What is social WiFi?

Where the term came from

Guest WiFi used to mean a password on a chalkboard behind the till. Then venues noticed that the login page was the one screen nearly every guest with a phone would look at, and that it could ask for something in return.

The early answer was a social account. Instead of typing anything, the guest tapped a button for a social network they were already signed in to, the network shared some profile details with the venue, and the guest got online. Because the sign in ran through a social network, the whole category picked up the name social WiFi.

The idea was simple: fewer taps for the guest, a verified name and email for the venue. In practice it tied every venue’s login to someone else’s rules about what could be shared, and those rules were not the venue’s to decide.

What it usually means now

Ask a café owner, a hotel manager or a WiFi vendor what social WiFi is today and you will mostly hear the same shape, with or without any social network involved:

• A branded login page. The venue’s name, logo and colours on the screen that opens when a guest joins.
• A short form. Usually an email address, sometimes a first name, occasionally a birthday or phone number.
• A separate choice about marketing. A box the guest can tick to hear from the venue, kept apart from the WiFi terms.
• A guest list behind it. Everyone who signed in, with the permission they gave, which the venue can use after the visit.

So the word social has drifted. It now describes the purpose, a relationship with the people who visit, more than the login button. Our social WiFi guide covers the whole setup; the glossary entry on social WiFi login explains the original login method in more detail.

Why VoqadoWiFi uses email and no social login

VoqadoWiFi has no social login: no Google, Facebook or Apple button. Guests sign in with an email address and a first name. That was a deliberate choice, and it has some trade offs worth being honest about.

The email is what you will actually use

A venue’s follow up runs on email: the review request a few hours after the visit, the thank you, the note that the terrace is open again. Asking for the email directly gets you the one thing every later step needs, without depending on what a third party decides to share.

Nobody else sits in the middle

A social button means the guest’s sign in passes through another company’s service, and the login page has to reach that service before the guest is online. Our walled garden, the short list of addresses a guest can reach before signing in, holds only two entries: www.voqadowifi.com and voqadowifi.com. Fewer moving parts means fewer ways for the login to fail on a busy Saturday.

Consent stays clear

Signing in with an account was never the same as agreeing to marketing, but a big social button made the two easy to confuse. On a VoqadoWiFi login using the explicit consent form, the default for new venues, the WiFi terms box and the marketing box are separate, the marketing box starts unticked, and each choice is stored with the exact wording the guest saw, the time and where it was given.

The trade off

Typing an email on a phone takes longer than tapping a button, and some guests will make a typo. We think a real address the guest chose to give is worth more than a faster tap, and returning guests do not type it again: within the auto login period, 30 days unless the venue changes it, a recognised device goes straight back online.

What it looks like at the table

A table of four sits down for lunch. One of them wants to send photos home, so she joins the network called Terrace Guest. A page opens with the restaurant’s logo and two fields: email and first name. Under them sit two boxes. The first accepts the WiFi terms. The second, unticked, reads “Email me offers and news from” the restaurant.

She fills in both fields, ticks the terms, leaves the second box alone, and is online in a few seconds. Her friend does the same and ticks both boxes. The restaurant now knows two people had lunch there today. Only the friend, who ticked the box, will get a review request a few hours later, and only she will hear about the new autumn menu.

That is social WiFi done properly: a fair exchange, with the guest deciding how far it goes.

What the venue gets

• A guest list of people who actually came. Every guest with the permission they gave, searchable, and exportable as CSV on every plan.
• Visit based segments. New guests (one visit), Returning (two or more), Regulars (five or more) and VIPs (ten or more).
• Review requests. An email about 3 hours after the guest connects by default, and never between 21:00 and 09:00 venue time, to guests who ticked the email box. Every rating sees the same public review links, Google first.
• A record that stands up. Consent saved with its wording, version, time and source, in a log that is only ever added to.
• More on Growth. Guest profiles and visit history, Mailchimp sync for guests who said yes to marketing, and email campaigns and automations.

One honest note on that last line: campaign sending is rolling out, switched on account by account while the sending domain is verified. Drafts and schedules save today.

What the guest gets

Social WiFi only works if the guest feels it was a fair swap. On a VoqadoWiFi login the guest gets:

• WiFi, whether or not they tick the marketing box.
• A plain line telling them the venue may send one message about this visit, such as a review request.
• No repeat form on a recognised device within the auto login period, and a welcome back card instead of the same form when they return.
• A link in every email to a page where they can stop messages from that venue with one tap, unsubscribe from every venue of that business, or ask for their data to be deleted.
• Limits on how often they hear from the venue: at most one message in 7 days and four in 30 days by default, with nothing sent between 21:00 and 09:00 venue time.

Questions to ask before you choose a login

Whichever provider you look at, these questions sort a fair login from a leaky one:

• Is the marketing box separate from the WiFi terms, and does it start unticked?
• Is the exact wording the guest saw stored with their choice, so you can show it later?
• Can a guest get online without agreeing to marketing?
• Can a guest stop hearing from you in one tap, and ask for their data to be deleted?
• Does it work with the access points you already own, or do you have to buy new ones?
• Can you export your guest list whenever you like, on every plan?

On VoqadoWiFi the answer to each is yes, on Omada or UniFi. If a provider cannot answer the first two clearly, treat its guest list with care.

When you do not need it

Social WiFi is not for every venue, and it is not always the right next step.

• Your guests do not stay. A takeaway counter where people wait two minutes will see few sign ins and has little to follow up on.
• You will never send anything. If nobody will write to the guest list, a simple terms page from your controller does the job.
• You need texts, paid WiFi or a hotel system link. VoqadoWiFi does not send SMS, does not sell WiFi access, and has no hotel PMS or POS integration.
• Your network is something else. VoqadoWiFi works only with TP-Link Omada and Ubiquiti UniFi. On other equipment it will not work at all.
• It is the staff network. Staff, tills and music players belong on their own network, not behind a guest login.

If none of those apply, a free Starter account is a low risk way to find out: one location, 500 guest logins a month, no card.

Questions

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