at just what personal information they are now allowing the website/company access to by using Facebook as their sign-up/sign-on method.

It is at this extremely critical stage – the point at which you the company are asking the user to trust you and give up their personal information – that I feel companies are really falling down on. In the vast majority of Facebook Connect examples that I’ve seen or used the website/company has just used the default “Request for Permission” dialogue box that Facebook has provided without realizing that at this critical stage of creating trust the company itself could create that feeling and sense of security with just a little transparency.

Yes Facebook’s “Request for Permission” dialogue box is familiar looking to all by now and yes it does give the user details about what personal information and privileges are being shared with the company, but in reality it is nothing more than a blanket statement of information that the company now has access to without any indication as to how or why they will use that information.

In an era where customers want to purchase from and deal with companies that they trust and believe are transparent, replacing the default Facebook “Request for Permission” dialogue with one that actually speaks to the information your company is gathering and how you plan on using it is a tremendous way to create a sense of security, transparency and ultimately trust between the consumer and your brand. Are you gathering the information about a customer’s likes and dislikes from their profile? If so, why are you harvesting the information? What is in it for the consumer? Will you ever sell the customer’s data? Can they revoke access at any time?

While not every customer will care to have all these questions answered each time they sign up for a website, more and more consumers are becoming tuned into the fact that are allowing companies unfettered access to information that may really offer them no discernable benefit when using the website. When you combine this ever growing awareness with the fact that so few companies are actually taking the time to be transparent in the “Request for Permission” stage there exists a real opportunity for your company/brand to set itself apart and be seen as a brand that sits high on the trust/transparency scale for consumers.

The shining example of a company that continues to dominate when it comes to customer loyalty and trust is Amazon and their Facebook Connect Request for Permission dialogue box is no different. Rather than simply rely on Facebook to communicate to consumers what information they were sharing and how Amazon would use it, Amazon has created their own “Connect Amazon and Facebook” page that pops up before (yes an extra pop-up but a worthwhile one) the Facebook Request for Permission and gives a complete rundown not only on what how Amazon will use the user information (while spinning the benefits to the user) but also how they explicitly will not use the information supplied. While there is already a high trust factor for a brand like Amazon, that was certainly not always the case and it is in taking the extra steps for transparency and trust (like this one) that have built the trusted company reputation that Amazon has. Whether your company is a 2 man start-up or has offices around the globe you can take a page from trust leader Amazon’s playbook and instantly create a feeling of trust/transparency when asking people to share their personal information with your brand via Facebook Connect.

What are you doing to create trust with your customers? What other brands can be held up as examples of how to create transparency/trust? What brands should be examples of how to lose that trust?


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