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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is joining Facebook's board of directors, the company just announced.

Hastings successfully managed Netflix through the IPO process, so his guidance for Facebook which is about to go through an IPO will be useful.

From Hastings perspective, he's been trying to figure out how to integrate Facebook and make Netflix more social, so getting on the board is a good deal.

Here's the announcement:

Facebook announced today that Reed Hastings, chairman and chief executive officer of Netflix Inc., has joined the company's board of directors.

"Reed is an entrepreneur and technologist who has led Netflix to transform the way people watch movies and TV," said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. "He has built a culture of continuous rapid innovation, something we share and work hard to build every day."

"Facebook is propelling a fundamental change in how people connect with each other and share all kinds of content," said Hastings. "I'm looking forward to working with Mark and the rest of the board to help Facebook take advantage of all the opportunities ahead."

With more than 23 million members in the U.S. and Canada, Netflix is the world's leading Internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV shows. Hastings founded the company in 1997. Earlier in his career, he founded Pure Atria Software, where he was CEO until the company was acquired by Rational Software Corporation in 1997.

Since 2007, Hastings has also been a member of Microsoft Corp.'s board of directors, and is currently lead independent director. He holds an M.S.C.S. degree from Stanford University and a B.A. from Bowdoin College.

Hastings is also an active educational philanthropist and board member of many non-profits. He was president of the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004.

In addition to Zuckerberg, Hastings joins current Facebook board members Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz; Jim Breyer of Accel Partners; Donald E. Graham, chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Company; and Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital and Founders Fund.

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Groupon has just announced in a press release the addition of Ariel Investments president Mellody Hobson to the company’s Board of Directors. In addition to the president position Hobson is also Chairman of the Board of of trustees for Ariel’s no-load mutual funds.

Hobson has built a career as a consumer finance watchdog, making regular appearances on Good Morning America, Tom Joyner’s Money Mondays, in addition to writing a column for Black Enterprise according to the press release. She is also on the board of three other public companies including Dreamworks, Estée Lauder and Starbucks.

Hobson will be the first female on the Groupon board, joining CEO Andrew Mason and investors Kevin Efrusy, Peter Barris, Brad Keywell, Eric Lefkofsky and Starbucks president Howard Schultz (who I’m assuming made the intro).

“Mellody is an advocate for savvy consumer spending and educated business decisions,” said Andrew Mason in the release. Aside from this post on how to handle the “quiet period” this is a rare piece of news to come out of Groupon post S-1 filing.

Perhaps this is more than a coincidence — Having a consumer finance expert on your board as you prepare to IPO, especially when faced with an onslaught of negative media coverage, can only be a good thing right?

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