Social Media Portal interview with Russell Loarridge from Janrain

Profiled - Russell Loarridge, European Sales Director at Janrain

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is role at Janrain?

Russell Loarridge (RL): I'm the European Sales Director.  Customer Acquisition and Customer Satisfaction.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about Janrain (for those that don?t know), what is it and what does the organisation do?

RL: Janrain helps organisations succeed on the social web with the use of our user management platform, a solution to improve user acquisition and engagement.
With Janrain, organisations have the ability to learn more about their users by allowing them to log in via an already existing social network such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, the concept of social login.

The business is then able to store the information gained from these platforms enabling more targeted and personalised campaigns.  Additional components for sharing, inviting friends and gamification also bring more users to the corporate website and rewards brand advocates.  Janrain?s customers include leading brands such as Universal Music Group, MTV, The BBC, Kodak and News International.

SMP: When did the company start and how is it funded?

RL: Janrain was founded in 2005 by CEO & CTO, Larry Drebes to address the challenge of managing user identity on the Internet. Janrain has venture capital backing from established investors including DFJ Frontier, Anthem Venture Partners, RPM Ventures and Emergence Capital Partners.

SMP: Who are your target audience and why?

RL: Janrain?s SaaS solutions are designed for any organisation that wants to engage in more rewarding relationships with its website?s users; it is a holistic solution for user management on the social web. In particular though, user management solutions and social login are becoming increasingly significant to B2C organisations whose users are particularly active in the social channels. These include retailers, media companies and marketing and advertising agencies.

SMP: How does the software work in allowing users to login?

RL: Everyone has a number of web personas, whether that be Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. We all have different aspects of our on-line persona recorded as part of our membership of a particular social network. 

Everyone has also experienced the onerous process that on-line brands may want to put us through in order to access content or products. The registration process can be lengthy, include questions we do not want to answer or do not see the relevance of sharing and worst of all will require yet another username and password to make up and then try to remember.

Social login allows a user/viewer/reader/customer to share all or a part of their personal information with a brand whilst using their social network username and password for peace of mind.  A return visit would see a personalised welcome screen and a single click through to the content, minimising the friction of log-in and registration.  This is becoming ever more important as the use of mobile devices to access information and to shop becomes more prevalent.

SMP: How do you ensure that user privacy and safety is adhered to and is secure?

RL: The social sharing experience is one that is hosted in the cloud.  The data is stored in AAA rated facilities in the EU.  They have been inspected and passed by the most stringent industry standards and tested by third parties on an ongoing basis to ward against hacking and cyber crime.

The information the users shares with the brand is stored on behalf of that brand only.  The user has effectively ?opted-in? to sharing some of their persona with that brand to enable them to provide a better, more personalised and relevant service.

SMP: How are consumers informed how and why their identities are used?

RL: Best practice for the industry encourages the brands that are asking the consumer to share some of their personal data, to inform them how their information will be used as part of the registration process.  Janrain encourages brands to request information that is relevant to how they plan to serve the consumer better.  Typically brands should request a users information little by little as they start to serve that individual better.  For example, knowledge of a user?s social graph (friends and family on Facebook or followers on Twitter) could be asked for when the consumer chooses to share the content with friends on a particular social network.

SMP: What evidence is there that site owners and consumers are ready for this type of approach?

RL: Independent research undertaken in the UK of consumer attitudes to sharing their social information and using their online persona as their log-in has revealed that a significant proportion are keen to reduce the number of passwords they have and to see a better service from brands.  You can find the full research report here.

Consumer desire to use their on-line persona seems to be somewhat ahead of the majority of brands who still insist on the traditional registration, username and password.  Brand investment in on-line engagement with their consumers may be lagging behind where the consumer would rather be.  Brands that are taking a leadership position in this regard will learn more and ultimately provide a better service to their customers who will become advocates and encourage their social graph towards those sites that have embraced the consumer desires.

SMP: There was an incident with Facebook when users couldn?t login into the social network. What?s the impact and implications with social login when this happens? And, what?s the solution here?

RL: One of the benefits of using a solution such as Janrain to facilitate the use of social identities to log into a site is the ability to support multiple ID Providers (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.).  Thus, in the case one of these Providers has technical difficulties, the consumer can simply choose to use a different identity, and simply and quickly access the site.

SMP: What are the low moments of what you have been doing so far?

RL: Standing in a social group where the protagonist was very bitter about the use of personal data and the ?fact? that in his mind there is no believable reason for social sharing and enabling brands to provide a better service by sharing.  I likened it to walking into a shop, where the assistant knows nothing about you (name, address, email address etc). But by looking at how you are dressed, who you are with and the bags you are carrying probably can understand more about your ?social persona? than is typically shared on-line. So the absolute reverse of the on-line experience where your location and name are all that is known. 

Who will be able to provide the better service: the on-line knowledge of your name and address or the shop assistant who can glean so much more of your personality from how you look in the flesh?  All the on-line brands are trying to do is reflect the face to face user experience by asking you to share some of that personal detail with them to enable them to serve you better.

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?

RL: The enthusiasm I have seen from some brands to get away from their social strategy being defined by how many Facebook ?Likes? they have, for example.  Such measures do not enable the brand to provide a better service as the ?likes? are anonymous.  Moving a social strategy back to the brand website and enabling a dialogue and sharing with the users is a step towards better customer relationship management.  The ownership of the relationship has already shifted to the consumer (did it ever leave?) and there a good number of sensible brands that understand this and are doing something about it.

Traditional ?voice of the customer? solutions enable the brand to know what is being said.  Without consumers sharing some of the social persona, the brand is unable to know who said what.

SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities?

RL: This is a movement that is driven by the consumer and not the brand so the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity are both related to the same thing.  How quickly can the brands catch up with their customers and give themselves the insight they need to provide a better service.

SMP: How did you initially attract users to your site and services, and how do you do it now?

RL: In the first instance, word of mouth.  As we have passed 350,000 websites using social log-in worldwide, the penny is starting to drop with the Global brands. Janrain is now taking the learning and thought leadership we have gathered over the last seven years to those brands to help them navigate the journey through to better social engagement.

SMP: What are the next moves for Janrain in terms of social media?

RL: By listening to both our clients and their customers we are producing solutions that enable a more granular approach to social sharing.  The days of ?log-in using Facebook and your entire Facebook identity is shared for good or bad with the brand? are over.  Elements of a user?s identity should be shared and the choice should be with the individual consumer on what those elements are.  

SMP: What?s the next big step for social media and networks?

RL: The great thing about social media is that this is a very difficult question to answer!  We humans are social beings ? and interacting, conversing, sharing are all very much a part of who we are. 

Social networks tap into this human condition, enabling us to interact online much in the same way we do in person.  Mobile and tablet technology are innovating at an extremely rapid rate, and use of social technology on brands sites is also evolving.  We are excited to be at the centre of this innovation and looking forward to where it goes.

SMP: What was the most challenging part of building on the brands presence in digital environments (including social media)?

RL: Brands that have passed the ownership of their relationship to the consumer will have to transform many of their existing internal processes to accommodate their customers? desire to engage with them on their terms.  The promise of social media and the networks will be delivered by the brands and that is the next big step, fulfil the consumer desire.

SMP: What?s going to be the most interesting aspect regarding social media / technology throughout 2012?

RL: Watching the big brands start their engines and get in the race.  There will be a massive investment in on line social engagement in 2012, as the brands start to catch up with the consumer.  There will be brands on the winner?s rostrum and there will be brands that find it difficult to complete the course intact.  It will make for a fascinating year for industry observers and pundits.

SMP: What are your top five predictions for social media throughout 2012 and into 2013?

RL replies with:

• Use of social login
• Use of social data to drive engagement
• Continued evolution of networks that reflect one aspect of your life (LinkedIn for business, Facebook for personal, etc.
• Adoption by big brands
• Consumers sharing personal data with brands they trust

SMP: What are your top five social media tips and for users to boost their personal profile and remaining safe?

RL: Share only the information you wish to share and insist on knowing what the information will be used for.  The whip hand is with the consumer so use it.

SMP: Best way to contact you and Janrain ?

Webiste: http://www.janrain.com
Twitter - @Janrain
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Janrain/135174526496719
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/company/91650?trk=tyah


Now some questions for fun

SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

RL: Egg on toast from my own chicken, (the egg not the toast).

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

RL: Made a cuppa for my wife while she was waking up.  Makes a great start to the day to focus on the small things.

SMP: How many hours do you work a week?

RL: I am responsible for EU customer acquisition and customer satisfaction (they go hand in hand) and as my head office is in Portland Oregon, my day can start at 8 a.m. GMT and finish at 5 p.m. Pacific.

SMP: If you weren?t working at Janrain what would you be doing?

RL: Depends.  Coaching Rugby at a senior level would be great, but I am not sure I would get the job.  Coaching and teaching holds a lot of attraction, and not just because you get eight weeks off for the summer holidays.

SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?

RL: Melbourne Australia to visit with family in 2010.  Great wine, good seafood and the climate is great even in (their) winter.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

RL: Check email.  Does anyone do anything else?

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

RL: Captain Wideawake.  Not needing sleep would be a pretty cool superpower, it?s overrated and we spend too much time doing it simply because we have to.

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