What A Year 2009

2009 has been a year of utilizing Wordpress, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, Linkedin, and social platforms to generate and share content. Facebook alone has more then 350 Million Members and almost $1 billion  in annual sales. Setting up Facebook Fan pages became a cruicial part of branding and social media in 2009. Linkedin became one of the most popular social media web sites of 2009 with the down economy. Many professionals found networking with business relationships and groups online easy, efficient, and friendly thanks to Linkedin. Reconnecting with trusted business relationships became a great asset in 2009. At Barbara Segal and Associates we found 2009 to be a year of:

•  We fully immersing ourselves in the Net Etiquette culture, by starting a blog, twittering, and building relationships with key Etiquette players and bloggers to Be Polite on the Internet.

•      We grew new followings thru blogging, utilizing facebook, and twittering about recipes kids love. Our twitter communities were grown organically. Utilizing SEO, no apps that spam others twitter accounts, and deleting twitter accounts without profiles and or suspicous global locations.    
  

•     We acknowledged part of Public Relations is based on personal relationships as well as social.  Barbara Segal traveled to Washington DC, Chicago, New York, and Newport, RI in 2009. Recognizing being LA based, has great advantages in the PR area, Branding, and Social Media world with the Golden Globes, Emmy's, Oscars, and celebrity accessibility.
  

•     Barbara felt grateful in the recession of 2009 to have a part time job with a large Retailer which provided a health insurance plan (the hot topic of the Obama administration) for a self employed full time professional. I benefited in other ways as well by understanding first hand todays consumer, fashion, style, design, and customer service. Stay tune in 2010 Barbara Segal is writing a book ...."Hello Big Box Retailers". 
  

•     Enjoyed sharing the joy with clients when they received radio coverage, TV news coverage, magazine/print editorial or press, and top web-site mentions.  And of course the celebrity pictures they  posted on Facebook in 2009.
  
  
  
  

Why This Recession Is Not Going To Send Us Into Depression?

TIS THE SEASON

Early in December I was asked by a friend, if his son could interview me for a class report, on the economy. The friend who is a "Director"was quoted in the Financial Times this year in an article "That he is glad he saved his shekels." Myself a Blonde Heiress who is known to spend on Chanel, Prada, Gucci, and Travel answered"sure" I would be glad to do the interview for the kid.

Several weeks later on December 14, 2008 at 1:00pm I sat down for an interview with the 7th grader, DK let's call him, as he interviewed me. Upon my arrival it started out that the father was upset the Son was not going to write it down take notes like we did and have been trained to take notes. Being an Internet Marketing and Media leader since 1995 I watched the generation battle it out.

The 7th grader whining back, but DAD this is what we due "we do it on the computer." At 1:15pm privacy was given and the 12 year old who started asking the Questions while typing at his computer as only a 7th grader knows as his generation was weaned on Leapfrog. His questions were:

Has the economy effected you?

How has it changed your life?

Do you think we are in a Recession?

Do you think we will go into a Depression?

How long do you think it will last?

How can we change it? I ask we..he said the people....

Who do you think is the blame for our economy?
That one was easy, Bush I said.
But then I started to think, who's fault was it really?

How can we (the people help) went through my head all night? As a Internet Media and Marketing Consultant I feel blessed to be in the creative fueling forces of the Internet. The impact it has in my life makes me feel secure, informed and connected to the positive changes the Universe brings us.

Viral Marketing -makes me feel closer to my friends, family and business colleges. this year I joined Facebook, Linkedin and Myspace became boring but there. I was blessed to see new babies pictures within hours, girlfriends hot on the town, family, events, travels and thanks to Facebook. I became friends again with far away business contacts, cousins, nephews, my girl friends brother and mothers, my clients niece, people I just met and my ex husband 20 years later. You can say, Ignore (meaning-no go away) and hey you, the wall means "to the world" "graffetti on the 405."


Net-Ettique - In 2008 it became apparent that their was a reason for Net etiquette. This year brought..jokes, mistakes, and lessons of did the world need to know you party like "a slang word" or every move you made on twitter.

The instant access of the Internet makes my consulting business a necessary evil for many. Netiquette matters in business!


Blogging - Became more main stream and tool a significant financial platform on the iphone and Backberry. So we caught celebrities with client products, made People magazine to name a few, did Hollywood Premiere's, jumped on wordpress. Then viral marketed, social networking and Blackberry and iphoned it with the amazing speed of the new worlds fast reply and results.

Photography- Pictures tell a million stories. In 2008, Barbara Segal and Associates had the pleasure of meeting, working with and being phographed by the famous Patrick McMullan. Pictures, videos, podcasts all move through the Internet. This year moving photos faster (within 24 hours) to Editors, Publishers, on Blogs and via Facebook, iphone, and Blackberry.

Video - You Tube In 2008 uploaded Videos became common, necessity, business as usual. It became a Marketing Tool, an Educational, a main stream form of entertainment. President Elected Obama contributed his winning to his Internet Videos, Facebook, the Power of Oprah and started Change.gov with Videos keeping the Public informed.

What will I do during this economy? I for one will "Hang Tough" as my Uncle Richard Winters who commanded Company E during World War II always writes. Can I make a living as an Internet Media and Marketing Consultant, with out a Detroit Automobile or living outside of Illinois?

Absolutely!


How has the economy Affected You?


At this Holiday time of year, be thankful for your friends, for your family, for your health, and your job as I read in yesterdays "New York Times."

This Holiday we can all Skype, iphone, blackberry, text, and e-mail from afar and teach the children we recognize there is a recession.

Why Switch Your Clients To A New Blog Platform?

Barbara Segal & Associates has been professionally consulting companies in blogging and web sites for years. We suggest to many clients that they start blogging to expand their website. Today many businesses can just start with a blog. After all most blogs are free and this is a huge financial savings for a business today. A business websites need a strong online presence, with both static content and dynamic news, and a blog is the perfect solution. A blog builds traffic and establishes authority. The website helps convert that interest into business.

Recently we ventured into using wordpress with our client Jamah. President, Barbara Segal had been reading about wordpress on ProBlogger and after careful research and the firms desire to “switch clients to a platform offering more programming options Ms. Segal told the client that she felt it was the right fit for them. CMS and more programming options are crucial today in the online world.

Barbara Segal and Associates is now working with WordPress, and recommending it to clients. Martha Stewart also just recently upgraded from a TypePad blog to WordPress. Working with Wordpress we have learned they have everything you need to build a fabulous blog or website which is why they seem to be the most popular content management system being used today. One of the things we like best about WordPress is it takes care of most SEO concerns you may have by rendering valid HTML and using a correct chain of command of headings.

What The Paris Fashions are Telling Us

His shows are distinguished for their creative excess, all in keeping with the splendor of the Dior name. The support of several influential women, notably Anna Wintour, (the editor of Vogue) and Amanda Harlech, a former magazine editor and stylist helped pivot him to the top of the Fashion World.

This week, Karl Lagergeld, Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier and other designers presented their haute-couture collections in Paris. With the feel of beads, loops and fur coats, leather straps, and knits with flaring hems evoking a comic-book futurism. Mr. Gaultiers critics raved it was a fun show, showings Jean Paul Gaultier knowlegde of the swing in the economy, is all about Public Relations, Romance, and the Euro. Mr. Galliano, since January 1997, has been the design director of Dior, responsible for haute couture and ready-to-wear collections, as well as accessories and his own John GallianoWintour.

The Fashion Genius is looking for a change and the lessen is entertain your audience, editors and market creatively.

Why Your Company Should Be In The Social Media Culture

In 2008 media has become more social and social media has become culture. People are looking to fulfill essential social needs online. Organizations that understand this and build the right kind of social networking opportunity are more likely to create deeper emotional bonds than usually exist between companies and customers.

• Online social networks provide people with the vital tool for defining and redefining themselves, as proof in profile pages on MySpace and Facebook.


• The Internet has enable mutual assistance between strangers.


• People who share similar tastes, sensibilities, orientations or interests are able to find, create and connect with others through online communities


• The need for recognition and achievement are essential to our sense of worth and are fulfilled in online communities, blogs, and social networks that provide a way to develop and manage a virtual reputation.

Why are social networks all the rage? Why do people network with certain people online? Some of this you know some of this may have you scratching your head. What we do know at Barbara Segal Associates is that media has become more social and social media has become culture.

When companies actively embrace and act on people’s ideas and dreams they fulfill a social need. People want to be reassured of their worth and value, and search for confirmation that what they say and do matters to others and has an impact on the world around them. This requires companies to have a level of intimacy and facilitation that are the by invitation and smaller only, with online communities.

Will creating a blog help your business?

Does your business need a blog? Will creating a blog help your business? Our firm Barbara Segal and Associates suggests if you get Googled you build credibility. Because Google.com is so popular and indexes so comprehensively, if you focus some of your marketing and promotion time on getting your name out on the Web, you're building your credibility, both online and offline.

What is a Blog?

A blog is a Web log, an online journal. Blogs started out as online diaries, in which diarists shared their everyday lives with the world in 1998. Since then blogs have moved on, and are well on the way to becoming a standard business tool.

In February 2003 Google.com bought Pyra Labs, the company which owns the Blogger weblogging tool. Blogger.com, one of the main sites providing blog software and hosting, boasted a million hosted web logs in early 2003. Google.com's interest in blogs indicates that blogs are mainstream. A blog help your business in many ways, depending on whether you create a private or a public blog. Blogs are so useful that you'll want to create both. Your business's private, internal blog. If you're a solo business operator, you have colleagues, partners, contractors, and suppliers with whom you communicate daily. You can post links to large files, no need to email, fax, or mail them to and from. Your blog is more useful than email, because blog postings are dated, and easily search able. You can post a message you want everyone to read, and the message stays on the blog. With email, you read and delete, or read and forget. If you've worked on a project with someone in another state or on the other side of the world, you've blessed email, because it makes sharing information so easy. Using a blog to share information is even easier than using email.

A business blog is a powerful marketing tool. A blog can add value to your Web site, or it can take the place of a Web site. Look at it as a combination "What's Hot" and "What's New" Web site page, and an online journal. A blog's nature, is friendly and relaxed. If you don't have a site, your blog's a place to put your online portfolio, latest news, public relations and client list. You can, and should, use your blog to express your personality and expertise. If you have a Web site, your blog page builds loyalty, because if you provide interesting content, your visitors will return to your site. And because it's a Web page, your blog will appear on search engines, attracting new clients.Google has been treating blogs differently from other Web pages for a couple of years. Whereas it takes a standard Web page/ site a month to be indexed by Google, blogs are indexed daily. This means that your blog is very cheap advertising. You can post something on your blog and have it indexed by Google within a day.

Barbara Segal & Associates, has been contracted by many clients to blog since 2005. Our portfolio of clients are in the fashion industry, interior design field, infant market, film industry, and corporate public relations. Contact Barbara Segal & Associates for more information on getting started in 2008 with a power full marketing tool for your business. Contact: BabsSegal@gmail.com