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Top 6 Reasons Why Your Next Trip Should be to Bulgaria

If you are still wondering where to plan your 2019 summer vacation Bulgaria should be on top of your list. Most people outside the country are not familiar with what it has to offer so here are six reasons to have one of a lifetime experience.

1. Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture for 2019

Plovdiv has been around for 8,000 years which makes it one of the oldest European cities. It offers a mixture of rich history, Roman ruins and the modern city with great nightlife. The city itself is built around 7 hills(tepes) that vary in altitude starting from 307m to 143m. They were used for the protection of the city. If you climb the tallest one you will be amazed by the gorgeous view of the city and the surrounding mountains. During the summer there are many concerts and festivals that show the liveliness of the city.

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Roman Amphitheater

2. Delicious Food

Be prepared for food coma everywhere you go! Bulgaria cuisine has its own flavor that makes it unique compared to the neighboring countries. It is full of fresh vegetables, yogurt, and traditional drinks. To get the full Bulgarian experience in a restaurant you should order first shopska salad(combo of diced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and peppers, with grated sirene cheese and parsley on top) with a shot of rakia to start of the meal. There are variety of main dishes but a must is the kebapche(grilled meat). For the hot summer days you should ask for ayrian drink ( yogurt, salt, water and lots of ice).

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Shopska Salad

3. Amazing Beaches

During the summer one of the best places to be is of course at the beach. The Black Sea offers numerous vacations spots that you can choose from. My personal favorite is Sozopol. It is located 440 kilometers from Sofia and it has everything for the best summer vacation and more. The Old Town of the city is built out of stones and wood which is unique for the Black Sea architecture. The roads and houses are made out of stones similar to the Romans.

Sozopol

4. Breathtaking Mountains

One of the many gems of Bulgaria are the villages in the mountains. They are usually located in the middle of the mountains surrounded by gigantic peaks and lakes. It is usually there where you can find the best homemade wine and the friendliest people. One of the best cities to visit is Melnik. It is the smallest city in the country, located in Pirin Mountain. It offers unique architecture and many wine tastings.

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Melnik

5. Rose Valey

Bulgaria is one of the biggest rose-oil producers in the world. If you happen to visit in June you must check out the festival of Roses in the town of Kazanlak that happens every year. Thousands of people from all over the world visit. Everyone is invited to wake up before sunrise and participate in the rose-picking process which includes every flower being hand picked and used for the production of the rose oil.
*Information about the festival: https://www.rosefestivalkazanlak.com/

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Rose Picking

6. Sofia

You cannot say that you have visited Bulgaria without stopping at Sofia. It is the capital and the largest city. It is also a town with 7000 years of history where in the city center you will find the ancient Thracian town called Serdika. The name comes after the Thracian tribe Serdi. It is free and open for everyone that wants to visit.

Sofia from above

“Hey Siri What is the Future of Voice Search?”

With the growth of mobile, phone voice search is growing fast. The increase of usage on Siri, Cortana, Alexa and the Google assistance, voice search is going to impact the industry in a big way.

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The unique aspect about the future is that it is always unpredictable and we can only made guesses of what will happen in the next years to come. But according to current trends Voice Search will be one of the big break through in the upcoming years. The voice search devices like Alexa and Google play are becoming more popular with every year. They provide a flexibility of what the users can do only by using the commands of their voice. For example you can be comfortable in bed and you can ask Alexa to turn off the lights so you don’t have to get up.

The voice search solves many small inconveniences that we have in our daily lives and we even ask ourselves how we have lived without it until now.

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A result of that will be long search queries – What that means is that instead of typing few key words into Google, people will be saying complete statements or asking complete questions. With voice search it is also more likely to be local where people are going to be looking for something in their local area.

Tips for companies

Have a mobile optimized website. Have your search campaign include more broad match keywords. And the reason behind that is that people will be asking search engines questions and statements in a number of different ways where you would want to include all the questions of Who, What, When and How. Another important aspect for the business is to be listed on Google and Yelp because most time people will ignore your website go directly to the reviews.

As artificial intelligence and technology is becoming stronger every single day. So we can expect the intelligent assistants to start to predict answers even before we ask them. If we add that to the internet of things we will be able to control our environment entirely through voice. The voice search is here to stay but we have to ask ourselves if we are ready to adapt.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Scott – All you need to know

David Meerman Scott is well renowned internationally for sales and marketing strategies. Apart for his marketing career he has book publications including The New Rules of Sales and Services, Marketing the Moon, Newsjacking and more that sold thousands of copies in over 40 countries. Scott recommends his books for any professional who wants to grow their business. He has also spoken to 40 countries on all seven continents in variety of audiences, firms and organizations. In addition to writing books, the author also writes blog that he updates weekly, where he talks about the most current issues on different topics including how to increase the traffic on your website and the latest trends in the technology.

One of his inspirations to write the New Rules of Marketing & PR was the 45th presidential election of Donald Trump and especially how the president spoke directly to the people by using a free social media platform like Tweeter. How President Trump ran his presidential campaign based on the internet platforms and used short messages with the most important points to spread his message. As a reader of this book I was intrigued by the introduction especially when this is something that is included in our every day lives.

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Тhe writing style of this book is very condensed and write to the point.

Five takeaways that would help fellow students

  1. The difference between traditional and new advertising – Scott discusses how the traditional advertising including television commercials, advertisements in the magazines, posters when driving down the highway are not as effective anymore and the companies should concentrate more on targeted audiences.
  2. Marketing – Scott makes an important point that we need to use smart marketing that includes concentrating on a specific niche in the market and target individual audiences that have the specific needs.
  3. The importance of Social Media – Using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram is a great way to create popularity and to share content. When growing a strong network, it gives you the opportunity to connect with buyers, potential partners and others in the targeted field. As an entrepreneur you can present yourself as being authentic and who are you different than everyone else.
  4. Blogs – They are a great way to engage with the readers and to make them feel more connected to you. It is important to write about topics that you are passionate about that and that when writing will be more engaging to the readers. Some ideas for blog posts include providing a solution to a problem or by providing a credible opinion about the topic that you are very familiar with.
  5. Have a successful website – Your website will be the first thing that a potential buyer will see research about you. It is a great way to show that you are a credible candidate and have offers that have cover the needs of the buyers.

I believe that the book can be improvements by adding more detail. There is very good content that every entrepreneur that wants to grow their business can learn from but in some chapters it is too broad or he starts to talk about what is important and the chapter will end after that.

If you are interested in purchasing this book you will be happy to know that amazon ranking for this book is 4.4 our of 5 starts with over a hundred reviews. The book also ranks as #43 in Direct Marketing and #11 in Public relations.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073X84D6W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Buffer vs. Hootsuite: All you need to know

As we all become more connected, social media has become an important part of our every day life. We can learn about the news and the what is happening around the world just by creating a social media account. According to Statistica ” there will be around 2.77 billion social media users around the globe”. If you are starting a business or want to improve your companies presents on social media this blog is just for you!

Both tools are great to monitor your company’s social media presence. They include many features that can help you grow your business. Including the time of the day when it is best to post on different platforms. You can create posts on different platforms simultaneously, you can monitor different profiles, profile pages and groups on different accounts. They both offer free trial

For Buffer you can have one social media account per network as an individual and a business you can have 25 accounts including Pinterest as a small business

For Hootsuite – as an individual you have free access to three social accounts, 10 social accounts if you register as a professional and 20 accounts as a team.

Another great feature that both buffer and Hootsuite have are that it tells you what is the best time during the day will be to publish. You have the option to create your own schedule for the time that you want to publish and also schedule the content.

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Both are great tools that you can use to grow your business and to make sure that your social media presents is always up to date and to the latest features