How Virtual Marketing Can Make You Happy

A virtual marketing assistant may help you learn how to promote your business via social media more quickly and effectively than you would on your own.

The sheer number of social media sites can be overwhelming. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Vimeo, Google-Plus, Diggit -- the list can go on and on. So, how do you know what to use in marketing your business?

A virtual marketing assistant help you cut through the reams of information about social media platforms, apps for your social pages and social media marketing strategy. A good marketing VA lives and breathes in this world, and will have some familiarity with the most successful tactics.

Primary social sites

The sites that are most often used for business marketing include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You may also want to add Pinterest to that list. It's building a huge audience, and although it's relatively new compared to some of the other social sites, it looks like it has staying power.

Google+ also is worth exploring because of its connection to the popular search engine and its integration with local Google places and Google ads. However, it still remains to be seen how powerful it will become, as it is continuing to emerge.

You'll want to make these sites your primary focus, and promote articles, photos and special offers there. Be sure to ask virtual marketing assistant candidates about how they would build your following and make you social pages stand out from others. There are a number of ways you can customize your social sites so that you have consistent branding carrying through all your platforms.

YouTube is also a valuable social media site for video. There are other options, like Vimeo, by YouTube is the largest, best-known video site used in America. It 's a social media site, but it's also great for hosting all your videos for your website and can be used in a larger video marketing strategy.

Apps and tools

Once you start wading into social media, you may start to feel overwhelmed by all the possibilities. On Facebook, there are volumes of apps that can be used. You can create customized tab pages (subpages) that are linked under icons on your timeline. You can connect your Pinterest account to Facebook, or you can create sponsored posts and Facebook ads that can help promote your page and/or website.

Twitter has many apps of its own, including TweetDeck, to help you monitor and engage for the best results. And there are more comprehensive social media tools, like SplashCube, to help you manage all your marketing efforts

This is all new to you, but your virtual marketing assistant has experience with these tools and has seen what other businesses tend to use. Use your VA as a resource to help you customize your social sites and avoid becoming completely overwhelmed in the process.
Try asking your virtual marketing assistant to evaluate your social sites and come up with a strategic plan for customizing them and building a following, so that you can benefit to see the benefits of social media marketing.

 

 

Ecommerce and Bangladesh: Present scenario

E-commerce involves buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers through an electronic medium. Broadly, e-commerce is classified into four categories: business to business or B2B (Cisco), business to consumer or B2C (Amazon), consumer to consumer or C2C (eBay) and Business-to-Government (B2G). Business-to-business e-commerce involves agreements between the businesses and businesses. Distribution management, inventory management, channel management, supplier management and payment management are some of the areas in which B2B applications are widely used. In Bangladesh, bgmea.com.bd, bizbangladesh.com are examples of B2B platforms. B2C commerce involves e-commerce between businesses and the consumers. This form of e-commerce involves the purchase of books or any form of consumer goods. It also includes purchase of software, e-books, games, songs as well as e-banking. ajkerdeal.com, bdbazar.com, daraz.com, bajna.com are some examples of B2C. Advantages of B2C platforms to companies are reduced operating costs, bigger outreach, globalisation, customer convenience and knowledge management. Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce involves transactions between individual consumers. For instance, online auction, peer-to-peer system for money or file exchange can be classified as forms of C2C e-commerce. In Bangladesh bikroy.com, clickbd.com are examples of C2C platforms. B2G is usually used for licensing process, public purchasing and other government operations. B2G e-commerce is rather insignificant when compared to the other three forms. However, B2G can be one of the driving forces for running the public sector known as e-governance.

A wide range of technologies is used in e-commerce that includes electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail (e-mail), electronic funds transfer (EFT). In case of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) there needs to be an agreement between trading partners. EDI is a standard method for exchanging business data. E-mail and fax are also forms of EDI. In Bangladesh small, medium and big enterprises have taken up e-business platforms. When compared to developed countries, developing countries have a higher potential for improving the business structure and raise productivity by using e-commerce as a medium. M-Commerce (Mobile Commerce) and F-Commerce (Facebook Commerce) are very popular in today's e-business world. Over the years, the number of online transactions has been on the rise. According to BTRC officials the number of internet subscribers in Bangladesh had crossed 80 million in 2017. At present there are approximately 2,000 e-commerce sites and 50,000 Facebook-based outlets delivering almost 30,000 products a day. Currently, 80 per cent of the online sales are taking place in Dhaka, Chattogram and Gazipur.

Online transactions in Bangladesh have been increasing over the years. Improvements in standard of living coupled with advancement in livelihood, shopping behaviour has experienced a significant shift. In Bangladesh the e-commerce industry set sail in the late 90s but was unable to expand immediately. Gradually, over the years, banking, logistics communications and payment methods have improved creating opportunities for the e-business sector to develop. A number of sectors including the banking sector are now using the internet payment system. As consumers can avail credit, debit card services and digital wallet, the cash-on-delivery system is now more accessible.

Over the last few years, internet connections have improved and the number of people who have access to the web has increased thus making way for e-commerce business to flourish. In 2016, $50 million was invested in the e-commerce sector in Bangladesh. Out of which $10 million was from Foreign Direct Investment. In 2017, the B2C e-commerce business market measure equalled USD 110-115 million (around BDT 9.0 billion) compared to BDT 1335.71 billion made by the retail market. The outreach of the e-commerce business market exceeded Tk 17.0 billion in 2017 from Tk 4.0 billion in 2016, as revealed from the findings by e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB). The market measure for e-commerce is expected to equal Tk 70 billion by 2021.

In Bangladesh retail e-commerce is growing at 72 per cent a month. At present, more than 35,000 individuals and above 25,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are part of this sector. Till 2018, the number of e-commerce business sites and e-commerce pages equalled 2,500 and 150,000 respectively. It was estimated that the number of deliveries per day added up to about 15,000 to 20,000 at the retail level.

Criptocurrency the modern money

 Virtual currency is a type of unregulated digital currency that is only available in electronic form. It is stored and transacted only through designated software, mobile or computer applications, or through dedicated digital wallets, and the transactions occur over the internet through secure, dedicated networks. Virtual currency is considered to be a subset of the digital currency group, which also includes cryptocurrencies, which exist within the blockchain network.

Understanding Virtual Currency

Virtual currency can be defined as an electronic representation of monetary value that may be issued, managed, and controlled by private issuers, developers, or the founding organization. Such virtual currencies are often represented in terms of tokens and may remain unregulated without a legal tender.

Unlike regular money, virtual currency relies on a system of trust and may not be issued by a central bank or other banking regulatory authority. They derive their value based on the underlying mechanism, like mining in cases of cryptocurrencies, or the backing by the underlying asset. Anyone who watches cryptocurrency prices will see the seesaw effect of psychological trading.

The term came into existence around 2012, when the European Central Bank (ECB) defined virtual currency to classify types of “digital money in an unregulated environment, issued and controlled by its developers and used as a payment method among members of a specific virtual community,” according to Bitcoin News.

Along with use by the common public, a virtual currency can have restricted usage, and it may be in circulation only among the members of a specific online community or a virtual group of users who transact online on dedicated networks. Virtual currencies are mostly used for peer-to-peer payments and are finding increasing use for the purchase of goods and services.