• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 7, 2009

A theme that is emerging â€" and maybe not surprisingly â€" is people appreciate email that offers special offers, coupons, discounts, etc.

Merkle’s Kirby in his keynote cited a campaign by Outback Steakhouse for its Bloomin’ Onion. The company offered a free one to the first 5,000 people who became its Facebook friends. And the promotion led to an explosion, with 24,000 fans coming in one week, and more in the following weeks.

McDonald’s still has the most friends among restaurants, but Outback closed the gap.

Kirby said tongue-in-cheek he figured out Outback gave away 1 trillion calories via the promotion.

Kirby reiterated the opportunities Facebook brings in becoming part of an overall communications strategy, especially as it opens opportunities to grow an email database.

Data that can emerge from that is critical and Kirby urged companies to break down silos and take an “integrated view (with) customer and prospect data.” In other words, sharing the research across departments can be invaluable.

Data interpretation is the foundation for any kind of CRM programming, and companies that use internal communication can design compelling programs across multiple channels.