I needed to talk about how my health regime is going and I was all poised to write an update last week but then a disaster happened! I made this great salad for lunch full of all the great summer vegetables, ( including olives hold that thought) Doc Ash you would be so proud of me. I happily sat down at lunchtime to munch away when crack I heard this awful noise like I had almost shattered a glass vase onto a marble floor,knowing what I know now I wish in fact I had. Interestingly nothing else happened until 8pm. I sat down for dinner with my husband when I felt this awful solid lump in my mouth (sorry for the graphics, please do not make a vision of this bit) which turned out to be my filling. Yikes, how I got through the next 12 hours I have no idea, except that I became the mad woman of twitter, I tweeted away with anyone and everyone still awake to find a dentist in Manhattan. Everyone knows right ? that I am a foreigner in New York, without a doctor or a dentist so what I was going to do was find one. Who needs google when we have twitter?

Funnily enough it worked and now someone that had been following me, @tishacakes became my saviour, she sent me a tweet advising there is a dentist of all dentists called @Sinkinfeeling well I tweeted and I tweeted this guy and guess what the next morning his office called me and told me to come right over! by the time I got there I was  a nervous wreck and 8lbs lighter as no food had passed my lips what ever else was going to happen that day this was probably the best bit. So after taking x rays he informed me that unfortunately the tooth had snapped clean in half and was loose, it had to come out! NOOOOOoooooooo I was now having to be strapped to the chair (clearly not really) I was palpitating and thinking what excuse I could make up not to have to come back the following week, the world might end, I need to stock the dishwasher, the dog cannot stay home alone, I mean he doesn’t know that we actually do not have a dog right?

So the weekend came and went and the dentist Michael Sinkin called me three times to check I was OK, do you believe that? in the UK my father had major brain surgery and the doctor told us he was going on holiday the next day and surely my dad wasn’t going to be alive when he got back but that is life! sorry to use that comparison my dad actually eight years later is in fact still alive, but you get the gist here. Doctor Sinkin if you ever read this know that I will send anyone to you who has a tooth ache, you not only treated me but you actually cared about me as a human being not someone who wrote a cheque.

Needless to say I did go back on Monday for the tooth extraction and a crown, this was not the best experience of my life as I have the worst fear of dentists as I mentioned earlier.However I was watching the world cup on the TV and Doc talked me through the whole procedure as he carried it out, too much information for me but no pain at all. At 3.30pm I left the surgery numb and dribbling, not a pretty sight but the best is yet to come. I was invited to a premier of RED LIGHT, yes you got it a red carpet event, of all the days by my good friend Rachael Ann of Red Rover Style. I got home, showered changed into my lovely LBD and even brought the naughty shoes out of their box Michael Kors you are forgiven and off I went. Flash lights everywhere and I had this awful vision that I was dribbling and talking like a nutcase with a droopy mouth. As I got to the Red Carpet photographs, I told this very rude person who told me she just had to go before me as she was melting and it would not do for her to not look her best! excuse me ‘Do you know who I am’? I had a real flash back of the ‘Shorty Awards‘ I am really not a diva, no really I am not but did this twiglet not know that I just had major tooth surgery and that I too was melting. Clearly not as she pushed me out of the way again. I am not one to name names, but just know that I do not like rude blond models! if I had been feeling myself I may have overlooked this but not on this day Humpf!

Anne with Red Rover Style

Photograph courtesy of Arthur from arthur@nyarthur.com

A little information on what the film is about in the words of Wikipedia as I could never have written this down, it was the hardest movie I have ever watched and I know that if you take nothing from my blog then please try  to find a way to give your time to help this cause, if you do then I will have achieved something.

The Redlight Children Campaign was inspired by Guy Jacobson’s personal experiences backpacking in Cambodia in 2002. While traveling in Phnom Penh, a group of young girls, some only five years old, began to aggressively solicit him for prostitution. Although he refused several times, they revealed to him that they would be beaten by the brothel owners if they returned empty-handed. After Jacobson gave them some money and left, he was motivated to create Redlight Children.

Shortly thereafter, Jacobson decided to utilize mass media as a vehicle for social change through his film production company, Priority Films. He teamed up with Israeli actress Adi Ezroni to create the first phase of the Redlight Children Campaign, the K11 Project. They went undercover in Cambodian brothels using espionage equipment and secret cameras to research the plight of child trafficking victims.

At one point, the International Criminal Police Organization contacted Jacobson to warn him to flee the country because the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian mafia had hits taken out on his life. Jacobson, Ezroni, and their team of filmmakers were also blackmailed and extorted for money, one of the producers was held hostage for two weeks when the rest of the team had left, and they had to hire bodyguards to protect themselves and their research.

Jacobson’s and Ezroni’s work on the ground level provided the education and foundation for them to address the issue on a larger scale. After they established RedLight Children, they created a comprehensive legal manifesto of action items to decrease the demand of child sexual exploitation with the aid of a team of international lawyers.

Jacobson and Ezroni have also been honored as Global Heroes by Condoleezza Rice in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2008.

Guy Jacobson

Please go and see the movie, it is imperative that the world knows what is going on, only with people like us talking about it will this stop.

So I want to end this blog post on a lighter note and I want to say that I am now on the road to recovery from my tooth surgery and that is all thanks to Doc Sinkin. I am back on the straight and narrow with my journey to health thanks to Richard Ash MD and I am sure that I have lost some weight not sure how much as I have not been on the scales that is being saved for next week.

It is really amazing that I have met two really awesome people in New York and found them via Twitter, God Bless Twitter. What is really scary is that they are both Doctors. Dr Sinkin and Dr Richard Ash MD you are really very caring special people and I want you to know this would not have happened in the UK I would just have been another number in their Bank paying in book.

How I Did It

Anne Agoren, owner of UK / NYC based izzi Bag, shows how to build a brand over Twitter. Lauren Parker finds that life is indeed tweet.

Tweeting her way to success here’s a story a little bird told us:

izzi bag on Twitter

Out of the 17 million users on Twitter, 250,000 were nominated for the Shorty Awards—an international “Oscars” for those who live their life out loud on Twitter in 140- character blurbs. Of those 250,000 nominated, a year-old,  little-known English handbag company named izzi Bag made it to the top six in the “Brands” category—the only fashion brand nominated. izzi was up against brands like Whole Foods and ultimately lost to Sesame Street. Heard of them? Here, izzi Bag owner/designer Anne Agoren—who wisely moonlights as a social media strategist—tells Accessories her David and Goliath tale.

‘Are you listening? Because your competitors are. You need to join the conversation— because it’s going on with or without you.”

@accessoriesmag: So how did you get into the top six? Do you have 86,000 followers like Sesame Street? Or 4.7  million followers like Ashton Kutcher?

@izzibag: I have 2,000 followers and was nominated by one of them. You aren’t allowed to nominate yourself.  Actually, I did lose some points after showing someone via Twitter how to nominate me since he was having trouble and asked for help.

AM: You only have 2,000 followers?

AA: That’s one of the biggest misnomers for brand promotion. More is not better. It’s  about quality, not quantity. I have 2,000 of the right followers. They spread my word to their followers. There are lots of sites where you can buy 50,000 followers but they’re not relevant to your brand. Don’t do it. You’ll start getting spam and your important—and legitimate—followers will stop following you. Protect your brand reputation.

AM: How do you get started using Twitter?

AA: My techie husband pushed me into it to help build my budding brand. I was so resistant to Twitter—saying I didn’t understand it, that I didn’t have enough time, and so on. Now I’m a Twitter addict. I use it to promote my blog (blog.izzibag.com), to talk about things that are happening to me, and to strategically promote the brand. I realized the power of Twitter early on—I ran a Twitter competition where the first 10 people who went to one of my retailers on Bond Street got a $40 keychain. Suddenly, a rush of people went to that store. It was apparent it was working.

AM: Did you launch your brand and tweet about it simultaneously?

AA: I launched izzi Bag with no customers, no retailers, no e-tailers. So I used Twitter and the blog to find those small stores that I wouldn’t even know about. The goal was to get retailers talking about us. To build that buzz.

AM: Do you think that too many brands don’t take Twitter seriously enough?

AA: You need to join the conversation—because it’s going on without you. The most important thing I say to companies is  ‘Are you listening?’ Because if you’re not, your competitors are. On Twitter, you can read every tweet that mentions your brand—good and bad—and respond if you want. It’s important to join the conversation.

Bag Lady -Anne of izzi bag

AM: What do you tweet about?

AA: I come here a lot so I write about my life as an English person in New York. I write about the journey of building izzi  Bag. Yes I’m a brand but I’m also human. People want to relate to you. It makes them want to buy your product.

AM: Do you use Twitter to show your bags?
AA: I use Twitpic to upload images, but often I link a Twitter entry to my blog so people can see more there. There are so many tools that are all free, from Twitpic to Tweetdeck, which helps you manage Twitter better.

AM: Do you tweet all day?

AA: No, but my followers are passionate! When I slow down, they start with the ‘Where’s izzi Bag?’ ‘Did something happen to izzi Bag?’ They miss me! I’d say 60% of my tweets are relevant to my brand. The rest are relevant to other people — recommendations of things to check out, or I pass along information I read on Twitter.

AM: Ah, so you’re a re-tweeter?
AA: In many cases, yes. You can retweet (i.e. RT) something that one of your followers post. It’s good will and keeps the conversation going.

AM: Did building buzz on Twitter in the U.S. and UK give you immediate international cred?

AA: I was able to simultaneously connect with retailers worldwide—all for free, and all with the power of social media.

AM: Has Twitter gotten you free publicity?

AA: The Australian news show equivalent of “60 Minutes” found me on Twitter. They sent a crew to New York and filmed me for a day-long documentary. Later, they flew the reporters back to New York to get additional footage because they wanted to extend the segment! That publicity didn’t cost me one cent. And although it aired in Australia, I was able to post it on my blog and tweet about it, and still get local (and worldwide) exposure. Again, for free. Take a look at the video SundayNight Live.

AM: How does a brand prevent a tweeter from posing as them and saying something bad?
AA: It’s important to control the conversation. You can be verified by Twitter (celebrities do it), and you’ll get a blue check next to your brand’s name/avatar. That way the Twitter community knows it’s authentically you.

AM: But it must be a little bit tempting to bash your competition on Twitter…

AA: Never do that! If you report another company for spam, for example, the Twitter police will shut them down while they investigate, so you really must follow business ethics. I will unfollow people if they don’t “keep it clean.” That’s my one rule.

AM: What about companies who say they don’t have time to tweet? Or skimp on the resources to hire someone who can?

AA: Social media should not replace your existing business structure, but it must be integrated with what you have in place. Just as a brand has a PR, branding and advertising budget, it must have a social media budget.

AM: What if the company owner, or designer doesn’t want to tweet personally?
AA

: The person doing the tweeting or blogging must have a passion and understanding of the brand and its objective. They should write in the “voice” of the brand.

AM: What are some great Twitter branding anectodes?
AA: There were some people in the Empire State building tweeting that it was so hot and they wished they had ice cream, but they were too busy to run out and get some. An ice cream truck picked up the conversation on Twitter and sent over a truck to give them free ice cream! The story got picked up on the international news. You can’t buy that sort of publicity!

AM: So what were the Shorty Awards like?

Shorty Awards Diva Fit - No Sesame Street Here !

AA: First of all, I pulled a Diva moment and while walking the Red Carpet I refused to be photographed with some of the puppets from Sesame Street. Then they beat me!

June 2010 – Accessories Magazine

Now I was really naughty and went and did a bad thing! yes you know I bought another pair of shoes. Well my only excuse is that they were and are Michael Kors, so am I forgiven? And  I should point out they were in the ‘Friends and Family’ Sale in Lord & Taylor. (For those in the UK this means a sale where they give 25% off, we can learn a thing or two from these Americans) Anyway I digress, but I got them reduced from $150 (£100) to only $56 (£35) by the time I gave all the discount coupons in. So now am I forgiven for buying them?

On the very next day I was like a kid in a candy shop and I opened the box with my new shoes in it and was oooo and ahhh shall I or shall I not wear them today? Yes I will oooopss ! this was the wrong thing to think as it proves. So I dance into the elevator (Lift for those Brits reading this) and as I totter into the street the concierge said ‘Miss Anne you really should be wearing sneakers to work!) What does he know I snorted to myself as I walked merrily down the street?

BIG MISTAKE HUGE ! I ignored the concierge and guess what? yes you got it tumbled straight over the sidewalk (Pavement) and onto my face I went down like a stack of dominos. I was in so much pain I couldn’t get up, my laptop was strolling across the road, together with my lippie and my keys. I was not a happy bunny as this stage. A very kind young man (if you are reading this please do not contact me as I am really embarrassed, but thank you for picking me up) anyway the very nice young man picked me up and then proceeded to collect all my worldly goods which are now strewn across half of Broadway. I of course was too proud to change my shoes even now can you believe that?  I then just continued to walk to my office, well when I say walked of course I was actually now almost crawling.

The damage to my new shoes is awful they are all torn at the front and the sides and the damage to my knees, well that is for all to see below.

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Into the Naughty Box the Shoes have gone!

The picture above actually does not really show the damage to my pride, thank the lord. I cannot tell you what my knee and ankle felt like for the first few days, I certainly could not have taken this picture, as I could not get my shoes on!. The shoes have now been sent to the Naughty Box and there they will stay until I have actually paid off my credit card. I am now writing a letter to Mr Bloomberg (Mayor of New York City) to complain about the sate of his sidewalks! (Clearly it is his fault and not the wearer of the shoes, that being me, or actually the owner of the shoes, at this point that would be VISA for falling over!)

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Dear Mr Bloomberg……