Economics 21

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  Efficiency of the Social Assistance System in Bulgaria through Planning the Use of European Funds

  Within the social policy implemented to alleviate the worst forms of deprivation and combat poverty, targeting European Union citizens that are most affected by the socio-economic crisis, and through the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, the European Commission finalized the process of adoption of all national operational programmes for ... Within the social policy implemented to alleviate the worst forms of deprivation and combat poverty, targeting European Union citizens that are most affected by the socio-economic crisis, and through the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, the European Commission finalized the process of adoption of all national operational programmes for the period 2014-2020 amounting to a total value of 3.8 billion Euros. These funds will be spent on achieving social cohesion and implementing one of the main objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy – “Lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion”. The Republic of Bulgaria received 104.8 million Euros to finance social benefits and social services aimed at promoting social inclusion, thereby the national social assistance system is expected to demonstrate greater effectiveness and efficiency in spending them

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  The Business Potential of Social Media Platforms

  Web 2.0 technologies have changed the business environment and have become a ‘must’ of any business strategy, whether it is a large company or a small and medium-sized enterprise. Modern social media have a lot of sophisticated tools and technologies that can be successfully used to attract new customers, promote brand (recognizable identity for ... Web 2.0 technologies have changed the business environment and have become a ‘must’ of any business strategy, whether it is a large company or a small and medium-sized enterprise. Modern social media have a lot of sophisticated tools and technologies that can be successfully used to attract new customers, promote brand (recognizable identity for our product or service), boost sales, increase a company’s website traffic, build effective customer relationships, manage online reputation, facilitate communication with customers, incl. online, optimize search engines, etc. However, at the same time, social media are not just a collection of new tools and technologies – they develop and establish new business models, and require that managers and business owners have a lot of new knowledge and a new way of thinking. In the social media environment small enterprises can successfully compete with large companies, regardless of the different advertising and marketing budgets. Although modest, the existing experience shows that with an adequate viral campaign organized in the social Web space small and medium-sized enterprises can generate huge traffic to their sites, improve communications with customers and achieve greater sales. This study attempts to offer practical solutions for using social media in business processes. It focuses on several questions: • What the Web 2.0 potential is expressed in for businesses and what ad¬vantages it provides; • What the specific characteristics of social Web space are that are important in the use of Web 2.0 for business purposes; • What the content behind the term ‘social media’ is and what its business poten¬tial is; • What the nature and scope of social media is and what reasons justify the huge interest of businesses in them in recent years; • How Social Media Optimization (SMO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM) can be used in the interest of businesses. The first part of the study examines the basic characteristics and specific features of the second generation of Web services contributing to the use of Web 2.0 for business purposes. According to the author the new way of interaction and the ease of integration that are characteristic of Web 2.0 are expected to make radical changes in corporate information systems (IS), and hence in the business of companies. The second part analyzes the nature and manifestation of social media. It gives a brief overview of social media and describes their potential for the development of small and medium-sized businesses, concluding that social media tools can be used successfully to attract customers, increase traffic to the website, boost sales, promote the brand and form a target audience. However, at the same time social media are something more than business tools – they require a new way of thinking, a new ap¬proach to the business of the company and to customers, an orderly and reasoned strategy for working in the new social environment. The third part presents the capabilities of the two new and still not widely used tools for the popularization of the site in the social media – Social Media Optimization (SMO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). Companies that will migrate to Web 2.0 have to have a good understanding of SMM tools in order to be able to determine which of them are suitable for a particular business and how to approach their actual use. The author argues that the good performance of the site on the Web and providing more traffic today require an integrated approach in using the various techniques for digital and traditional marketing.

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  Environmental Strategy and Corporate Governance

  The issues related to environmental protection and depletion of natural resources potential, as well as the rise of market economy and scientific and technological progress, require a reconsideration of the sources of raw materials and the sources of economic growth. The further development of humanity is only possible within an environmentally ... The issues related to environmental protection and depletion of natural resources potential, as well as the rise of market economy and scientific and technological progress, require a reconsideration of the sources of raw materials and the sources of economic growth. The further development of humanity is only possible within an environmentally sound and sustainable development. The environmental and economic interests of sustainable nature utilization and nature conservation are included in the content of the environmental strategy, which is related to the environmentally sound corporate governance. Corporate governance is required to provide the necessary impact in order to achieve rational nature utilization and conservation for the future generations.