“The core reason for the deal is that we have a killer Facebook advertising solution, and they have a killer Facebook analytics solution,” Unified VP of corporate communications Dave Donohue told me this morning.

Unified, which will have Mayor Ed Lee cut the ribbon on its San Francisco office tomorrow, wants to provide a holistic solution for marketers that bring together “paid, owned, and earned media,” Unified CEO Sheldon Owen said in a statement. It currently offers solutions for building social audiences, encounrage customer actions, and measuring the value of social marketing. Unified launched just a year ago in January and boostrapped to 35 employees, Donohue said, before bringing in outside investment.

The goal in adding PageLever’s analytics and management tools is to deliver the industry’s “deepest and broadest” real-time audience insights, audience engagement, and social advertising. PageLever offers a solution for maximizing fan engagement inside the Facebook news feed by targeting posts, identifying what is most viral or engaging, and managing multiple pages.

Owen said that the result would be the “most complete social advertising platform to access all major social networks.”

PageLever’s seven employees will be joining Unified’s 50 in both their new San Francisco and existing New York offices, the company said, and all existing PageLever clients will continue to be able to use PageLever’s solutions as standalone products, although an integrated product roadmap will become available shortly.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

photo credit: IBM Events via photopin cc

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Social media marketing has been a bit Wild West at times — sometimes resulting in Facebook banning brands or marketing agencies. To ensure marketing campaigns on its platform follow Facebook’s rules, Facebook has long preferred that brands use approved marketing vendors, launching a Preferred Developer Consultant program this past April.

Now that program has a home online — and marketers have a directory in which to search for partners.

That home is the new Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) Center, where Facebook lists 260+ preferred marketing partners who can help marketers do anything from create pages, manage ad campaigns, run Facebook contests, build Facebook-connected apps, and analyze Facebook page and interaction results.

What this means for agencies that want to provide Facebook marketing services, of course, is that they need to be on the list for maximum credibility.

Facebook’s strategic PMDs, which is a designation “reserved for a small group of PMDs that are driving outstanding positive impact in our marketing developer ecosystem” include Adobe, Glow, and SocialCode. Facebook Exchange partners, who integrate with Facebook’s real-time ad sales engine, include AdRoll, Criteo, and Xaxis.

Interestingly, the PMD center includes a sort of purgatory where partners who have access to the Facebook Ads API but have not yet qualified for the PMD badge are displayed. They include Acquisio, Havas Digital, ReachLocal, WiseMetrics, and dozens of other companies.

The PMD center should make it easier for brands looking for reputable social media marketing partners. It will also make it easier for Facebook to control what happens on its platform.

I found Facebook’s description of the Strategic PMD level partners revealing:

Each Strategic PMD earned the distinction through a rigorous selection process that, among other considerations, is based on shared values, strategic alignment, and growth potential with Facebook.

Shared values, strategic alignment, and growth potential … in other words, they won’t do things we don’t want them to do, and they will drive significant profits.