The teaching profession has no doubt, been at the forefront in adapting to this change. We have seen so many innovative means followed by the teacher to reach out to the student. Be it the video lectures, video links online classes, tests and assignment submissions, the teaching fraternity hasn’t shied away from its responsibilities. This wouldn’t have been possible if the students wouldn’t have participated in this exercise. You indeed, cannot clap with one hand. We have to appreciate our students for their active participation. Moreover, teaching online classes have given students an opportunity to justify their usage of phones and social media to their family. This puts them in a position they never were but were always aspiring to be in, and that probably drives them to take up online activities with more zeal and vigour as compared to their offline regular classes.

There is no doubt, a digital divide across the students of our region which has become more than evident, during this lockdown. Almost all students from lower classes don’t have access to phones. All those belonging to the higher level don’t have access to the internet connection in their homes. I believe it is our duty as the guardians of the future of our nation, to acknowledge this fact and accept that there is nothing they can do about it. Regardless to say, they can easily be brought at par with the rest of the students with a little bit of extra effort by the faculty as and when the institute reopens. But, this realization by the student that their teacher is aware of their situation and has taken it into account can go a long way in providing them with the required confidence and mindset to overcome the anxiety and stress caused due to this extraordinary crisis.

Sadly, there are few from among the higher classes who have not participated till now despite having the means and the internet reception at their homes to do so. They are not to be left out at any costs. As such, we as faculty, have to make an extra effort to include them either by contacting their parents and guardians or by any other means possible.

Further, it is our duty to enlighten our students about the ongoing crisis with facts and verified information over and above the subject matter. We have to educate them on ways to avoid and prevent the spread of the virus, keep reminding them every now and then. We are the ones continuously in touch with most of them, if not all. We must motivate them to further spread it in their family and locality. Most importantly, we have to act as a filter that prevents the disinformation and fake news from creeping into their lives and polluting their minds at this crucial hour. For that, we ourselves have to be well-informed beyond the scope of our subject. This can tremendously help to flatten the curve of transmission of coronavirus in our nation and thus, around the world.

A clichéd statement yet very wise in these extraordinary times-“An empty mind is a devils workshop”. We have to find ways to give students a purpose to achieve every two to three days, if not every day. It can be through some assignment, online tests; self-study topics of their interest so on and so forth. Innovation is the key. This will give them a sense of achievement which is important now, more than ever. A statement of acknowledgement for their hard work by the faculty can also help boost their confidence and keep them away from the perils of an idle mind.

“Never let a good crisis go to waste”. This event has indeed, given us an opportunity and the push required to find ways to improve the overall standard of our teaching fraternity and learn to connect in a better, effective and efficient manner with our students. Remember, winning over this virus is not an option here, it is a must. This, I believe, is our contribution to achieving it.

Writes: Nawneet Chettri. He is a lecturer in CCCT, Chisopani, South Sikkim

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We all know Digital Marketing is basically divided into two parts:

• Offline / Traditional Marketing
• Online / Digital Marketing

Offline usually refers to the traditional methods of spreading awareness of your products or services through Hoardings, Banners Ads, Newspapers, TV Ads or Pamphlets.

But in the case of Online Marketing or Digital marketing, it has itself redefined marketing strategies through the advent and involvement of technological tools and online media.

Tools like Email marketing, Social media marketing, blogging and much more.

It is quite easy to list down the advantages of Digital over Traditional and why the world is moving towards a Digital media for all businesses or operations.

Traditional marketing has a slow rate of conversion of business into revenues and earnings whereas Digital has a faster approach to that.

In Offline Marketing we do not have instant feedbacks compared to that of Digital marketing that gives us a quick and structured response from customers and audiences.

Return on investments is hard and messy to be calculated in terms of Offline Bussiness but on the other side ROI are easily calculated and future plans, changes, and decisions can easily be made in growing of your businesses.

You simply cannot target particular specific audiences in the case of Offline marketing but Digital marketing we can target any specific audiences on geographic, demographic preferences.

Traditional is simply way more expensive than Digital, which is also more effective and efficient.

Take an example that you are Setting a newspaper ad of Baby Products in Kolkata.

You are planned to specifically target the audience of South Kolkata only. Here is the limitation in case of a newspaper ad. You just cannot particularly set the targeted audiences and the ad will be showcased over all of Kolkata or more, according to the audiences of the newspaper. But if you are to chose digital over traditional marketing you can easily target the particular geographic location, in this case, the South of Kolkata or anywhere you desire. This is one singular example of the advantages of digital marketing in this present world.

Fact is 90 % of the top CEOs these days understand and recognize the benefits of digital marketing for their business development. But only 15 % have really implemented this tool in their businesses. There lies a whole future and era of all business powered by digital media. But till today we lack Human power, Knowledge and skills… Get ready for the new digital world and empower yourself to contribute to this Digital Revolution. Cause, Fun fact, There are Over Lakhs vacant Job in India today On digital marketing platform, still unfulfilled due to a clear lack of Knowledge and manpower.

Earlier Digital marketing was quite easy using popular keywords but these days you can’t entirely rely on that. There are various techniques that have come up. Giving a brief of 5 such techniques:

• Email marketing
• Paid Advertisements
• Social Media Marketing
• Content marketing, and
• Blog posts.

There is a hoax that Emails are Dead these days but that is not quite the case. Companies and Customers still use Emails as the ultimate official way of communications. Thus having your ADs or banners in an Email can easily target the real-time business organizations and customers.
Paid Ads is another must and powerful tool used in Digital marketing plus the good thing it does not costs much. Spend a little money and you can have mass audiences in on go. Using Google Ad words or Bing Ads is one form of Advertising. Using popular keywords to attract more traffic is the main goal, thus a lot of big companies and players in the markets have already bought up such popular keywords. Using Google Analytics gives us a detailed insight into keywords most popularly used by the audiences and such words being used in you Ads, contents or Blogs brings in more audiences and views. Such other tools are Facebook Ads and the plus point about it is you can be super specific about the audience you want to target based on your preferences and you can make the most of your advertising spent.

Talking about social media, your social media profiles are a powerful tool for Digital Marketing. Using less and specified number of a social platform with attractive contents gains the attention of a mass number of people which you can divert it to your gain in business and its growth. Not forgetting about Video content whether it is your own or a curated video of other people and having those links on your social platform really elevates your audience.

Another form of Digital marketing favorable to small business and entrepreneurs is Content marketing. It is basically using your original content or curated content to draw audiences to your website. It is actually giving something of their value to come to your website and maybe let them give in their email addresses or other information and thus you gain audiences through content marketing. You also use curated content, blogs of other people to attract the audience but make sure to have a tribute to the original creators and the permission to post their content.

Blogging is really another important form of Digital Marketing specifically for entrepreneurs and creative professionals. It is one tool that really helps you and your work go up on Digital platforms. How? Whether it be blogging on a blogging platform or on your own website, the real fact is people don’t read long contents these days (like mine) and with the entry of mobile devices, long contents are just so boring. Thus having a blog section or a blogging platform is beneficial because makes your homepage clean and specific. Thus you can attract people who are into reading to your blog section and you can enrich the section using keywords, contents, and links. Thus getting audience who are really into content reading or writing.

Covering up some small basic and simple headlines of Digital Marketing here. Just enrich and adapt yourself to this upcoming Digital transformation for a better future.

Writes: Nishant Thapa – Click here for original article.

The post Basics To Digital Marketing appeared first on The Darjeeling Chronicle.

While the people are regaling in their being able to order in branded stuffs at a cheaper price, the local shopkeepers and small businesses have been most hit. In Dooars, small entities have started to lose business and are fearful of having to close shop. Local shop owners complin that during the past few years, the volume of shopping during Dashain (dusherra) and Tihar (diwali) have gone down considerably. This obviously has a trickle down effect, as subsidiary businesses have also started to suffer.

Rajiv Nag, a cloth merchant from Luksan bazar in Dooars says, “this online shopping trend has made life difficult, particularly for those businesses with smaller capital… our sales have gone down, we are starting to get worried.”

Biru Munda who has been working for a courier company based-out of Chalsa noted, “till last year we used to go to rural villages and tea gardens, may be once a week, if at that… these days, we are visiting rural villages on a daily basis… I think people are getting attracted to online shopping due to lower prices and they are spoilt for choices… its good for our business…”

While “Digital India,” has indeed made the market really competitive for sellers online, off-line local businesses are starting to suffer. It will be a while before we will know the extent and impact of this phenomenon at the grassroots level, but suffice it to say, the online shopping phenomenon is changing market practices and trends in the rural India.

गाउँ बस्ती अनि कमानका इलाकाका साधारण मानिसहरुमा पनि अनलाइन सोपिङप्रति आर्षितत हुन थालेका छन । स्मार्ट फोनको सदउपयोग गर्दै दैनिक जीवनमा प्रयोगमा आउने प्रायः सबै समानहरु अहिले उपभोक्ताहरुले अनलाइन सोपिङद्वारा घरमान नै मगाउन थालेका छन । यसले गर्दा पारम्परिक ढंगमा संचालित रहेका बजार प्रणाली प्रभावित हुन थालेको छ । र स्थानीय कम पूँजी भएका व्यापारीहरु मारमा परेका छन । दशैँको बजारमा पनि पोहरको जस्तो विक्री नभएको व्यापारीहरुले बताएका छन । अनलाइन सपिङले स्थानीय बजार प्रभावित बनेको लुकसान बजार कपडा व्यापारी राजीब नागले बताएका छन । कारसाना अघि भन्दा अहिले दशैँको समय अनलाइन सोपिङ मार्फत गाउ वस्ती अनि कमानका उपभोक्तारुले अझ धेर समानहरु माग गरेको बताइएको छ ।

दशैँ नजीक आएकोले उपभोक्ताहरुले कपडा, जुता अनि सजावटको वस्तुहरु अनलाईन मार्फतनै धेरै मगाइ रहेको चालसाका एक जना कोरीयर सेवाकर्ता बीरु मुण्डाले बताए । तिनले भने अघि अघि हामी सप्ताहमा एक दुइ दिन मात्र कमान वस्ती इलाकामा पार्सल लिएर आउने गरथ्यौं । तर यसपाली भने साधारण मानिसहरु अनलाइन सपिङप्रति धेरै आर्कित रहेका छन । र यसको माग पनि बढेको छ । हामी आजभोली प्रायः दिनौं नै ग्रामीण इलाका उपभोक्ताहरुको पार्सल लिएर आउने गर्छौ मुण्डाले भने । यसै पनि बजारमा भन्दा अनलाइन सपिङमा वस्तुहरुको मूल्य कम हुन्छ । साथै समय समयमा अफर पनि रहेकाले महँगा वस्तुहरु पनि कम मूल्यमा पाउन भएकोले ग्राम वस्तीका मासनिसहरुमा अनलाइन सपिङप्रति झुकाउ बढेको पाईन्छ ।

प्रायः सबै मानिसहरुको हातमा स्मार्ट फोन छ । यसैको लाभ उठाउदै साधारण मानिसहरुमा पनि अनलाइन सपिङको बाणी बस्तै गएको देखिएको छ । एक जना लुकसान बजारका व्यापारी सुरोजित विश्वासले भने, अनलाइन सपिङको कारण स्थानीय बजारहरु अहिले प्रभावित बनदै गइ रहेको छ । अनलाइन सपिङको माध्यमबाट आफुलाई मन परेको समानहरु ग्राहकहरुले घरमानै मगाइ रहेका छन । दशैँको कपडा अनि जुताहरु धेरै जसो ग्राहकहरुले अनलाइन सपिङबाट नै मगाइ रहेको हामी घर गाउमा देखि रहेका छौं । ग्राहकहरुले चाहे जस्तो समान कम मूल्यमा घरमानै पाएको कारण ग्राकहरु बजार आउन बन्द गरेका छन । र यसले दशैँको बजारलाई पनि प्रभावित बनाएको छ । गाउ वस्तीमा पनि इन्टरनेट सेवा उपलब्ध भएको कारण साधारण मानिसहरुले स्मार्ट फोनको सदउपयोग गर्न थालेको अनलाइन सपिङले प्रमाणित गरेको छ ।

[Special Correspondent: Nand Poudel]

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