As the name suggests, the Sitecore Social Connected Module allows visitors to log in to the website using their social media credentials. In this case, Sitecore does not access the visitor’s credentials, but instead uses API to communicate with the social network. For instance, if a visitor does not grant access to their profile, the system redirects them back to the website, and the visitor has to login to the website.

When a visitor logs in using his social network credentials, the Social Connected Module gets the information from the visitor profile. The module then saves this information to a Sitecore user profile in the extranet domain and to a contact profile. This user profile has some service data, including access tokens and application ID.  On the other hand, the contact profile has information such as interests, age, sex and related data. By using social media credentials to login to the website, users can avoid the registration process.

In a nutshell, Social Connected is a free module from Sitecore that allows websites to:

• Allow visitors to log in with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+
• Personalize content based on a visitor's social network profile
• Post messages to Facebook and Twitter timelines
• Capture DMS campaign and goal data on social network actions

Installation and Setup

This Sitecore module is only available with version 6.5 and above and comes as a package that needs to be installed within Sitecore. In addition to installation of DLLs, config files and sublayouts, the module creates a /sitecore/system/social content tree.

If you use Facebook as a social connector, then:

• You need a regular Facebook account to login.
• At http://developers.facebook.com/apps, click the "Create New App" button, and when the pop up window appears, enter your application name.
• Be careful about entering the application name, since it will be visible to the visitor over the website(name should be similar to application name).
• You then have to enter an Application ID and Application Secret key, which are analogous to a user name and password, and will be used by Sitecore to access the application. 
• You will need to enter the App Domain of your site. Select the option "Website with Facebook Login", and enter the URL of the website login page.
• Now, this needs to be set up in Sitecore. This is done by adding an "Application" item to /sitecore/system/social/applications/default.
• The Application item has three fields: Application ID and Application Secret, which take the values  from the Facebook App screen, and a Network drop-list for selecting Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+. 
• Save, publish, and we are ready to set up Facebook sign in.

Note: You can only add one application for each social network to the default folder. 

If you want to enable sign-in on multiple sites, you have to create additional applications as children of the "/sitecore/system/social/applications" item, and you will need to write custom code to wire up your sign-in handler to the proper application item.