Barbara Segal An Entrepreneur Since 1995

What a great month February was for Barbara Segal and Associates. As the owner of Barbara Segal and Associates I have always been action-oriented, curious, outgoing, and technically gifted.  I live for new experiences. I have always been drawn to risk-taking and am not afraid to fail.  At the age of 3, I went door to door selling Dandelions in Allentown, PA to the neighbors for a quarter. Even then, I was determined to carry out my idea of making money, by climbing out of the families white picked fenced back yard in my little sun-suit. Today, not much has changed.  I am generally restless, and have always chosen a field that offers constant novelty. If you had to name my favorite place, it might be the center of attention as I am a born entertainer, and can easily adapt to any audience.

As a leader, I am often ahead of my time. As an employee, I am incisive and curious, and driven to deeply understand how things work. Last year I worked part time at two large Retailers as I deeply wanted to understand how Big Box retailers think and I needed health insurance.  I also also worked  tirelessly to make sure the Costume Council at LACMA accomplishments were recognized in Public Relations by Volunteering.  All week I worked with my savvy clients at Barbara Segal and Associates clients.  The combination of all the above fueled me and my business.    

Yes, I came out of the womb an original, artistic and I know it. I am drawn to the arts, anything creative, for that matter—and I have a unique way of looking at the world. As long as I genuinely express myself, I feel like the person I was meant to be. In the advertising and public relations field executives must be highly imaginative. Beyond work, I find opportunities everywhere I look to coax out my inner artist:  I love Interior Design, creating innovative blogs, cooking, entertaining, and gardening.  And my relationships with people are another avenue for self-expression.

One thing I know for sure is some people lead and others follow. This month I attended a business cocktail party, on a Trumpy Yacht for a Yachting Magazine's Soiree at The Miami International Boat Show. While mingling, I got into a conversation about Social Media and Twitter. The best way to give you the headlines on the conversation is, "they did not get Twitter nor did they WANT to get it."  However thanks to my worldly travels, summers in Newport,  past clients in the Yachting Industry, Publishing background, and former main street Annapolis, MD business owner.  Valuable business connections were made.  Yes, I can walk and talk the talk thanks to all my life experiences. The resistance to Social Media reminds me of when I worked in technology in the 80's, when Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were just getting started. This week my friend and Author, Julie Spira put on her Facebook that her Mother did not understand her being a presenter at the 140 conference in New York City that is taking place this April.  Her Social Media outreach, I personally found this so humorous and refreshing.  I had just experienced working around "the Good Old Boys Club" in Miami at Super Bowl events and then the Miami International Boat Show.  As a business women I realize, "the world needs followers." 

I love Twitter for business and the new relationships that can be found and formed. This month Susan Blond one of the most powerful forces in media who revolutionize the business by doing business the way an artist makes art.   Susan a New York publicist and the owner of entertainment and lifestyle publicity agency and I had Net Etiquette interest in common. She twittered @netetiquette to watch her YouTube Blond Tip:When the check comes. I loved it and twittered back and we became followers. I then discovered, the famous Red Carpet photographer Patrick McMullan I had worked with at LACMA and Susan are friends. Although no face to face has happened, Susan is a mentor to anyone in Public Relations and this new Twitter connection with someone I may have never connect with has fueled my drive! I know life has meaning as long as you feel stimulated. That might mean spending time on Twitter, reading new books, attending workshops, and taking a flight to business opportunities like trade shows or conferences. As a leader you discover who you are meant to be through accumulating insight and knowledge.  You follow your curiosity.   

Tech Crunch asked the question today Can Entrepreneurs Be Made?  Entrepreneurship is about being persistent, stubborn and not afraid of failure.  With every Tom, Dick, and Sally claiming to be a Social Media Expert and Public Relations Expert and the unemployment rate near 26-year highs, the focus right now is on jobs.  Since 1995, I have been a small business owner.  Right now I am a supporter of Move Your Money as our Government has done nothing to help Small Business Owners. As a risk-lover with a lot of energy, I am a natural entrepreneur.  I am happiest if I change jobs every so often and travel extensively. Movement is what keeps me going. Obviously I give thanks for my knack of diplomacy, family history, and abundant charisma, that often inspire others! 

Who Is A Professional Social Media Expert?

Barbara Segal and Associates is a Social Networking, Internet Marketing, Public Relations and Blogger For Hire firm since 1994. With today's new economy, we are going to BLOW our horns and YELL wake up corporate! With Job loss at the high of all highs, how long an individual or firm has been in business has credibility, strength, and clout.

Companies that are Social Networking well are seeing dramatic consumer results. Here we list a few of our favorites:

Betty Crocker

Diane von Furstenberg

The New York Times

These Companies get Social Media and are the pioneers of Facebook applications, interactive media, and fan pages. If you think Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Digg, Delicious are going away, THINK AGAIN.

Is Your Company Getting it is a New Era in Marketing?

Barbara Segal and Associates have been in Affiliate Marketing since 2005.

Why Your Business Should Affiliate

Affiliate is a referral program. It is a way of promoting businesses on the Web in which an affiliate is rewarded for every subscriber, visitor or customer they provide through their efforts. Affiliates increase the exposure of your business. Affiliation brings more links and Web pages to your business which can also increase your search engine rankings.

The affiliate funnels leads through their site but your site maintains your core branding. Affiliate marketing is similar to a volunteer sales force. The advantages of affiliate marketing is you get a lot of creative people promoting your business. The draw of affiliate marketing is that it is on a “pay per performance” basis. So you only pay after you get paid.

There’s no risk, you only pay for what you actually sell.

Successful affiliates are expert marketers, and in many cases they can sell your products better than you can, they’re more motivated than most employees. Not only do they work off smaller margins, but also, each sale counts. Affiliate marketing is growing more popular. Affiliate marketing is predicted to account for about $6 billion or 40 percent of online advertising expenditures in 2008 (up $1.5 billion from last year).

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