Sometimes I am on the cutting edge. Other times I lag behind. With so many various social media outlets, it's difficult to know which are worth spending your time on and which are not.
I'm a little behind the curve on EmpireAvenue.com. While sites like Klout and Kred have attempted to measure what a person's true influence is in the social space, I believe EA (as I will refer to it going forward) has trumped them by creating a social game/simulation that measures real-world social activity in a meaningful way.
I may be a couple years late from being a pioneer in this space, but I'm in now. You might want to consider joining as well. Read on...
Unlike the giants of the social space, EA isn't attempting to replace them. Instead, they encourage members to not only use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Instagram, Flickr and others, they measure the value of your social interactions by tracking your activity and placing a value on it.
This plays out in the form of a virtual stock market, where every member is given a symbol (mine is (e)JoelComm), and other members buy and sell shares of symbols based on share price and dividends paid out by those shares.
The currency of EA is called "Eaves". You begin with a set number which you can use to invest in others. As you participate by investing and others invest in you, your Eaves increase. In the beginning its easy to increase because others love to invest in newbies! It's a very supportive community.
Rather than investing in a person, you are investing in how that person interacts with others in the social space. Someone can buy and sell shares of others all day long, but if they want to have real increase in the value of their shares AND the dividends that their shares pay, they need to use social media the way it was always intended to be used... socially!
In other words, your value is driven by the things you are already doing in the social space. Tweeting, posting status updates, liking posts, comments, plussing, uploading photos... these are all quantifiable activities that feed into the value of your stock.
While number of followers or fans you might have can play a role, only those who truly engage with others over the long-term will become truly successful on EA. And how is success measured? Well, in my mind it isn't about how valuable your own shares are. It's more about the value you bring to OTHERS in helping them increase their value. If I believe you bring value to the social space, I will buy shares in you. As I invest in you, my Eaves increase as you demonstrate how social you are by bringing value to others. As a result, your value increases and you can pay it forward. On and on it goes.
My friend, Mari Smith. She's very social and a good investment!
It sounds complicated. It's really not. And it's fun!
It gets more interesting, because there is real-world value to the Eave virtual currency.
Any member can put forth a "mission" which other members can participate in. For example, one member may offer to pay 3000 eaves to anyone that will "like" their Facebook page. Another may offer 4000 eaves for a retweet.
AHA! Now we have a way to generate FREE traffic to our social pages, blogs, websites, apps or whatever else you might wish to promote. The more social you are, the more eaves you can earn and the more missions you can set forth to make yourself more visible. It's all about more!
I just signed up a few days ago (as of this writing), and I have already accumulated 1,000,000 eaves. I have invested 90% of my eaves into others who I believe will be active in the social space and steward my investment well.
Is Joel a good investment? My dividends are rising!
There is much more to say about Empire Avenue. The are community groups, achievements, leaderboards and other activities and fun ways to track your influence. I believe Empire Avenue is the first site to get influence measurement right. It is here to stay and should be a part of your social media mix.
Even my son is in on the fun. Think I invested in him? You betcha! (You should too...)
And don't take my word for it. When you see people like Warren Whitlock, Mari Smith, Chris Pirillo, Robert Scoble and Shawne Duperon using a site, that should tell you all you need to know.
I hope you will join me on Empire Avenue and play this social simulation with me. It's absolutely free. And I will make sure you are rewarded for doing so!
If you follow my link below, you will get credited with BONUS Eaves to help you get started on Empire Avenue! I don't get paid any money for this endorsement. I believe the site has real value and I am spending a great deal of time investigating the ins and outs of how it works. I am considering writing a short ebook on the topic as well.
Are you ready to join me on Empire Avenue? Click here to join Joel on EmpireAvenue.com!
Leave a comment on my blog with your EA username and I will buy 200 shares of your stock (the maximum allowed for all new people). I'm happy to support you in your growth and I believe you will really enjoy Empire Avenue. Of course, I would be happy if you purchased some of my shares with your eaves as well. Once you are signed up (it takes just a few seconds to get started), just search for my symbol in the search form. It is "JOELCOMM"
I'd like to give a special shout out to Chris Pirillo for his useful Empire Avenue tutorial. Thanks, Gnomie!
Joel,
Glad you introduced me to a new investment. Been following you forever and know you're almost never wrong.
P.S. User name is ABICARMEN
I joined Joel. A really engaged community! Look me up at EA: kaikauai
Thanks for suggesting this great resource.
Hi Joel, I was at one time using this site, but to me saw that it was just a waste of time.
Hi Joel,
Thanks for the article! I joined EA as INTERCER.
I read your book about Adsense few years ago and it realy helped me with my ads.
Lucian
Grabbed an account using the name Dave office.
Thanks for another great tip.
Dave Hansen
Go Joel. Come and learn about EA from our FB group about it http://bit.ly/chmqttips we will have you rocking in no time.
Got 400 of your shares by buying some extra dessert!
Great to have you in our community
Michael
Go Joel. Come and learn about EA from our FB group about it http://bit.ly/chmqttips we will have you rocking in no time.
Got 400 of your shares by buying some extra dessert!
Great to have you in our community
Michael
Oh sorry nearly forgot I am http://empireavenue.com/michaelqtodd (e)michaelqtodd
Good post, Joel. Missions are certainly an effective way of kick-starting your social media campaigns :-)
You can get free eaves to buy some of my stock here http://www.empireavenue.com/missions/view?id=152141
Thank you for your support of EA
Michael
Very nice post. Empire Avenue has been a very positive avenue for me and I have met many wonderful people who provided great teaching on the other social platforms.
(e)STEVECASSADY
welcome to EA :))
I have been using the site for about 6 months. I have learned a ton about SoMe and even more important met some great folks. I have an active blog now and a solid presence on many other sites all driven by EA. You can invest in me at https://www.empireavenue.com/GARDNER but don't buy too much. I have gotten expensive.
You're a little late to the game, but there's still plenty of room. We need more active people. I'm running out of people to max out in :) Have fun.
(e)HENRY
Great article about Empire Avenue! I really enjoy articles like this! (e)SCOTTB on Eav.
Welcome and enjoy the ride! Here's a few open missions to help get things going!
http://www.empireavenue.com/missions?ticker=WTWY
Thanks for article.
Thanks for the suggestion, Joel. Just joined (e)BRADLEYB and look forward to learning how to use it!
Thanks for the great info, Joel.
I know several people on Empire Avenue. Such as, yourself, Mari Smith, and Dr. Ron Capps.
Honestly, I thought of Empire Avenue, initially, as just another time-wasting game app.
As I am seeing, I guess I should get on over there and start playing catch-up!
Be Well!
Hi Joel --
Great to see you on Empire Avenue. Nice write up as well :)
Here's to your stock getting to 1000e share price!
-Art Jonak
Good to see you on EA, Joel. Just bought 200 shares of you without thinking even a sec. :) . All the best.
Empire Avenue presents a reasonably useful grade of most social networking. There are some sites they don't cover and they give more weight to networks that provide more data through their apis. I have met a huge number of great people through EAv.
I'm even further behind you Joel with regards to EA. I haven't even heard about it before this. But after having read your post, I don't get it.
So what's the purpose of the website? What are they trying to achieve? And what benefits do the users get? It seems all so arbitrary...
Thanks in advance!
Thanks for sharing This information and publiced on my blog http://eavdailytips.wordpress.com/ too! Cheers!
I liked the explanation was simple and clear.
http://www.empireavenue.com/BAARBARA - (e)BAARBARA
;)
EA is new to me but it's an interesting concept and I'm looking forward to learning more about it. My user name is ellimm. Happy to be joining you! :)
Thanks for the information. Heard of this sometime ago but had not looked into it. Have signed up and interesting to have people buy shares on me so quickly, and the shout outs ;-)
Welcome to the Avenue. I am considered one of the old timers in the game, so please feel free to hit me up for any questions you may have.
The Misisons are one of the most important part of Empire Avenue for me as I am an advocate for several issues and it is an incredible platform to send people to educate them on whatever issue you are passionate about.
Sorry I missed your IPO, but very happy to invest in your stock and when the Newbie Blush ends at the end of 7 days I will certainly invest to my max which is currently 1200 eaves.
May you prosper
Jackie (e)JackiesBuzz
Dolphins Love Us (e)Dolphins
Glad you joined EA! I caught your shares very early and glad I did. On your recommendation, invested in your son last night.
I find Empire Avenue to be one of the easiest ways to track social media activity. The game aspect gives me an incentive to check in regularly and, of course, the community is great.
(e)OMDIRECT
I have a mission open for newbies to get 20 of my shares free: https://www.empireavenue.com/missions/view?id=145068
Hey Joel,
Excellent article. It's a good overview of EAv and does a good job explaining the value of EAv for both measuring and creating social media engagement. I blogged about it here:
http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/article-empire-avenue-measuring-your-true-social-influence-by-joelcomm/
If I can answer any EAv-related questions or help you in any other way, just let me know.
Paul Steinbrueck
http://EmpireAvenue.com/PDSTEIN
Hello Joel, welcome to EA. Nice to have you in my portfolio.
Greetings from Germany!
Winfried
http://www.empireavenue.com/pressenet
Nice article, Joel. I've been on EAV for more than a year and find great value in connecting with other people there, monitoring my social activity and using missions to reward people for taking social actions. I've invested the max of 200 in you. Good luck!
Thanks for the post Joel.
nice piece
so where do you thing gaming and gamification fits into the story ?
Good morning Joel.
Nice easy reading article on Empire Avenue and it's role in the social media space.
I found it courtesy of Paul ((e)PDSTEIN) and his blog post - figured something important happened when Paul included a photo in the post :)
My ticker is (e)TECHMAG but no investment is required nor expected but nonetheless always appreciated.
As a good game move I have invested a full 200 shares in both yourself and your son Zach. I can invest up to my max of 350 but not until you've been on the 'pire for over a week. This is called the FreshFace limit.
After that you should get a second round of "funding" where you will find some of us can invest up to 1100 shares "normally" and with special purchasable "bonuses" up to 1300 in a limited number of profiles. I suspect you'll have more than a few of those investments in you in short order.
I noticed I already have you on my Thought Leader's circle on G+ so I look forward to seeing how you perceive and play EA!
Since Empire Avenue has to pay for bandwidth and they don't (currently / thankfully) use an advertising model I'll be interested in your observations on their monetization processes as well.
My rule for tweets, likes, shares etc is that I read the article completely first and only if I believe it is valuable to my audience will I pass it on. I have a fairly high filter but I'm pleased to report this post passes with flying colours!
Enjoy EA!
Thank's for a GREAT article Joel!
You are right Empire Avenue is a GREAT Network - Welcome here to you :)
Nice introduction, Joel. Before you write an ebook on Empire Avenue, you'll probably want to check out the one written be (e)LIBDRONE - http://walkingdowntheavenue.com/
Nice to see you on the Avenue, I'm (e)FEEDTHEWORLD there
Nice to see you on the Avenues. I bought 200 shares of you right away, but so far you only have 55 of mine...
Also, as your base grows, I find it a lot easier to maintain my portfolio with Dr. Dittrich's tool at:
http://dr-dittrich.de/eav/eav.pl
Great post Joel, very useful!
I signed up under ANITADOBS
Thanks for the heads up.
Enjoyed your article. I have been a member of Empire (@krystalwoman) for a few months now. Am really enjoying it and plan on using the social benefits when I launch my new internet business.
Eav is a wonderful platform to consolidate and share info, missions and connections on social media.
Thnx to you and all the wonderful people on Empire Avenue for all your mentoring and sharing. I have learnt a lot x
@DianaRusso
If you need something promoted with a positive message on twitter let me know x
Great Article and welcome aboard
Joel,
I just saw that you bought some of my Empire Avenue stock. Thanks! I'll be sure to buy some of yours as well and i'll take your advice and invest in your son Zach as well. ;)
https://www.empireavenue.com/thebizguy
And great to have you invest in me as I entered EA
I'm embarrassed to say I knew nothing about EA.
Loved your article though, and signed up to give it a shot :)
http://www.empireavenue.com/SUITEJ
Cheers!
Jay
Joel, every time I read your blog, I learn something new. It was nice to read about EA. I have signed up, and can be found at KAMKAY. I have no idea how to go about it though!
Joel, first of all you have a great name! Secondly, I have to disagree on EA. After spending valuable time, it appears to be useless to me....
Hi Joel,
would love to know how you see EAV now after a couple of weeks? Thanks for the article! I'm on EAV since December and looking forward to using it for future SoMe ventures.
http://www.empireavenue.com/OLWE
Hi Joel,
I really like the idea of the Empire Avenue because it really helps people learn and understand how to properly socially interact on social media sites like facebook.
The educational purpose of the Empire Avenue is even more important for the fact that many online marketers don't know how to best leverage the power and the potential of social media marketing.
To sum up, a human social interaction coupled with constant delivering high value content is the key to a business communication and marketing success on facebook.
Thank you.
Bruno Babic
Thanks for the article! I joined EA as INTERCER.
I read your book about Adsense few years ago and it realy helped me with my ads.
Hi Joel,
EA rocks!
Buy my shares please. I am PETETRAPASSO on EA.
Thanks,
Pete