Shares of the e-mail marketing company Constant Contact are trading sharply higher following a strong Q4 – and Street excitement about the company's new pushing into the social marketing segment.

For the quarter, Constant Contact posted revenue of $57.5 million, a hair ahead of the Street at $57 million, with non-GAAP profits of 27 cents a share, ahead of the consensus at 24 cents.

For Q1, the company sees revenue of $59.1 million to $59.4 million and non-GAAP profits of 9-10 cents a share, actually a bit light of the Street at $59.4 million and 12 cents.

For all of 2012, Constant Contact sees revenue of $250 million and non-GAAP profits of 86-90 cents a share, a bit below the previous consensus at $251.6 million and 92 cents a share.

"Constant Contact delivered fourth quarter revenue and profitability that were above the high-end of our guidance," CEO gail Goodman said in a statement. "We also launched Social Campaigns, an important and exciting new offering that allows small businesses to capitalize on the rapid adoption of social media and measure their success."

Goodman asserted that in 2012, the company "will redefine the way that small businesses create, nurture and grow their customer relationships with the continued evolution of our suite of online marketing tools for small businesses."

Earlier this week, the company announced the general availability of its Social Campaigns offering. "Social Campaigns empowers users to get the results they really want from their investment in social media marketing: more fans, more shares and more business," the company said in a press release. "Social Campaigns enables users to customize their Facebook page and to easily publish and manage results-oriented marketing campaigns on Facebook that are designed to grow page Likes, drive engagement and inspire social word of mouth through sharing."

The Street is both content with the Q4 results and jazzed about the company's new Facebook play.

"We are growing increasingly bullish on CTCT's Social Campaigns product and expect it to both re-accelerate gross customer adds and drive ARPU higher in 2012," Oppenheimer analyst Brad Reback wrote in a research note this morning. "We expect CTCT to have early success selling into its large installed base and then add new customers as market awareness builds." He maintains at Outperform rating on the stock.

"Constant Contact put up a solid quarter to end the year, outperforming most of our estimates," RBC Capital analyst Robert Breza wrote in a research note this morning. "Investors, however, are likely more focused on Social Campaigns, released on January 31 following a successful private launch. The company outlined specific examples to demonstrate its measurable, goal-oriented results, which form the crux of the opportunity. We believe there are minimal Social expectations in numbers, so better-than-expected uptake could represent potential upside." (The headline on Breza's report this morning was "Hitting The Like Button.")

CTCT this morning is up $5.10, or 19.6%, to $31.10.