Mailchimp: Editing the ‘Facebook’ link in your template
This morning I went a little crazy trying to figure out how to update the target destination URL for the *|FACEBOOK:PROFILEURL|* merge tag in my Mailchimp template. I’d share this tip since the solution was surprisingly unintuitive.
If you build a campaign using a Mailchimp template as a starting point, you’ll probably notice a “friend on Facebook” link or icon automatically inserted into the header or footer. At least in my experience, this link often (a) does nothing, or (b) links to the wrong page, for example your individual Facebook profile instead of the Facebook business page you’re promoting.
How to fix the ‘Facebook’ link in your template
My advice is that you give up entirely on trying to use the “merge code” provided by Mailchimp. Instead just edit the template you use for your mailings, and “hard code” the target URL like so:
- Open up the template you use to send your campaigns.
- Click the ‘edit’ link next to the Facebook link or icon
- Now that you’re in the editor, double-click the Facebook link to open up the link editor
- Replace the “*|FACEBOOK:PROFILEURL|*” tag with the actual URL of your Facebook page.
Don't bother with the FB Merge tag. Just hardcode your Facebook URL.
“But I really, really want to fix the merge tag!”
Tough luck. If you like, you can try this: Select Account: Integrations and then connect up the Mailchimp integration app to your Facebook account. The upside is that you will now be able to add a “Subscribe to my newsletter” type tab to any of your Facebook page(s), and I believe you can even get Mailchimp to auto-post your campaigns to your pages. (Confirmation anyone?) The downside is that the FB merge tag in your template will still link to your individual / personal Facebook profile page. You can’t make the merge tag point to a particular Facebook page for which you are an admin.
You can get more details on this issue here.
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Eric posted on January 8, 2013:
Hi Canton
This was exactly what I was looking for. And yes!!! Why in the world can’t we change the merge tag later on in the process!??! Too bizzare. Problem I had was that even when I changed the actual URL to our FB URL, it didn’t seem to work in the campaign itself. Clicking on the link still did nothing. Perhaps I did something wrong. I will give it another shot. thanks for the post.
Celina posted on January 17, 2013:
Excellent post. I am dealing with some of these issues as well.
.
Tanner Tuttle posted on February 15, 2013:
I’m glad to see I’m not crazy. I just ran into this as well
Chelsea posted on March 1, 2013:
Thank you for this post – I hope they figure out this issue soon.
Tim posted on March 8, 2013:
Thanks for your post!!! I just spent 2 hours trying to fix this, and it’s been driving me crazy. I did send a request to Mailchimp support, so I’m curious what they come back with (still waiting for their reply).
tomate posted on April 9, 2013:
Same happend to me
frank posted on May 10, 2013:
Brilliant, thank you!!