Always pleased to see Minnesota companies using social media creatively – even when it’s a really big Minnesota company. The Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal reports on Target partnering with Facebook on a new social media app…

Target Corp. is teaming with Facebook for a new digital-sales program, called Cartwheel, that’s one of the biggest-ever efforts by both companies to bridge the worlds of social media and real-world commerce.

Ad Age reports on the program, launched by Minneapolis-based Target, which will let customers select promotional deals at Target through their Facebook accounts. If they make the buy, their activity is shared with friends through their Facebook news feed.

On the one hand it’s cool and I always like a bargain, on the other hand I wonder how much I want my friends to see what I’m buying or frankly to know what they’re buying. Apparently they are thinking about that aspect of the project – but I have to wonder what constitutes a personal purchase. Using their example below, I don’t care if people know I buy underwear – but no one needs to know about daily purchases of gummi bears. Personal is in the eye of the beholder!

Ad Age notes that Cartwheel is similar to a Facebook offering called Beacon, which was shelved after a backlash over privacy. Target seems to have that in mind. Sales of some personal items, such as underwear, won’t be pushed onto a user’s news feed, and you can shut the sharing aspect off altogether if you want.