A Social Media kinda' day
Earlier this week a Facebook friend, a small business owner, updated her status with the announcement that she had joined the local Farmers’ Market and would have her Colorado Easy Mix collection available there every Saturday. I checked out her Facebook Page (of which I’m a Fan) and saw that one of her other Fans had posted a recipe for mango coconut muffins made with Colorado Easy Mix. I love coconut! So, I marked my calendar to go to this Saturday’s Farmers’ Market.
It’s March, but I’m in Colorado, so it’s no surprise that the sky this morning was a beautiful crystal blue, and the forecast promised warm temperatures. It was a “Farmers’ Market kinda’ day in Colorado” – which is exactly how I updated my Facebook status early in the morning as I anticipated my day. Before I left the house, I tweeted to the world (well, to my 236 followers, anyway) that I was on my way to the Farmers’ Market.
Upon arriving, I accessed FourSquare from my Blackberry and “checked in” at the Homesteading Farmers’ Market. (And because I was the first to add the location to FourSquare, I got extra points!) The place was bustling and it smelled sooo good. I quickly found my friend’s display, (see photo) tasted her samples and chatted a bit. A woman helping with the Colorado Easy Mix display turned out to be someone I had met recently at a networking event, and we discovered we were both planning to attend the same event this coming week. (I mention this because I’m a strong advocate of maintaining balance between networking through social media AND traditional socializing.)
I wandered through the market and perused the vendors and small businesses there. I nibbled cheese, chunks of bread, and homemade soups. In fact, I bought two soup mixes from Ginger’s Gourmet. The chicken noodle soup is her grandma’s recipe and is delicious. I’ll be having that for dinner tomorrow. I chatted with Ginger herself who allowed me to take a picture of her display. She admitted she doesn’t have a Facebook Page for her business yet, but suggested that I “friend” her and send this picture to her Facebook profile.
As I left the Homesteading Farmer’s Market I added my name and e-mail address to their mailing list. I grabbed the owner’s business card and was happy to see he has a website. I’m guessing that by this time next year, he’ll be connected to this community on social networks, too. Then, from my Blackberry, I uploaded the pictures I took of the Market to my Facebook profile and sent one out to Twitter through OpenBeak to give a shout out to my friend and owner of Colorado Easy Mix.
After visiting the Market, I came home and baked the mango coconut muffins that inspired me in the first place. They are still warm on a plate in the kitchen . . . except for the two that I’ve already eaten! They are so delicious. It seems a shame not to share them. So, I’m posting pictures of them on Colorado Easy Mix’s Facebook Page and on this blog. It seems only right. It started with a suggestion that came to me through social media, and so I will send it back out through social media.
