Our Economy

Making social media work for Cook County businesses

Did you know?

1. The broadband industry has invested nearly $1.2trillion dollars since 1996.
2. 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.
3. In 2011, U.S. consumers logged 2.29 trillion minutes on their wireless devices.
4. Users accessing the web through mobile devices has almost doubled every year since 2009.
5. There are more iPhones sold per day (402k) than people born in the World per day (300k)
6. 35% of US Android/iPhone users interact with non-voice applications on their smartphones before getting out of bed.
7. According to Ericsson, by 2016 mobile broadband subscriptions will reach almost 5 billion, up from the expected 900 million by the end of 2011.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.