Social media sites and payment providers are finding a great reason to mingle: to make money through new ways to offer consumers targeted shopping deals. Sorry, Groupon.

American Express Co., for example, leaked part of its social media partnership trajectory yesterday by announcing “Link, Like, Love” a program that lets AmEx cardmembers link their cards to their Facebook pages so they can receive offers based on their social graphs. (Apparently, the site crashed soon after the “announcement.”) Link, Like, Love lets participating cardmembers receive offers from retailers based on their likes and interests on Facebook, as well as the likes and interests of their friends. After cardholders select which deals they want and are transacting at participating retailers, the associated discounts will be credited to their card accounts, as long as they meet the offer’s criteria. One drawback, though, is that the discount applied to the card doesn’t occur in real time.

As an overall idea, Link, Like, Love has a lot of things going for it. The new program sets itself apart from a number of existing daily deal companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial because of its simplicity. For one, consumers don’t have to collect or print out coupons; and for two, consumers don’t have to pre-buy anything as they do via Groupon before receiving somewhat personalized deals. Plus, AmEx said since it takes care of the deal redemption reporting, retailers are saved the headache of documenting the transaction, which means employees at the retailers are not required to learn anything new. As time goes on, AmEx says it will introduce Membership Rewards points offers, entertainment access, exclusive content and special events through the app based on the cardmember’s Facebook social graph. Eventually, the service will be global, too. I, for one, would be curious to see how AmEx’s transactional data coupled with a cardmember’s Facebook interests will evolve the offering.

Though AmEx is certainly innovating within the context of social media and payments — and even inked a similar partnership with FourSquare earlier this year — the competition it faces (and will face) is fierce. Innovation within the loyalty/couponing scene has been ablaze for months and months. Beyond budding NFC visions of how couponing will evolve on smartphones in the coming years — and even today in limited scenarios — we also know AmEx is not the only payment provider with its eyes on the utility of social sites within the context of targeted offers. In fact, Visa Inc. alerted Bank Innovation last week that its key initiative for its targeted mobile offering service open to retailers is social site opportunities.

Beyond stiff competition, two other challenges face AmEx: marketing the service to consumers and getting more retailers to sign onto the idea. Right now, participating Link, Like, Love retailers include: 20th Century Fox, Dunkin’ Donuts, Whole Foods Market, Lord & Taylor, Outback Steakhouse, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Virgin America, Bonefish Grill, H&M, Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Celebrity Cruises, Lenovo, Sports Authority, 1-800-FLOWERS, and Travelocity. Looks like a good start.