By Linley Beckbridge, Doorways for Women and Families

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). Some may wonder: Is awareness enough? As #MeToo—created 10 years ago by Tarana Burke—experiences a viral resurgence following other hashtags like #YesAllWomen and #WhyIStayed, what happens beyond the social media trend? What can awareness do?
 
Consider this: If someone in your life were experiencing abuse, would they know where to go for help? Do you think they’d feel safe coming to you to talk about it?

By Doug Taylor, Bean, Kinney & Korman

Web technology has made it possible for individuals to shop virtually for goods and services from anywhere, at any time. In 2016, for the first time ever, more consumers were shopping online than in stores, according to Forbes. E-commerce retail sales numbers are staggeringly large, adding up to $111.5 billion for the second quarter of 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

By J. Clemonts Junior, Owner, Technificent Solutions LLC

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness month. Many business owners feel as though they do not have “a stake in that fight” and simply shrug it off. But if you’re reading this, then that means that you’re not the average business owner. I hope that I’m right, because with modern business depending on IT and its security, business owners can no longer afford to be passive about their IT infrastructure.
 
Many business owners I talk to about IT tell me that they’re “too small” or “too unimportant” to be a victim of a cyber-crime. “Hackers have better targets than my business,” they reason, so they neglect any security for their business at all. This is akin to ignoring your tax and credit card debt and believing that they will go away on their own.

By Helen Saks, Creative Director, CoCreate Studios 

​The written word is a dying art form. They tell us, and as heartbreaking as this may be, that you can’t deny the statistics. In an era of screen absorption, the average person is more inclined to click and watch, rather than get lost in lengthy copy. And this affects our businesses and how we market our services.
 
Market researchers tell us that embedding video in landing pages increases conversion rates by 80 percent and adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200 percent.*