Baja Fresh burrito giveaway on Facebook

Baja Fresh's last promotion involving free burritos was madness, but the restaurant chain is at it again.

It's giving away free burritos with a large beverage purchase from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. today at some of its locations. Check with your local restaurant. Many are not participating.

To qualify for the deal, customers will need to become a fan of Baja Fresh on Facebook for the coupon. Then, print out your Facebook page.

Present the printout with a valid ID and you can help yourself to a free burrito -- as long as you pick up a large beverage in the process.

Why is all the verification necessary?

Back on July 22, Baja Fresh planned on giving away about 1,800 free burritos to fans who downloaded a coupon from its Facebook page. Instead, the coupon went viral, people made copies and Baja Fresh ended up giving away more than 50,000 burritos.

After cooking and rolling up 48,200 more burritos than planned, Baja changed the game plan.

-- W.J. Hennigan

Free Starbucks Ice Cream -- via Facebook

Starbucks is giving out free ice cream – on Facebook.

Members of the social networking site can surprise fellow users with a coupon for a pint of free ice cream every day through July 19. Up to 20,000 free coupons are available each day, and will be given out in batches of roughly 800 each hour.

Facebook users will receive a message asking them to try again later if all the pints for a particular hour have already been allocated, according to Starbucks spokeswoman Melanie Muccio.

Coupons for the new flavors – caramel macchiato, mocha frappuccino, java chip frappuccino and coffee – can be redeemed at grocery stores.  Starbucks retail locations do not stock the ice cream, Muccio said.

-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Starbucks

Pizza Hut offers free stuffed pizza roll promotion through Twitter and Facebook

Customers who follow Pizza Hut on Facebook or Twitter will receive a special code today for free stuffed pizza rolls, according to the company's summer "twintern" (an intern who uses Twitter at work.).

But that's only if you buy a large pizza first, according to the company's Facebook page.

To find the company on Facebook and Twitter, just search for "Pizza Hut." After all, Chief Marketing Officer Brian Niccol went through all the trouble last month to correct rumors that Pizza Hut was changing its name to "The Hut." 

Good thing too. A post about the news on the Pizza Hut Facebook profile met with nearly 3,000 fans signaling that they "liked" the the original name.

In unrelated news, the Pizza Hut twintern tweeted: "Luv my new job!"

-- Tiffany Hsu

31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin-Robbins, in honor of firefighters

Baskin-Robbins, known for its "31 flavors," is dropping per-scoop prices to 31 cents tonight in honor of future and current firefighters.

The scoop discount runs today only from 5 to 10 p.m. at select stores and proceeds from the 31 Cent Scoop Night sales will go toward a $100,000 donation to the National Volunteer Fire Council's National Junior Firefighter Program.

The Junior Firefighter Program pairs youths with firefighters, rescue workers and emergency medical service workers to teach them about the various professions. Some Baskin-Robbins locations also will accept donations to local firehouses.

The longstanding ice cream vendor is even rolling out some new-media and social-media efforts to bring in customers for 31 Cent Scoop Night.

Baskin-Robbins is on Twitter (@baskinrobbins) and Facebook, and the company has set up an automated service that will send you a text message reminding you of 31 Cent Scoop Night if you send "scoop" in a text message to 31310.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles