Facebook's product allowing marketers to upload email and phone lists for ad targeting on the site may be new to Facebook, but it is not a new concept at all. Known as "CRM Retargeting" it is offered by large portals such as AOL, Yahoo! and MSN. The difference that Facebook brings are much lower buy-in prices, user simplicity and mass market appeal - all of which will combine to accelerate the convergence of offline and online marketing.

A new guide from marketing automation company Marketo aims to help marketers integrate social media into their email and other campaigns. Ambitiously titled "The Definitive Guide to Social Marketing," it is available for free download at Marketo.com.

Trying to stay on top of everything your rivals are doing with email can be very time-consuming. Instead, hit the highlights by looking at their preference centers, subject lines and frequency to have a good sense of competitors' content strategy, segmentation and even performance. 

Several of the banks underwriting the ExactTarget IPO have allowed early investors and company management to sell over seven million shares of the company's stock a week in advance of the expiration of the original lockup agreement. 

A new bill requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing private online communications such as email or social networking interactions is expected to be introduced in the Senate Thursday. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, this legislation is an important step to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, originally passed in 1986 and in need of comtemporization.

A new study from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has found that the biggest need in Big Data is education, as two-thirds of businesses surveyed do not know what it is or how it can help their business. 20% of respondents with Big Data initiatives believe they are doing well analyzing web traffic patterns. 15% percent say they are doing well understanding email data, and only 12% state that they have a handle on social media data.

Email security specialist Barracuda Networks has announced the formation of a new business unit targeting enterprise clients. The service is designed to protect the data centers and distributed IT infrastructure of large organizations from cyber threats. Heading up the unit is Mike Van Bruinisse, former CEO of Purewire, which was acquired by Barracuda Networks in 2009.

The 2012 Look Book, published by email services provider Responsys, showcases the best in email creative over the past year. Clever mobile execution, side-scrolling, engaging personalization and successful print emulations all feature in this year's edition.

Email Services Provider Informz has rolled out new features that allow marketers to post email campaigns to their social media channels, the company announced today at its user conference.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup are in talks to link up their digital payment systems in order to enable customers to transfer money to other customers of these banks via email. The network would combine the customers of clearXchange and Popmoney, both of which compete with PayPal.