Hallmark Expands Presence On Facebook With SocialCalendar Partnership

Facebook application SocialCalendar is currently the go-to calendar for users to manage their social lives on the network with over 13 million total installs and about 2 million monthly active users. Greetings card empire Hallmark is hoping to ride on SocialCalendar’s coattails with the relaunch of the app as Hallmark SocialCalendar. Hallmark has made a significant investment in SocialCalendar, says founder Raj Lalwani, but declined to disclose the financial details.

SocialCalendar lets you plan events among Facebook friends, get movie showtimes and integrate events into a public calendar. Users can also import and get email reminders about events, birthdays and anniversaries and lets users buy virtual good icons as presents for friends and to mark events on calendars.

The newly branded Hallmark Social Calendar is debuting with four new products: Hallmark Wall Wishes, online e-cards, virtual gifts and calendar icons. Hallmark Wall Wishes are bite-size animated designs that can be combined with a personalized message and posted on a friend’s Facebook Wall. All of the products can be purchased with Facebook credits. Virtual gifts will cost $0.50 cents or five credits and Wall Wishes will be $1.00 or ten Facebook credits. SocialCalendar is also one of ten applications on the social network accepting Facebook Credits.

Lalwani says that currently, the partnership exists for the Facebook app but there will be future integration of SocialCalendar with Hallmark’s iPhone app and possibly the website. As more brands flock to Facebook for a presence in the social media world, Hallmark wants in as well. It’s a wise investment, considering that Hallmark, which has a limited presence on Facebook at the moment, doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Automatically, Hallmark now has a built in network of 2 million active users.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Hallmark ends up acquiring SocialCalendar in the near future. Forbes made a similar move with digital photo site FlipGloss, which the media empire ended up acquiring last week.