Scouts are hitting the Internet, using Facebook, e-mail and texting in addition to staging rallies and setting up phone banks to run their cookie sales “as a serious business.” The Girl Scouts of Northern California has eight pre-written text messages that Scouts are encouraged to send to drum up sales of Somoas, Thin Mints, Tagalongs and five other cookie varieties.

There are also business card templates, door hangers, marketing plans and e-mail invites that girls can download through their council’s Web site.

“While the girls are not allowed to sell cookies via e-mail or over the Internet, they are allowed to use the Internet to tell people they are selling — a tough distinction for the younger girls to grasp … ,” the newspaper says.

The Girl Scouts of Northern California council encompasses the Bay Area and coastal counties up to the Oregon border. It has 50,000 scouts, 30,680 of whom sold cookies in 2009.