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Introducing the Brookie, a Bloom Bake Shop original

Today was the Middleton Big Event in – where else – Middleton, WI, and a few members of the Social Media Club got together to hit Bloom Bake Shop in time to see the 1:00 PM ribbon cutting. (Where DO they get those gigantic scissors? Can WE get a pair?) The ribbon-cutting ceremony was a hit – as were the Brookies, a special Bloom Bake Shop brownie-cookie hybrid of deliciousness, and much merriment was had by all. I’m quite pleased (and a tad bit ashamed to admit it) that I became the Mayor of Bloom Bake Shop on foursquare today – my first mayorship to date on this geolocation social application. For now that means I get bragging rights only, but I’m cool with that until Bloom adds a free coffee or treat to the deal. Drool!

But I digress!

Personal pseudo-accomplishment aside, while I was checking into locations like a foursquare fiend, I noticed Barriques (down the road a spell) was having a foursquare special – a buy one baked good, get one free offer. You’ll remember Barriques recently got on the whole foursquare bandwagon – an awesome thing – a few weeks back. While at this point I already had two brookies from Bloom, I’d never actually unlocked a foursquare deal before. So why not check it out I figured? The group was cool with this social media experiment and off we went to Barriques to do the baked good deed. Once at Barriques, I ordered a refreshing sport iced-tea, checked-in on foursquare and unlocked the baked good promotion! Unfortunately the cashier had never seen or heard of the foursquare promotion, but flagged down the store manager to ask. The manager remembered seeing something about foursquare in an internal email, but hadn’t ever used foursquare and didn’t understand how the social network worked, how the promotion itself worked, or if I’d done the necessary steps to get the deal. I could be a shady fellow, you know! (With a moniker like Fancy_Lad? Oh please.) But the day was saved when I used my trusty iPhone to walk the manager through my check-in process on foursquare and showed her exactly how I unlocked the deal and what the deal was. Once she saw it step by step, I was able to get my two-for-one cookies and trust me, no cookies have been quite so tasty – I worked for ‘em! The manager is in-line to get a smartphone (hopefully an 4G) ASAP – I know she’ll love it!

The Barriques booty - well worth the lesson!

But free cookie aside – and oh, it calls my name even now – what’s really cool about this little story is our little trip turned into a social media missionary of sorts and hopefully we’ve cleared the way for future Barriques Middleton foursquare users, and now the extra-fun part begins. I get to blog about the adventure, upload photos, Tweet, link, tag, give sponsors a little love and – oh yeah! – shamelessly plug the Brogan After Dark social on Monday – hope to see you ALL there, it’s gonna be a blast. Just wait until you see the door prize – who stuffs a Wienermobile? The Social Media Club of Madison, that’s who! (Oh the fun we’ll have.)

I gotta say, I love this social media stuff and helping others dig it too. I encourage you and your fellow Social Media Club members to get out there and have your own field trip. Use foursquare and go nuts – and don’t forget to tell us about what YOU did and how you helped spread social media literacy in your community. After all, this is a social club. Engage!