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MailChimp’s Facebook Signup App

Posted by Amanda on


About a year ago we blogged about a hack that allows you to add a newsletter signup form to your Facebook Fan Page using static FBML and your lists’s embed code. But now with MailChimp v5.2 we’ve developed an actual Facebook app that allows you to seamlessly add a signup form to your profile and/or fan page, and easily change it as often as you like:

Facebook-signup-app

Having your subscribe form connected to your Page is especially useful because it keeps your Fans from having to leave Facebook, or even your page, to sign up for your list. When you make things easy for your Fans and followers, they’re more likely to take action. And since they don’t have to leave Facebook, this makes your page more interactive and more sticky with very little additional effort.

And installing our new application (as opposed to employing the aforementioned hack) is nice because it’ll pull in your list’s actual signup form design (so go make ‘em pretty). But if you’re still not convinced and want to see what it looks like in action, you can check out how we’ve set it up on the MailChimp Fan Page.

Installing and Setting up The App

To get started, we’ll be connecting to MailChimp from within Facebook. Sounds a bit counterintuitive, but bear with me. Head over to Facebook, where you’ll find the MailChimp Signup Application.

When the Application’s profile loads, click ‘Go to Application’.

go_to_application

Next, you want to click “install”, which will ask you to  authenticate your Facebook login credentials and allow the application to have access to your Facebook account.

facebook_allow_access

Then, connect by filling in your MailChimp username and password.

login-to-mailchimp-through-facebook

Finally, go ahead and select the list that you want your subscribers added to:

facebook_profilepage_selection

Adding A Signup Form to Your Personal Profile

This part of the set up process involves adding a form to your personal profile. Make sure you’re logged into Facebook, and then go to Account (top right) ==> Application Settings.

facebook_application_settings

‘Add’ the MailChimp application as a tab.

facebook_mailchimp_settings

Click “Okay” and you’ll see a dialogue that let’s you know you’ve successfully linked a MailChimp list to your personal Facebook profile. Head over to your profile page to make sure:

facebook_profile_signup

Adding A Signup Form to Your Fan Page

First of all you need to make sure you have a Page associated with your Facebook account (you need to have Page admin privileges). Note: this won’t work for Groups.

Head over to the MailChimp Facebook Application page. The best way to find it again (after you’ve already connected your MailChimp account with Facebook) is going to Account ==> Applications Settings, and then clicking on the “profile” of the MailChimp application.

facebook_mailchimp_application_profile

Next, click “add to my page”:

facebook_add_to_page

and then select which Page you’d like to add it to (if you administer multiple Facebook Pages). Then you’ll need to navigate over to your Page to manage the application settings (Account ==> Manage Pages). Then click “edit page” so that you can see the list of all the Facebook applications installed on your page.

facebook_pages_management

Click “Application Settings” in order to add a signup form Tab. (Although you’ll see an option for adding the application as a Box, it is not currently available as such.) Additionally, you’ll need to choose “edit” in order to select which list you want to associate with your Fan Page.

facebook_fanpage_select_list

Head back to your page and you should now see an Email Signup tab on your Fan Page. Additionally, if you don’t like the position of the tab, you can drag it to reorder.

Autoposting to Facebook

Once you’ve connected your MailChimp account to Facebook, you should have the ability to autopost your email campaign to either your profile, or any fan pages linked to your Facebook account:

auto_post_campaign