Date night last weekend, we pull up to 7-11, becuase we are classy folks who have no expendible income right now due to 3 children in childcare. So no fancy date here.

Anywhoo, after walking into 7-11, I noticed the place had been attacked by ZYNGA. Zynga is the maker of Farm ville, Yo Ville and Mafia Wars.

Farm ville exclusive cups, waters, ice cream – silly silly silly – and the same thing with Mafia Wars.this and that. Purchase a Farmville or Mafia Wars promo item and get a code to redeem online.

As silly of a promotion as this seems, at the end of the day – I think Zynga knows what they are doing – and so does 7-11. They are expanding their reach in unconventional ways. Who would of ever thunk, you can raise a farm on Facebook? OR that you can run a mafia on Facebook?

On a HAPPY note… Zynga is said to be worth over $3.3 BILLION dollars *putting pinky near face and laughing Dr. Evil style*. It’s one thing for a company to make money. BUT when the company finds creative ways to raise money and uses it for the greater good of the world, my heart smiles. Continue building your farm people, and that mafia to – just make sure when purchasing virtual products that will benefit a greater causer. Check out Zynga.org for details.

Zynga is committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods. Zynga players have made real change by raising millions for several international nonprofits since Zynga.org launched in October 2009.

Players have purchased virtual social goods within Zynga games that have benefitted earthquake victims, families without clean water, and children in Haiti through school lunch programs. Zynga.org is also building a new school, focusing on education and futures for the children of Mirebalais, Haiti.

Here are some more papparazzi shots from the inside of 7-11. I know the 7-11 clerk totally thought I was either a freak, a secret shopper, or both. And yes, that is totally ice cream AND water with Yo Ville & Farm Ville.

Do you run a small business? How are you connected to social media?

I think there are 2 different mind sets when it comes to small businesses. There are those who want to grow and become a larger business, and those who are content. But thinking about that – isn’t that how most people are?

Both of my parents run small businesses. Both are NOT connected to social media – nor care to. While this saddens me, I have to realize – they do not want to grow.  So much opportunity with minimal costs, but being content is more of their style rather than evolving with the times.

While I don’t mean to cast a “if you are not connected to social media, you will not grow” statement on all small businesses. I do cast the statement: “Small businesses do not know what they are missing by not utilizing social media platforms.”

Social media is a diverse, minimal costing marketing effort. While it requires love and a little bit of knowledge of how to leverage it, the rewards can be remarkable for growing ones customer base and customer service.

Here is a great example of how a once small business, Sprinkles Cupcakes has utilized social media to grow their base.

Reporting from San Francisco– Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the Beverly Hills baker to the stars, doesn’t have a Facebook profile. Nelson, who works seven days a week, has no time for chatting online with Facebook friends.

But Nelson is logged on to Facebook all the time. That’s because more than 70,000 people have declared themselves fans of Sprinkles’ Facebook page, which has its own “vanity URL” at www.facebook.com /sprinkles.

Each day on the website, Sprinkles announces a secret word, such as “ganache,” or “bunny,” or “tropical,” or “love,” and the first 25 or 50 people to show up at any of its five stores and whisper that word get a free cupcake.

“On Facebook, we can ask our customers what’s the next location they want,” Nelson said. “What do they think of our next flavor? It’s an amazing way to communicate with our fans.”

Facebook is not just for friends anymore. The free social networking site — blocked in many workplaces as a potential time-waster — is increasingly becoming an inexpensive marketing tool for small businesses.

Sprinkles is among a growing number of mom-and-pop businesses taking advantage of a relatively new program on Facebook, one that allows them to claim their name, become visible even to folks who aren’t on the site, and stay in close contact with their customers. The business, in effect, can act like any other person on Facebook, posting status updates and seeing what its fans are doing.

Read the full article here…

How can your small business utilize social media? The opportunities are endless. I’ll be going thru several techniques in the next few weeks on getting started on several different social media platforms.

Stay tuned!

This past week we caught our daughter in a lie. She’s in first grade and last week had a bad week at school behavior wise. She was grounded from all technology over the labor day weekend. Tuesday she came home happy as can be that she was no longer grounded. She informed us that she was good at school that day, “No Notes!”.

That night, I was prepping her snack, note for the next day and opened her binder to find that she had a bad day at school. She had been playing and talking during her lesson time. She had lied to us. So she was grounded – 1 week for lying and then next week she will be grounded from technology but can attend dance, if she doesn’t get another note.

It’s crazy to think how technology heavy my 6-year ‘s life is. She loves her DS. She has a pre-paid cell phone (for family members only – she has to pay for the minutes – or Grandma does). She could play Webkinz or Nickjr.com from dusk to dawn. Her favorite thing to do is play Wii Sports Resort or Rockband.

Since all technolgoy is out the window – she is left with writing letters to family members or  our World Vision girl, Maria. She has to make sure she does her chore (she moves laundry from wash to dryer and then out). Or she can read. In the evenings she has about 2 hours of free time to fill with these technology-less activities.

Mean? I hope not. I was telling a friend today of this, I am not sure how serious she was – but she said I was being too hard on a 6-year old.

I’ve been thinking about this off an on since our conversation. Am I being to strict? She is a very strong-willed child – and we had a rough run last year in Kindergarten with behavior. Since we are only 3 weeks in – we want to make sure we don’t have to deal with this all year long.

On the other hand, I think to myself – why can’t I be grounded. How nice would it be to not have any technology to be strapped to? I love my iphone. Twitter is fantabulous. Facebook is a sheer addiciton. Blogging is a stress-relief to me. BUT I do this stuff all day long for my job. Why can’t I be digitally disconnected. I want time to draw pictures and read. So maybe grounding her isn’t strict – but it’s also good for her.

Now the hard part. How do I digitally ground myself? Or more realistically. How do I find the balance between enjoying some free time doing this or that vs. how I currently am (addicted)?

In the mean time, I’ll be thinking of what bad thing I can do so my husband “grounds me”. If it were only that easy.

BTW: Fabulous cartoon is by the AMAZING Natalie Dee

So Facebook, you decided to wise up and embrace the greatness of Twitter for Fan Pages. Well good for you Facebook, and good for us!

Here’s the downlow: You can now have your Facebook Fan Pager status updates, links, photos, notes and event creations tweet the world – sending your tweeps back to your Facebook Fan Page. I actually like this much better than Tweeting and the tweets landing on your Fan Page.  The groups I work with, do a lot of re-tweeting and the amount of tweets would be ultra annoying to a fan page.

How do you sync your Facebook Fan Page to your Twitter account?

First, you have to be an admin to the Fan Page.  Other than that – linking the 2 accounts is super easy.

• Goto: http://www.facebook.com/twitter/
• Click Link a Page to Twitter button
• Select the Link to Twitter button next to the page you would like to link up
• Select YES to allow facebook access

• Last step is selecting which items you want sent to Twitter when you update:

• Click Save Changes
• That’s it! You can now enjoy having to tweet one less tweet!

I’m interested to see if this helps in bringing Twitter fans to Facebook pages.  Let me know what your experience is. Are you seeing more of a response by tweeting out your Fan Page updates?