“Navigating the Logged In User Revolution” is a guest post from our strategic partner and masters of social login data, Gigya.

As any marketer knows, the path to knowing and connecting with customers is a convoluted, unwieldy one. It’s nearly impossible not to get lost among all the different strategies and tactics promising to unlock the doors to true, unadulterated customer understanding.

To help you stay ahead of the pack and navigate your way through the ambiguous terrain of consumer engagement, we’ve outlined three destinations that every business should cover on its quest to better, more granular customer insights.

Destination #1: Social Login Land

Actionable consumer insights always begin with social login. It’s simple, really: social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn collect tons of user data, such as names, locations, interests, likes, social graphs, and more, every minute. Social login connects the social profile data contained within these user records and transfers them to businesses like yours so you can better understand and connect with your customers.

GigyaKLM

In the example above, Dutch airline KLM incorporates social login into its digital experience, offering four different social provider options and displaying a prominent call to action for a streamlined user experience.

Destination #2: Customer Insights Island

As you scale your customer targeting efforts by collecting first party data via social login, you’ll need to securely store this information in a way that’s accessible and easy to manage. After all, your data is only as good as your ability to effectively manage and leverage it.

GigyaInsights

A web-based dashboard like the one pictured below displays this business’s user base in a way that’s visual and easily digestible. Administrators can pull audience segments by querying data using pre-built filters such as gender, age, relationship status, likes, and more.

Destination #3: Personalization Point

After gaining a deeper understanding into your customers’ social profile data, you’ll want to use these insights to personalize your marketing messages and user experiences to engage your customers.

The path to customer engagement and retention means finding a way to automate your personalization efforts so that each customer receives a unique, tailored experience when they interact with your website or app. For instance, David’s Bridal lets customers log in socially to its site to build and access a customized portal with favorite dresses, mood boards, and more.

As customers save their favorite items onto davidsbridal.com, they can automatically see when these items go on sale, share them on Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter, post them on a private Event Newsfeed to share with select account holders, and enable their in-store consultant to access these items for a more efficient, convenient shopping experience.

GigyaDB

By collecting, managing, and using social insights to foster customized user experiences, brands like David’s Bridal successfully connect to their customers by weaving personalization and social into its online and in-store experiences.

Continual Journey

Like any relationship, the interaction between a brand and its consumers is an ongoing one. Businesses looking to push ahead of the competition need to continually hone their strategies to inspire more of a 1:1 brand experience that engages consumers and encourages them towards the path to purchase.

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Emma Tzeng runs content strategy and production at Gigya. When she isn’t blogging, she can be found hiking the hills of San Francisco, eating an inordinate amount of ice cream, or documenting her travels. She can be reached at emma@gigya.com