The Albion bakery in London serves up hot, fresh bread that is building quite the following on Twitter. Whenever something comes out of the oven, the bakery staff broadcasts a message to their fans so that they can get it while it’s still hot.

The bakery uses a device called a Baker Tweet to send a tweet to followers to get them salivating over its latest creations. The device means bakers don’t have to gum up a keyboard or interrupt their regular duties.

By merely selecting the type of bread that is ready on the dial and clicking a button, the Baker Tweet sends updates detailing just how delicious the breads and pastries are. The tweets also include a shortened link where you can see what the item looks like along with a Google Map to find your way there.

You can get an idea of how the service works over at AlbionsOven on Twitter. While there’s no social media expert standing by to answer your questions, the approach to Twitter is simple, novel and quite useful for Albion regulars.

The Baker Tweet is made up of very simple components that are widely available. Baker Tweet uses Arduino Duemilanove, Arduino Ethernet Shield, Ladyada Proto Shield, a Linksys Wi-Fi adapter and some smaller components.

Next the device is integrated with the Django Content Management System so that bakers can customize it to their needs. Each customer has an account that allows them to edit the number of items, pictures and descriptions of everything they want to tweet about.

This is a fantastic way to integrate social media tools into long tail businesses. It harnesses the power of now and Twitter’s subscription-based service to get timely information to people that is actionable and profitable.

Not to mention the extra business that Albion is sure to see from curious social media types in London.

The other thing that’s truly innovative about Baker Tweet and Albion is that it provides value for users and is actually worth paying for. In social media where it’s hard to invent truly premium services, the Baker Tweet is a beautiful marriage between social media and the classic bakery.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 10:20 am under Social Media.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
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