Leveraging Empire Avenue, A Powerful Social Networking Strategy
By melbel
The Social Stock Market
Empire Avenue is a simulated stock trading game where each user is a publicly traded stock. When joining, you choose a ticker (a username) and which index you would like your stock traded under. Other users can buy your stock and earn dividends or buy low and sell high for a tidy profit.
What makes Empire Avenue unique is that it allows users to connect their social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to their account. This allows users to make the most of both their Empire Avenue account and their social media campaign.
EA offers a number of perks to users with active accounts on social networking sites. Because of these perks, you're able to use Empire Avenue to increase your readership on social media sites.
How Empire Avenue Works
Before I get into the nitty gritty of leveraging Empire Avenue for your social media campaign, I should explain how EA works.
As a new user to the site, you'll notice that your stock starts out fairly low (around $10 per share.) When other users buy your stock, aside from your prices going up, you earn 50% of what they invest in a virtual currency called eaves. You can then use eaves to invest in other users' stock.
To earn more eaves, you can either sell off investments that have increased in price since you've purchased them or your can hold onto the stocks and earn dividends. And, of course, you'll continue to earn eaves when more people invest in your stock!
Important Tips!
Don't spam your social networking accounts - Your stock may pay out more in dividends if you post more often on social media sites, but spamming is a great way to lose your following.
Invest in other users - If you invest in others, they'll likely return the favor. The point of the game is to get as many people to invest in your stock as possible. Plus, the more people who invest in your stock, the more people who will have a reason to re-share your tweets!
Invest in high dividends payouts - If you earn a lot from other users' dividends, you'll have more eaves to increase your investment portfolio.
Social Media & Dividends
The more your stock pays out in dividends, the more likely people are to invest. Since you want to get as many people as you can to invest in your stock, you'll want to make sure your stock pays out some great dividends. This is where your social media usage plays a big role in your stock sales!
Empire Avenue bases your stock's dividend payout on how much (and how well) you use sites like Twitter. They use the number of times you tweet, how often you're re-tweeted, how many times someone @s you, the number of people who follow you, the number of posts you make to Facebook, how many likes you receive on your posts, and so on in their algorithm.
The better you perform on these social networking sites, the higher your stock will pay in dividends (thus more people will be motivated to invest.)
Getting Help in Your Social Media Campaign
When a user invests in your stock, they usually do so to earn dividends. Since dividends are based on how well you perform on social networking sites, users who have invested in your stock (investors) have the tendency to "help you out" on Twitter. In fact, as investors buy your stock, these same people will often follow you on Twitter and even re-tweet you.
Don't invest in these stocks...
Don't invest in users who don't have social networking accounts attached to their EA account (you won't earn any eaves or social media love from them.) Here's why:
- Other users will be less likely to invest. Their stock won't really make an increase, so it's not a stock that will resell for very much.
- The user will have no reason to re-tweet your stuff.
- And the biggest reason of them all: Since dividend payouts are based on social media usage, you won't be earning decent dividends from their stock
Since other users' participation on Twitter also helps increase the payout of their stock's dividend, they have double the reason to re-tweet your work and @ you! The same goes for Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
Do you write tweets, post on Facebook, or share information about your company or about a helpful article you've read (or written) on LinkedIn? If so, these are the same kinds of things that your investors may be re-tweeting, re-sharing, or just otherwise spreading throughout the Internet! This can further increase your readership on social networking sites and it can help your company grow.
More Ways EA Can Help Your Company
Getting some major help with your social media campaign is an amazing part of Empire Avenue, but there are some other ways it can be helpful for your company:
Do-follow link - On your Empire Avenue ticker page (profile), you are allowed one do-follow link to your website. Unfortunately, you don't get to include anchor text, but a do-follow link is still nice to have.
"Buy help" from other users - This isn't such a good idea, but it's definitely something you'll see on Empire Avenue. Users often offer to buy stock from others in return for the user giving a Facebook like or subscribing to a YouTube account.
Social Media Mavens Who Use Empire Avenue
These are awesome people who are not only power users of social media sites, but also great investments on EA.
Reg Saddler (Ticker: Zaibatsu) - Uber famous twitter user and Facebook user. Former superuser of Digg before he was banned (for no good reason) thereby causing unrest in the community.
Chris Pirillo (Ticker: Pirillo) - He is social networking. Pirillo is kind of like Matt (your default friend on MySpace), except everyone chooses to follow him. (Makes awesome posts on Google+)
Chris Latko (Ticker: Clatko) - Made famous on Twitter by the fact that he initially power-followed a ton of Twitter users, now makes awesome tweets. His Tumblr account is totally worth following.
Buying Ads - You can spend eaves you earn on site-wide ads. These ads are dirt cheap, too! You can use your ad space to ask people to invest in your stock or you can use it to advertise your website!
Networking - There are a number of groups and chat rooms on Empire Avenue that you can spend time in. Usually users are in there asking others to invest in their stock, but if you strike up a conversation, you'll be surprised by how nice and helpful other users are.
Learn Social Media!
Empire Avenue is perfect for use as a social networking strategy, but it's also a great tool for learning more about social networking.
Since re-tweets, follows, likes, and re-shares are the best way to increase your stock's dividends, it's important to make sure you make worthwhile posts on social networking sites.
If you're new to social networking, watching your dividend payout rate can help you to determine whether or not you're posting noteworthy things online.
Measure Your Social Media Influence!
Be sure to log in to your Twitter account to see if people are re-tweeting your stuff. If you find that people aren't re-tweeting your stuff, evaluate your approach.
If you make interesting, non-spammy tweets, people will be more likely to follow you and even re-tweet what you have to say. Engage in conversations on social networking sites and make it about having fun, not plastering links. Have fun!
Comments
Yes, you can buy eaves with real money, but it's so easy to earn them through trading that it's almost not worth making the purchase.
Other than purchasing eaves with cash, which is optional, I'm not really sure how Empire Avenue brings in revenue.
Thank you for introducing a new way to communicate. This was very well written.
Empire Avenue is an interesting way to add another presence on the web. But I haven't found it to be particularly social...meaning people don't really interact except noting how much stock they've purchased. Nor has it generated more than a handful of visits to my profiles (twitter, facebook, etc.). In any case, I like the investing aspect. Great Hub Melbel!
Thadrok
Empire Avenue, when used in conjunction with your Twitter account is more of a way to increase the readership of tweets. For example, a user on Empire Avenue wanting to increase the value of their stock's dividends while increasing the value of your dividends (if they invest in you) would benefit from re-tweeting you, re-sharing your content on LinkedIn.
For example, let's say I invest in your stock. I might follow you on Twitter, retweet what you have to say, etc in order to increase the dividends I receive from your stock. A lot of people don't talk much on Empire Avenue, but the activity outside of EA (ie Twitter) has increased more than tenfold. This is because people benefit (receive more e) by being more active with me on Twitter.
If EA had no offsite value (ie. div increases, stock value were only from participating ON ea and not sites like Twitter) then it wouldn't be a good marketing tool. However, since you receive perks for tweeting and perks for tweeting other EA users, the offsite value (ie social networks) is seriously explosive.
For a quick example, I shared this hub on EA (mind you, it's slightly unfair given the topic of the hub) and on Twitter, Facebook, etc... and the number of EA users that reshared it was extremely encouraging. I've seen similar results on a hub that's NOT EA related that I tweeted and the reshare stats are due to my presence on EA. People want to retweet it because it increases their activity on Twitter, thus increasing their stock's dividend payout, thus making people ON EA more likely to invest. In fact, I ONLY invest in users who pay out high divs.
I have never heard of this before. I will definitely check it out. Thanks for sharing.
Those who actively play the game and want a boost in their own outgoing divs will make tweets/facebook posts to do so. To boost both their outgoing and incoming divs, they can retweet those in their portfolio.
The site, EA, is just a game and it's got it's bad parts. However, offsite, it's a great marketing tool. People will retweet you, like your facebook posts, etc. just because you invested in their stock. I don't even have to ask people to retweet my stuff on twitter and they do, just because it increases my div payout AND their div pay out. It's a win win situation even though on-site, yeah, the game itself could use a little work.
I'm always careful what I post on social networking sites. I only post those things that really interest me. If it's somethings from someone from EA, I'll still only post it if it interests me and is in the best interest of my followers. That said, I also only follow those on twitter who I care to follow. If a person from EA is interesting I may follow them.
The only problem I have with EA are people whose panties get in a twist when I don't reinvest in them. Sometimes I'll get threats that people will sell my shares if I don't buy theirs. I buy for dividends, not for friendship. It's just a game, but I choose to play to make the most I can from divs so that I have more to invest in others. It's probably that competitive streak in me. :P
At the end of the day, it's just a game on-site, but the offsite factor is what really draws me in.
Melanie - My mouth is agape (is agape a word??) - wide open. It takes a lot these days to amaze me, but somehow the idea of the Empire Media game taking into account social media activity is crazy. But it sounds like it works and could be a lot of fun! Can you explain the @ thing with Twitter?
~voted up and truly interesting~
Hmmm, when you used the word agape I totally knew what you meant, but now that I think of it, I'm not really sure it's a word either. In any event, I know what you mean. :)
Basically, when someone tweets something to you, EmpireAvenue counts this toward your dividends. Also, that someone who tweeted at you gets a raise in dividends too because it counts toward activity. It's kind of complicated, so really the most important thing to take from this is: be social on social networks. :P
Thank you for the awesome/thoughtful comment. :)
Thanks for the answer Melanie. In general though, is the @ thing with Twitter a way of directly sending a tweet to one specific person? I see people use it all the time, but I'm confused by it.
(By the way, I checked the dictionary. Agape is a word but it just looks sort of funny to me when I type it out.)
There are two ways to contact people on Twitter. There is a DM which stands for direct message. This goes to the user in a sort of inbox and does not show up in your (or their) stream. It's like a private message.
@ is a public message that goes to a specific user. It goes in your stream so all of your followers can see that you're sending something to that person. So you would go:
@melanieshebel That was totally awesome.
Then everyone in your twitter stream would know that I apparently did or said something that's awesome. I would be notified, as well, that you @'d me. :)
Thanks for yet another answer. This is the best explanation I have seen and now I am going to go and try it. By the way, I like your example.
Oh - one more question. Why do people leave @whoever in a HubPages comment?
It's helpful for answering questions that people have in comments, especially when multiple people have commented. It let's readers know who the specific comment is directed to.
Let's say reader JoeScho comments: "That picture is really pretty, where was it taken?"
Reader JaneDoe comments "I totally agree with your view on this, what's your view on blah blah?"
Reader Dave comments: "My favorite color is orange, too."
I could respond to all the commenters in one long thing like:
Oh wow! Thank you for all the thoughtful comments! It makes me feel so cheery and awesome!
@JoeSchmo Thanks! It was taken at the Grand Canyon
@JaneDoe I believe that it's awesome! What do you think?
@Dave Isn't orange such an awesome color!? I like green, too!
This kind of commenting is kind of Twitterish, but, unlike Twitter, people aren't notified of an @. Readers actually have to come back to a hub to see if someone responded to their comment. It's just kind of a way for people to know that that part of the comment is meant for them.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You finally resolved my confusion. So it just sort of a shorthand on HubPages - makes sense.
I have just joined my ID is Barrington you can join me up with you if you like. Thanks for the great explanation. i would not have joined otherwise...
Barry just invited me to join and directed me toward this hub. Thank you so much for sharing. How can I connect to you (if you still use it...)? Thanks a ton for all of the tips. Voted up, useful, etc.
@brittanytodd - I am MELBEL over there. :P It would be nice to see you there. I think I'll head on over there right now!
It sounds like fun, but I'm not sure I have the time. Can you comment on that?
@Pcunix, when I first joined, I used it quite a bit, but really you can use it very little. Just hook up your social networks to it. They'll raise your div payouts based on your usage of social networking sites, so people have more reason to invest in you (even if you don't use the site all that much.)
Also, another benefit is that your profile gives you a back link. There's no anchor text, but eh, I'll take a free one of those any day. :P I just used my HubPages subdomain url for that.
Give it a look see, I log on sometimes a few times a week to maybe even once a week or even less frequently than that.
I tried it, but just logged in now to delete my account. I'm not into "social media" and although you could certainly play the game without caring about that aspect much, I don't have time for that. I didn't like the "trading" requests either.
Very interesting. I guess their idea is that social responses are a good way to measure net worth.
They are relating our content value to asset value.
Neat trick.
I wish I had time for it. But I don't do much with social networks. I feel we have enough ways to communicate. Being active with multiple social networks must really take a lot of time.
I wonder if Empire Avenue would work with only Twitter, as that is the only one I use.
Anyway, your Hub is very helpful giving the details of Empire Avenue. I bookmarked it in case I decide to try it. Now all I need is the time :)
princesswithapen 6 months ago
This is a great review, Melanie. Can users buy eaves with real money?
Integrating a virtual economy of sorts with social media platforms sounds intriguing. It will be interesting to see how much leverage will actually businesses and publishers like us are able to draw from it in the future.
Princesswithapen