 Lucy Brillhart, Treeclimber Media's intrepid first intern! Last winter, a friend's daughter's friend got in touch with me. She had seen The Long Rescue's Indiegogo campaign and was interested in interning! Lucy was available during her summer break from, drumroll please: NYU film school. Wow. Yes! It was too good to be true... but Lucy Brillhart did in fact come back for the summer, looking all New York chic. Not only has she been helping out with the film, but she has also filled me in on important topics. Like the fact that kids today don't use Facebook, email, or the phone, they communicate through Snapchat and Instagram. Talk about a visually attuned generation... So to get to know her a little better, we asked her some probing questions. I love that she chose strong women as her inspiration, and that her favorite sandwich has gravy. I have to admit, the film that inspired her at the tender age of 14 is definitely not what I expected. So... Heeeere's Lucy! What's your favorite sandwich? My favorite sandwich is probably the open face roast beef sandwich with gravy. There used to be a wonderful restaurant in downtown Livermore that had a cafeteria style set up where I could order this sandwich. I would love going there with family or friends. If you could invite any three people to dinner, living or dead, who would they be and why? The three people I would invite to dinner would be Frida Kahlo, as she is my artistic inspiration, Eleanor Roosevelt, as she was a great political source of influence during a time in which women's rights were changing, and my Great Aunt Elisabeth, as I was named after her. Where are you from? I was born in a suburb outside of Chicago, but moved to the Bay Area when I was around five years old. Now, I mostly reside in New York City as I am attending college at New York University. How did you get interested in film? As long as I can remember I have been inventing stories. When I was twelve years old I starting writing a book; however, frustrated with the limitations of that particular medium I switched to writing the story in script style. And since, all of my stories have been told in script form. What are some of your favorite films or TV shows, and what inspires you? The TV show Pushing Daisies sparked my interest in dark comedy, and Netflix's Orange is the New Black furthered my inspiration of Emmy award-winning drama. However, my biggest inspiration was Kill Bill:Vol. 1. When I was 14 years old my dad gave me a copy of the dvd to watch on my laptop once everyone else in the house was asleep. At the stroke of midnightI feel in love with Tarantino's twisted style of humor, and I knew that film was the artistic medium that I was searching for. Why are you interested in working on The Long Rescue? I feel a lot of compassion for the situation that the girls at My Refuge House are in, and by helping with this documentary I am in some small way be making a positive difference in their lives. What have you been working on so far? So far I have been editing the Thank You Videos for the donors, as well as setting as social media outlets for the documentary. What other projects are you working on? I am currently in the process of writing a script for a short film, as well as advising casting for a web series that will be shot in New York CIty later this year. What is your dream film project? My dream film project is any length feature film where I am the producer. What do you do to relax? I love to read books, sit on my front porch with friends, play cards with my family, or curl up and take a nap with my cat. Where do you hope to be in five years? I would like to happily employed, or attending grad school to obtain my masters.
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Lately, when I've been running into friends or acquaintances, people ask, "what are you up to these days? Editing?" Which is a natural assumption. I have done some shooting, and now there's editing, right? Yes and no. There's a lot of footage, and the heavy lifting --which is both difficult and enjoyable-- is crafting a story from that footage. But there's also approximately 1.5 million other things that need to happen. There's all the stuff that has to happen before you can even start to edit --transcoding footage, transcription, and crucially, getting stuff in Cebuano translated. On top of that, I've been honing my skills at accounting, grant writing, budget making, crowdfunding fulfillment (it's coming soon, folks!), shooting recreations, social media (ya, I'm lagging at that), marketing, forming partnerships, research and strategization of all of the above, and possibly hardest of all, networking. So it's so great when people offer to help out --and really amazing that some people actually have stepped up! So today we're going to learn a little more about Melanie Choy, an emerging filmmaker who I met taking a location sound class at Berkeley City College. When she found out about this project she instantly offered to volunteer... and then she actually showed up! What a rare and wondrous event... And so deeply appreciated. So let's learn more about Treeclimber Media's first volunteer, Melanie Choy.  Melanie on another round of face blurring. What made you interested in working on The Long Rescue? I am interested in working on The Long Rescue, because I support anti-trafficking. Also, I have always dreamed of working on an overseas documentary and this is a fantastic opportunity to get hands-on and behind the scene. What have you been doing for the production so far? I have done mostly editing such as blurring the faces of My Refuge House residents and creating video sequences for translation. I also made my acting debut in this documentary to recreate a few scenes of Hope's dark and emotional past. What's been the most interesting? The most interesting part is when I was pretending to be sad and crying to reflect Hope's overwhelming feeling and experience. To help me be emotional in front of the camera, I thought about the sadness I will face when I lose loved ones. Has anything surprised you or have you learned anything new? I have learned that some youth and women are forced into prostitution by social forces and even by family members; they did not choose this profession. What other projects are you working on now? I am currently editing my friend's live jazz event performance and will later make a video about my church young adult ministry. What are your career goals? My career goal is to make films and short videos to advance social causes and make positive changes among communities. What kinds of issues are you interested in working on? Besides sex trafficking, I am interested in working on environmental injustice, less-privileged communities, special needs, overseas Christian communities, and Asian American identity. What films have you seen that inspire you? Many independent and foreign films have inspired me and if I have to choose one, then I would say The Drop Box. I chose this, because it is a heart-wrenching look at abandoned babies with special needs and how one Korean church pastor started adopting each one as his own. I cried throughout the film because the characters and story are that powerful. What are your other hobbies or interests? Besides watching movies at home and in theatre, I like to get crafty! That includes making stationary cards, vintage button stud earrings, and duct tape wallets!  Melanie in Puerto Rico --work hard, play hard! There you have it folks --more evidence of crossover between documentary filmmaking and crafting!
More updates afoot soon...stay tuned!  When I tell people that I'm making a documentary about trafficking, people's faces get very serious. They nod and tell me that it's important work, but I can tell it's not something they want to think about. Of course not --no one wants to think about the horrible realities of this issue. I don't. But I do want to hear about what people are doing to stop it. How people are overcoming it. How organizations and individuals are coming together to end trafficking and help its victims rebuild their lives. And that's what the Freedom Summit is all about. It's an all-day event this Saturday, May 9th, 2015 at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara (where the 49ers play). There's going to be a really compelling lineup of speakers, including Larry Grant, an NFL linebacker, Mike Honda and Jackie Speier, our congresspeople, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, Brad Myles of Polaris, spoken word artist Regina Evans, and Brooke Axtell, a survivor advocate and singer. And musicians Robby & Bria and Jars of Clay will perform.  Speaker, writer, singer, survivor, advocate: Brooke Axtell Events like these are so great in bringing the community together, helping people find intersections in their efforts to form partnerships, and to learn from each other. I am always inspired when I learn about other people's work, even when they are struggling --maybe especially when they are struggling --because it reminds me that I need to keep plugging away too. So I'm really excited, not only to be attending, but to be volunteering at this event. There are tons of logistics that we're all juggling at the moment to put it together (which speakers needs rides, who is gluten-free, where will they park, etc, etc) and I am so thankful that there are people driven to organize an event like this and make it all happen. The organizer of the summit is the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition (BAATC). I'm happy to be able to share more about Betty Ann Boeving, BAATC's cofounder.  What alerted you to the issue of human trafficking? A: Since 2000, my travels to 85 countries have opened my eyes to shocking realities around the globe that involve both natural and man-made disasters. Specifically, I have been compelled to take a personal stand against human trafficking—where people are profiting from the control and exploitation of other people. The reality of this injustice occurring in our lifetime keeps me up at night. According to U.S. State Department statistics, the trafficking of persons is now the second largest criminal industry and the fastest growing criminal activity in the world. Worldwide two million children are taken into forced prostitution every year. Currently in the U.S., at least 18,000 people are trafficked annually into the United States and an estimated 400,000 American youth are at-risk of being trafficked because of economic, family system and psychological vulnerabilities. Q: We understand that you raised $45K to fight against human trafficking through a climb you did of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. How did you end up deciding to do this? What was that experience like? A: In 2006, while working for International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org), an organization dedicated to helping equip justice systems around the world to protect the poor, I climbed Kilimanjaro to raise awareness and funds to fight child trafficking in Africa. I had met a 12-year old girl named Mary in Kenya, whose parents had been tragically killed, and with the pressures that mounted against her to care for her three younger siblings, Mary was at extreme risk of being preyed upon by traffickers who frequently visited her village offering great paying (falsified) jobs in Nairobi. I was determined to see that Mary and her three siblings could receive care from a local organization that could provide shelter, access to healthcare and education for these children so that they would have vocational options and enough money to resist such tempting offers. (The promise of better jobs or an upfront sum of money to cover a family or medical emergency often propels such an individual into debt bondage, a form of human trafficking.) When I returned from Africa, I started opening the newspapers to find local stories of human trafficking happening right here, with forced labor in restaurants, sexual exploitation in massage parlors and busts of undercover brothels, but there was so little dialogue about the problem here in the U.S. Both foreign nationals and American citizens have been taken up into this criminal activity because of their similar vulnerability to conditions of poverty, extreme medical expenses, lack of job skills, and more. I felt compelled to found the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition and bring the global dialogue about this issue here to the Bay Area in California. Q: What is your advice for expats living here? A: Some of the largest cases of human trafficking in Northern California have been brought to the attention of authorities by those in the expat community who are familiar with the vulnerabilities associated with embracing life in an unfamiliar country. Examples are: Thai workers brought in to help construct the new Bay bridge, and a Stanford visiting scholar who brought with her domestic help held in slave-like conditions, among others. Expats who are aware of this threat of trafficking to their affinity group can be an important bridge to help mobilized leaders in their community to provide trainings of awareness around the issue, and can help alert family members and friends in their home country of any links they identify between U.S. falsified jobs and promises of employment that are being promoted back home. Any suspicious activity or concerns can be anonymously called into the National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-3888) or text HELP to BeFree (233733). Q: What is the BAATC? A: The BAATC equips communities to fight trafficking and at www.baatc.org provides a 12-month calendar of all anti-trafficking training and awareness events around the region so that individuals and community leaders can take their next step in fighting this horrific injustice to human freedom. To learn more, the BAATC is hosting Freedom Summit 2015 on May 9th, 2015 in the new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. This is the largest community-based anti-trafficking training conference of its kind in the country. You are invited to register now at: www.freedom-summit.org. *Betty Ann Boeving has been teaching and speaking on community-based solutions to fight human trafficking for over ten years. More training is available through her TEDx talk on trafficking at: https://vimeo.com/32157524.   Shooting exteriors at the Department of Social Welfare with Nana, our DP from Manila. When people ask me how the first shoot went, I honestly don't know how to answer. It was so many things in such a concentrated amount of time -- the fulfillment of months of planning and years of dreaming, the test of my skills as a director, facilitator, manager and human being, and on some levels, a mere struggle to manage the heat and cultural unfamiliarity and lots of new people. In so many ways, it was better than I could've dared hope. And that's all because of the girls. They are so bright and open, so willing to learn and --I use this word advisedly --love. I was braced for the dour, disinterested attitude copped by US teens, but nothing could be further from the reality of this fun, smart, beautiful bunch. But their stories are tragic, and heartbreaking. I will admit, I have not fully processed everything I've head and learned, and there are realities are really difficult to fathom. So it was a really overwhelming time, and while I want to share what happened, I've realized I will have to focus on one topic at a time. And since I just got off the phone with the bank, I'm going to talk right now about money.  In a lot of ways, money in Cebu is relatively easy to deal with. There are a lot of ATMs in the city center and at the airport, many stores in the malls take credit cards, and in theory, it's an easy conversion to dollars --100 pesos is about $2.30 USD. I didn't have to stuff my pants with $10K in brand-new dollars as may or may not have happened in other international production trips. But I had some special issues (aren't everyone's issues, like their dysfunctions, special?)... I thought I would just withdraw money from ATMs, including paying my DP (director of photography, ie, camera person). But a lot of ATMs will only dispense a few hundred bucks per day... not, ahem, enough. And then my bank also had a daily limit. And then, a bunch of ATMs don't give out receipts. I'll spare you the hairy details of running between ATMs, trying different cards, dropped Skype calls in Starbucks talking to my bank, lots of sweating. I did finally work it out, making multiple withdrawals and passing a tall stack of bills over to Nana, who immediately went back to her ATM to deposit it. Lots of cash =nervous making. But the problem came with one gnarly ATM, at Persimmon, the condo we were staying at. One of those standalone machines, probably with an individual owner. I requested 20,000 php. I counted it twice. "Damn," I said to Nana, "it only gave me ten." No receipt.  But sure enough, when I get the records from Charles Schwab, they say I took out 20,000. Doing the crowdfunding campaign has made me more conscious about money than ever. I have always been a pretty thrifty person (which you can see just by looking at my wardrobe and haircut) but more than ever, I really feel responsible for being a good steward of the funds that so many have generously donated. It was a really big deal to get a $50 or $20 donation, and every single one of them was a celebration. So the fact that the bank is shorting me more than $200 is a serious matter. I called the bank immediately and I filed an "inquiry." Now, two months later, they sent the results of their investigation. The ATM says that it dispensed the money, and the case is closed. What do you do when the machines lie? "Do you have your receipt?" The Schwab representative asked. "Because that would be really helpful." Ya. I have a mountain of receipts, slips of paper for every taxi ride, every meal. I scrawled notes when the taxi driver was out of printer paper. It took me a week to do the accounting when I returned. But no, I don't have a receipt from that machine. (For context: not even the Citibank ATM gave me a receipt, so it's not an unheard of phenomenon.) (This is also my problem with electronic voting machines. Couldn't it be programmed to convert 20% of votes for candidate A to candidate B, but still dispense a receipt that you voted for A? You would never know. But I digress.) I honestly don't know how I can prove my case. My word against the machine's. For now, I've filed another inquiry with Schwab. Maybe I can ask that columnist at the New York Times to help me out. I'll keep you posted.  A bit of wisdom from the girls of My Refuge House. By Jennifer Huang  At the Cebu airport... entering the bizarre twilight zone of international travel. It's 7 am at the Cebu airport and I can't believe the trip is over --except for the 24 hours of travel home. I'll be honest, this was the most difficult shoot, the most difficult three weeks, of my life. Hearing the girl's stories is an incredible privilege, and I feel a huge responsibility to protect them, tell their stories effectively, and uphold the trust they have given me. After holding it together all day, sometimes I would just sob before I went to bed --for the girl who has no family to visit, for the girl abused by her father at age 11, for the girl pimped by her mom.  Life in the Philippines is really tough for a lot of people. There are the immediately obvious discomforts -- terrible traffic and pollution, crowds, and bare-boned poverty -- whole communities living in squatters villages, makeshift housing on the edges of town. Many others without homes at all, including small children. But I was also struck by the incredible hardships experienced by those born into better circumstances. MRH staffers commute for an hour, two hours, or more at times. One tried to hail a cab for 2.5 hours on valentines day, trying to get to the airport. One told me that when she was a student, her school building collapsed around her. She was trapped for hours, her legs pinned by fallen bookshelves. (Substandard building codes.) Another staffer's brother was randomly shot and narrowly escaped death. His farm was in an area plagued with ongoing separatist violence; they finally fled their family home. For the residents of My Refuge House, the wheels of justice turn very, very slowly. Two court hearings for the girls were scheduled during my stay, both were canceled --one, because the lawyer got sick, the other, because the judge failed to show up. Several of the girls have cases ongoing for three or four years; none have been resolved. There was a beast within me that had an insatiable hunger for footage. Any time we weren't shooting I would kick myself for missing a joke, a sweet moment, or just ordinary houses or markets -- images that are anything but ordinary for us Americans. Of course that is just crazy making and leads to exhaustion, especially in the heat. So I have resolved to improve next time -- sticking to a more reasonable schedule, bringing more help, clearing the legal issues that arose this time in advance. I don't mean to sound like I am complaining though. I am so happy with the shooting we accomplished and the training we did. The girls are so ready to learn, they just sucked up the material and took possession of the cameras almost immediately. They are taking responsibility for them and excited to use them. They have already brought them on home visits and to a church youth event. We were able to document the girl's everyday lives -- chores and school work, singing and dancing, home visits and church. It is rare that they allow a visitor such open access -- in fact I believe it's unprecedented. My favorite memories are of just sitting around talking with the girls -- about their crushes, their crazy lives before they came to the house, or the very real changes they recognize in themselves in the months and years they lived there. They are so open, far beyond my most optimistic dreams in fact. So I am being very cautious about what I share -- I want to make sure I don't expose a girl's identity or story before she is ready. This means it will be a while, quite a while, before the film will come out. In the long run I believe it will be worth the wait. I am now at 22,000 feet, hoping they will serve breakfast. Someone near me keeps farting, and I just received a newspaper with the Oscar winners on it, which seems utterly bizarre (though I am happy to hear that citizenfour won for documentary.) I feel like I am too old to be utterly changed by an experience now, but this could very well be an exception.  Traffic in Cebu is at least colorful. “I don't care what they're going to say. Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway!”
On my fourth day here at My Refuge House, I've gotten used to the near-constant singing of the girls –but that line especially made me smile. Several girls had complained that the weather had gotten sooo cold on our first day, when the temperature dipped down to a frigid 78 degrees. I doubt that any of them could imagine living in a house that was shot out of the hands of Princess Elsa (in case you've been living under a rock, I'm referring to the Disney film Frozen). The girls also love to change the lyrics of songs, so it's common to hear the refrain “you make me so constipated,” or “you give me stress” at any given time. And the moment there's down time, someone jumps on the ukelele or guitar, or just spontaneously breaks into song. (Lest I think I might use a bit as a soundtrack, they break off the song just as abruptly. It's just kind of like breathing). I really had no idea what to expect before I came, but the girls have totally exceeded my wildest hopes. They are enthusiastic, open, and super quick to laugh –you would never know that this is a house of survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. Before I came, the staff had them think for a month before they made a decision about whether or not they wanted to be filmed. All of them agreed. (Two are too young, at age 11 and 13, to even be allowed to consent... But they love to perform just the same.) The staff and girls –or I should say young women, as a few have turned 18 or even 20 –formed a film committee who set up filming guidelines and are incredibly helpful. Already the girls have taken possession of the cameras –today we had a birthday party and they were there, filming selfies and cake. Today during the participatory video practice, the girls created a “fixed frame drama” --where they set up the camera on a tripod and everyone stages a skit in front of it. Hilarity ensued (much of it from some repeated, unconscious butt scratching, but that's another story.) We've also done some simple line drawn animation, interviews, and learned about exposure control (ie, not shooting into the sun). They've really incorporated their learning and every day show off their new found skills. They also told me that they feel totally natural when I'm filming, “just like you're not there,” which is kind of music to a documentary filmmaker's ears. But I want them to know what they're getting into. Tonight we watched the film Very Young Girls about the GEMS program in New York City that works with trafficked girls there, and whose director, Rachel Lloyd, is an advisor to The Long Rescue. (She also wrote the incredible book, Girls Like Us, which is a must-read.) I shared with the girls what Rachel had shared with me: the downside of starring in a successful Showtime documentary is that years later, people still recognize her and her girls. So the anonymity that My Refuge House so carefully protects would be out the window pretty much for the rest of their lives... and there are still people out there who will judge and stigmatize girls for a situation they had no control over. So I've asked them to them to really think about that. It's going to be a constant conversation over the next year or so of shooting, and while I hope some have the courage to speak out, I want them to understand all of the ramifications of that. I had been concerned about showing the girls and young women the film –the English is fast and very vernacular (and I had forgotten about the constant use of swear words) and I was afraid they wouldn't relate to the experience of Americans. But they watched in rapt attention, translated for each other when necessary, and laughed in recognition at unexpected moments. At one point, a new resident comes to the GEMs home, and the girls start chatting immediately about the tracks they worked and the pimps and girls they knew in common. “That's like us! Chica chica!” Hope, one of the girls said, pointing to a co-resident. They were shocked to see that trafficking is common in the US, and by the violence they saw. “Our pimps weren't like that,” one young woman said. “They didn't beat us. If we wanted to go, we could go.” Of course it's not so simple. The perfect storm of poverty, drug abuse, lack of education and (often) prior abuse had already imprisoned the girls before they stepped foot into a bar (or increasingly, cyber den), and it takes a lot to overcome that. At MRH, it takes a dedicated staff of social workers, educators, volunteers, house mamas, security guards, a driver/handyman, family and community coordinators, administrators and donors from around the world to get these girls to the feeling of safety and hope for the future that they now have. One wants to be an accountant, one a teacher, one a police officer who rescues other underage girls. Since the last time we visited in March 2013, I can already see their increased self-confidence, maturity and resourcefulness. I like to think of myself as a tough girl, but I am a marshmallow next to these survivors. Hopefully some of their resilience will rub off on me. By Jennifer Huang  After 6 weeks and more than a few sleepless nights, we're 33 hours and $157 away from the end! Like everything related to film, there is always more you can do --better outreach, networking with bloggers, press releases, cozying up to journalists, improving the video, cultivating more twitter followers, being a better friend and human being.
So I am going to focus on what we have accomplished --almost $12,000 raised --fingers crossed that the final funds make it in by tomorrow! Plus, a lot more people know about and support the project; plane tickets have been bought, lodging arranged. This crazy idea I had is really going to be a reality because almost 80 people believed in it enough to put their wallet behind it. That's so amazing to me. It makes me so happy I took the plunge; it gives me confidence to move forward with the support and encouragement of a whole community behind me. It makes it all very real. On top of that, I've been so blown away by the generosity of the artists who are giving their work --Mia Nakano, who makes custom tintypes, soo cool, and my brother Jonathan Huang, who is making mugs and ceramic sculptures. Plus, Equal Exchange and their generous donation of chocolate. Amazing! Even with the matching, the funds we've raised will actually raise only 80% of what we need for this first shoot. So if you're reading this after the indiegogo campaign is over, it's not too late to donate! Your gifts are always tax-deductible, and they will always be used with great efficiency and thrift to tell the stories of sex trafficking survivors. Our first shoot is happening in February! If you want updates on the shoot please sign up for our newsletter. Thanks so much for your interest and support of this project --that's literally what has made it possible. By Jennifer Huang  So much to be thankful for this year!
It looks like the development shoot trip will happen in early 2015, as planned. Stay tuned for updates! Thanks again for supporting the project and look forward for your honey bears soon!
 I've been kind of MIA lately, burning the midnight oil to prep for my indiegogo campaign which I've soft-launched today. Doing crowd funding is such a great concept, but in practice it puts together all of my phobias --taking the stage, asking my friends and family for money, being open about my needs and dreams. It's all very insomnia making. But I am so humbled and blown away by people's generosity. My friend Yuki, who was the first to donate. My friend Diana, who is starting up a business and doesn't have extra piles of cash exactly lying around, third to donate. And of course my friends Liz and Dan, who not only introduced me to my husband Doug, but have seen me in some of my lower points in life -- donated. I feel very undeserving, and also like I have a lot to live up to. It's true what they say, that the crowd funding creates a community, because I feel like I owe it to every person who donates to make every penny count. When looking for perks, I remembered Equal Exchange, a great organization that works with local farmers around the world to make organic, fair trade chocolate, coffee, tea, nuts, etc. It's really high quality product, and so I gave them a call thinking I might get a bit of a discount. They did me one better, and are donating chocolate for the campaign!  I mean, it actually tastes even better than it looks, if you can believe it.
This is all part of what it means to be a documentary filmmaker these days. I thought it was about filming and editing, but so much of the stuff that happens around the outside of that --the fundraising, the relationships, the approaching of scary, famous people, the searching for a photo of yourself that you don't hate to post around the internet --that's just as important. I am thinking about doing a podcast about the journey of a first time filmmaker. I don't know, would that be interesting to you?  Succulent garden on the roof deck. Covet. Spent the morning at the Twitter for small biz workshop (#smallgoesbig) in their downtown San Francisco headquarters. Even though i'm not a for-profit business with holiday sales to drive, i just started really tweeting in earnest oh, last week, so i thought i could use all of the help i can get. The whole experience was like a step into the other side of this fabled tech world we hear about. Free breakfast at this free event, with coffee and a fridge full of beverages (coconut water, yum!) heaping bowls of fresh fruit and yogurt, pastries. An incredible roof deck with a succulent garden that is just plain art. And a big ole cafe that i considered sneaking into when i went to the bathroom but a security eventually called me back upstairs. I met a bunch of people from hootsuite, a woman who bought a bookstore in north berkeley called Bookish, a guy running the San Francisco Tea Festival, a woman who wants to do growth/expansion in texh startups, and an acquaintance from theexpatwoman --so that was fun. Talks were peppered with acronyms like CTA (call to action), CLA (cost per lead), ROI (return on investment), and lingo like lead gen (eration), and conversion (wha?). All the presenters looked under the age of 32, and there were 2 independent mentions of Sightglass coffee (#who'sthehipsterestofthemall). It reminded me that I actually really like meeting new people!  The view from HQ. At two breakout sessions I learned about twitter "cards" which are just photos with a headline and a call to action that you can attach to a tweet (free to use!) and apparently generate 43% more "engagement" than text alone. You can also do lead generation cards, which gives you the contact info of a user when they click on it. However, I just tried to sign up for Twitter ads, which you have to do to create a card, and I can't because my account is "ineligible." I can only take that to mean that I am too small potatoes. Which is true, but that's why I want to use the cards! Not cool, Twitter.  The dude from Square, mid sentence. I also sat in on a talk from Square, the credit card payment company... Which could possibly come in handy some day. If you want to give me money using a credit card, I can now accept it! What was most useful to me was the basic stuff that was mentioned almost in passing --personal engagement with followers should be 80% of your tweets. 80% of twitter access is mobile, so your site better be mobile friendly (mine isn't, argh!), follow hashtags to get involved in conversations (duh! Hadn't really thought of that. Lord i am old). There is more traffic on weekends so be sure to tweet then. What a bubble. One of the presenters actually said, "there are 250 million users, so your audience is on Twitter. It is." And I am thinking well, there is AN audience, sure, but with 7 billion people on the planet there are still a lot of people who aren't on Twitter. So lets keep it in perspective. Overall though, it was an informative day, and I have learned a bunch of ways to step up my game. Thanks for breakfast, Twitter!  Twitter's cafeteria. Maybe one of many, for all I know. |
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