Our EconomyOur Economy
Making social media work for Cook County businesses
- Details
- Published on Monday, 11 June 2012 09:52
- Written by Super User
Did you know?
- The broadband industry has invested nearly $1.2trillion dollars since 1996.
- The United States Postal Service handled 90.8 billion pieces of first class mail in 1992 and is expected to handle 69.2 billion in 2012. In 2011, US wireless consumers sent and received 2.304 trillion text messages.
- In 2011, U.S. consumers logged 2.29 trillion minutes on their wireless devices.
- Users accessing the web through mobile devices has almost doubled every year since 2009.
- There are more iPhones sold per day (402k) than people born in the World per day (300k)
- 35% of US Android/iPhone users interact with non-voice applications on their smartphones before getting out of bed.
- According to Ericsson, by 2016 mobile broadband subscriptions will reach almost 5 billion, up from the expected 900 million by the end of 2011.
- According to Cisco, by 2016 US mobile data traffic will grow 16 fold with 74% of mobile users (214 million people) generating more than one gigabyte of mobile data traffic per month. In 2011, 4% of mobile users generated this amount of mobile traffic.
- One hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second – that's 24 hours of video every 24 seconds, 60 hours a minute, 9 months every two hours, a decade every single day and a century every 10 days.
- The FCC projects that by 2014, mobile data traffic will be 35 times 3009 levels, resulting in demand foe 1,097 MHz of wireless broadband spectrum. The FCC therefore estimates that the deficit in wireless broadband spectrum is expected to be 275 MHz by 2014.
Wondering how you can take your business to the next level and capitalize on this enormous growth?
Extension educator John Bennett of the University of Minnesota will provide a short workshop on business uses of social media from 9-10:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 14, at Cook County Higher Education's North Shore Campus in Grand Marais.
Attend this session to learn strategies for connecting your business with the mobile crowd using such tools as mobile websites, mobile apps, QR codes and digital coupons. Yelp, Travelzoo, Urbanspoon, and Around Me are just a few of the tools explored in this workshop.
To register for this workshop, call Higher Ed at 218-387-2466 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Please register by Tuesday, June 12. Cost is $10, payable at the door. If you have a laptop, an Android smartphone or an iPhone, bring them to the workshop.
Broadband related training through Cook County Higher Education is sponsored by University of Minnesota Extension and the Blandin Foundation.
An easy way to take payments almost anywhere
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 03 May 2012 10:28
- Written by Jim Boyd
At Crescent Moon Acupuncture in Grand Marais, Mona Abdel-Rahman has an intriguing way of collecting payment. It's called the Square, and it would seem an excellent fit for crafts folk, musicians hawking CDs – just about anyone selling anything, especially those who move. The Square can work over Internet or cell phone connections.
When payment is due, Abdel-Rahman inserts the Square into the headphones jack of her iPad. She swipes your card through the device, you sign with a special pen, a receipt is sent to your email address, and you are done. The Square, an inch tall, instantly encrypts credit information to ensure security. It also works with an iPhone or an Android phone. Setup is easy, according to Abdel-Rahman's husband, Tom Fiero. The software and the Square are free. For each sale, the seller pays one fee of 2.75 percent of the purchase price, which covers everything, including the credit-card fee.
"It has been reliable and simple to use," Fiero says. "Bank deposits are prompt. Their web site is well designed and it's easy to download all the transaction and bank deposit details as Excel files.... Overall, we're very happy with the system, and customers love it."
The Square, according to squareup.com, is compatible with Apple devices running iOS 4.1 and up, and with Android devices running Android 2.1 and up. You can sign up for the service at the website or, according to squareup.com, at Target, Best Buy and Office Max in Duluth.
Local Prescription Refills Now Available Online
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 26 April 2012 08:17
- Written by Danna MacKenzie
Did you know that you can now refill your prescriptions online and pick them up locally?
Both Arrowhead Pharmacy and Grand Marais Pharmacy now offer a quick and easy way to renew your prescriptions at any time of day, just by visiting their websites.
We tried it this week and it worked great. All we needed was our name, phone, email, and prescription numbers. We told them we would pick it up the next day, and voila, it was ready! Give it a try the next time you remember at 7’oclock at night that you need that prescription refilled.