Small Business Can Stay Competitive in Social Media

January 10th, 2012 No comments

Image via Flickr

Social media is a wonderful marketing tool, and in many ways it puts huge corporations and small businesses on level footing. Each kind of company may create social network profiles and establish accounts that keep them in touch with their customers. Small businesses can use the Internet to build their brand name, even if they never intend to grow as big as the massive corporations that also use the web to market their services and products.

Online Presence

It is important for companies, no matter how big or small, to establish an online presence. Smartphones are common these days, and consumers are used to finding what they want online before they ever find it in a store or library. Web pages are wonderful tools for businesses. Online pages may be used to display products, tout services, provide contact and general information to the public — there are a lot of advantages. But every brand also needs a web site to serve as a home base, of sorts, a trunk from which many social media branches may grow.

Image via Flickr

A strong online presence begins with a web site. From here, customers and potential clients should find links to Facebook, Twitter and other social media profiles that provide interaction and additional information. Small businesses should always link their sites to their social media profiles, and vice versa.

Building a Website

Establishing a strong online presence is a big undertaking for small businesses. Frankly, it’s just not easy to create an attention-getting website. Online companies that specialize in small business web hosting offer many software bonuses and helpful aids that make it easier to build an online site. Because these web hosting companies are devoted to small businesses, they have special tools and packages designed specifically to address the needs of such businesses.

Small business web hosting allows even small businesses to establish a strong online presence and create a homepage that will drive traffic to the site. For small businesses to stay competitive, they have to stay relevant — and the Internet is the best way to do that. Getting online is no longer a hobby, it’s practically a necessity. Shopping, commenting, surfing, reading — people are using the Internet for almost everything these days.

Businesses that have no presence online are missing out on a huge potential audience of clients and customers, people who use social media and the Internet to talk about all the different things they like. A small business that doesn’t exist on social media sites can never take advantage of free word-of-mouth (or in this case, word-of-post) advertising that social media provide — advertising that’s completely free and very, very effective. Small businesses can stay competitive by squaring off against big businesses on their own turf: the Internet.

Many attractive EKG technician job opportunities

January 10th, 2012 No comments

ekg technician trainingThe acronym “ECG” or “EKG” means electrocardiogram. It follows that the ECG technician is responsible for conducting electrocardiograms on patients to monitor the state of the cardiovascular system of a person. The EKG technician training allows students to get enough knowledge and skills to perform such tests in a proper way. However, the specific responsibilities of EKG technicians vary from one facility to another.

For example, ECG technicians working in an emergency room may be required to perform additional tasks that are slightly different from those of a technician working in a private health center to a cardiologist. Generally however, the basic functions of a technician include the preparation of the EKG room, adjusting EKG machines, taking electrocardiograms and then clean the EKG room after each procedure.

Because of the central function of the cardiovascular system in human health, ECG technicians are required in many different circumstances. The specialists can work in emergency rooms or in cardiology clinical. In hospitals, EKG tests will be required for both outpatient and inpatient health care – the technician will often perform electrocardiograms to investigate the cause of chest pain and help to detect or to predict heart attacks.

ECG tests are not only important in medical facilities such as hospitals and clinics – they are found in non-medical area as well. For example, some employers require an ECG report before hiring a new employee – if the organization is large and the number of employees hired is relatively high, the institution may choose to have an ECG technician in the stuff.


Insurance companies may choose to use ECG technicians who will assess the cardiac status of all new applicants for medical policy in order to identify heart problems early in the process of application approval.

The average salary of EKG technicians depends on the location and level of education, but it ranges from $ 25 000 to 35 000.

AM News: Hawaii Preps For “Race” Review

January 8th, 2012 No comments

Hawaii bracing for US Ed Dept. reviewThe Republic:State officials are bracing for a federal review of Hawaiis publicschoolsystem early next year that could determine whether the state continues to receive millions in competitiveeducationgrants.

School Spending Under MicroscopeWSJ: The New York City lawyer who helped win a landmark court ruling in 2006 that ordered billions of dollars more spent on schools has been quietly building a new case to show that even after more than a decade of litigation, the state still may be failing its most impoverished students.

Company rewards teachers for school tripsSignOnSanDiego: AOne of the companies that provides the trips in San Diego offers lucrative rewards for teachers based on the number of students and fellow teachers they can recruit to go on the trips.

The Touchy-Feely Future Of Technology NPR: With the gift-giving season winding down, All Things Considered takes some time to look at a technology that likely played a part in many of this years offerings — touch screens.

In Face of Holiday Sales, Colorado Students Begin to Learn Financial Discipline PBS: A Colorado law that went into effect this fall requires schools to teach public school students about financial responsibility — from drawing coins and bills to deducting purchases from their classroom bank accounts.

IQ isnt fixed at birth, can increase with education USA Today: Children who have more schooling may see their IQ improve, Norwegian researchers have found.

With A Job, Life Improves For 9th Grade DropoutNPR:Nearly three decades ago, Kenny Buchanan decided to drop out of school. Over the last 26 years, hes jumped from job to job and unemployment. He now has a full-time job and for the first time in years, he and his family have health insurance and can enjoy a few luxuries.

Categories: Education Advisor Tags: Race Review, Review

Kenneth W. Morgan, 103, helped create Chapel House

January 6th, 2012 No comments

Kenneth William Morgan, professor of religion emeritus who helped establish Chapel House, died recently at the age of 103.

During his Colgate tenure, Morgan served as university chaplain, professor of religion, director of Chapel House and director of the Fund for the Study of the Great Religions of the World (both of which he helped establish). He also served a three-year term as director of the Division of the Humanities. He edited three works, considered far ahead of their time, on Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. He also authored an interpretive study, Reaching for the Moon on Asian Religious Paths, his major publication. Morgan was instrumental in the founding of the American Academy of Religion and while serving on the Hazen Foundation helped to launch programs to encourage the teaching of Asian religions in the United States. He also played an important role in the launching of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University.

He earned his degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University (BA) and Harvard University (STB), and held an honorary degree (LHD) from Simpson College.

Prior to joining the Colgate faculty in 1946, Morgan lived in Hindu monasteries in India for a year, became director of the National Council on Religion in Higher Education, director of the religious activities at the University of Michigan, and during the war years served as director of education for the American Friends Service Committee. He retired in 1974.

He died in Middletown, Conn., on Dec. 23.

Predeceased by his wife, Amy Cowing Scott, he is survived by his three children, David, Scott, and Alan, and their families. An on-campus memorial service is being planned. Details will be made available as soon as possible.

Student loan firm’s fraud alert

December 31st, 2011 No comments

The company has already shut down 1,400 websites attempting frauds on student loans this year

The Student Loans Company is contacting some of its customers by telephone amid fears of a fraud attack.

The company says it is calling those customers whom it has “identified as being at risk of having their details compromised”.

The student loan system is facing sustained “phishing” attacks, with 1,400 websites shut down this year.

Customers are being told to be “vigilant with their personal details”.

The company says it cannot confirm whether or not any private details of customers have been hacked – arguing that it does not want to supply any further information which could be useful to fraudsters.

‘Ongoing enquiry’

It also declines to say how many customers are involved as “this is an ongoing enquiry”.

But it says the calls to specific customers are being made as a “preventative measure”.

The Student Loans Company has four million customers – administering loans to current students and repayments from former students.

But in response to what is believed to be a phishing-style attack – where fraudsters attempt to obtain information such as by email – the company has been directly calling some of its customers.

“We are currently contacting a number of students by telephone who we have identified as being at risk of having their details compromised, to advise them of the necessary security steps they should follow to ensure their details are protected,” said Heather Laing, fraud prevention and detection manager for the Student Loans Company.

“We would advise all students to be vigilant with their personal details. Student Finance England or the Student Loans Company will never ask you to verify your personal or bank details by email.”

The student loan system has become a target for fraudsters, with the police pursuing extensive phishing operations.

The company has warned of a significant increase in attempted fraud incidents, such as emails dishonestly seeking personal information such as bank details.

The Student Loans Company has also published advice to prevent fraud, telling students and former students to be wary of contacts seeking personal and financial details.

It says that such scams are common at the three main instalment payment dates in September, January and April.

Categories: Education Advisor Tags: Fraud, Student Loan