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Empire Avenue: Just what is your value?
 Posted
2/24/2010 8:00:00 AM
Last night I was one of the lucky few to get a sneak peek at the new Edmonton-Based Social Networking site, Empire Avenue. Although, I would say Empire Avenue is more of a social networking network. After you add your existing social media accounts to Empire Avenue, you will be able to see your online influence score. This "wealth" is based on your work and your reputation.
You can also see the influence of others. You want to know the most trusted bloggers in Edmonton? You want to find someone who knows their stuff to ask about photography? Find the most influential people about those topics in your city... or around the world. Already, the beta testing is taking place world-wide, with brands and people from Finland, the UK, and United Arab Emirates already signed up alongside Canadians.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Some of the team behind Empire Avenue were at the launch party last night. Attendees were varied for the site launch: from young influencers (event masterminds/prominent bloggers), gadget/tech geniuses, local entrepreneurs, and a nerdy radio blogger - all were among those gathered on the second floor at Transcend Coffee.
(By the way, this was my first tasting and visit at Transcend. I had a mocha and it was delicious! This is a must-visit gem in Edmonton.)
Duleepa Wijayawardhana aka "Dups", the CEO of Empire Avenue, demonstrated the website to us. He showcased the achievements, the Influencer pages, leaderboard, and how to buy shares.
CEO, Duleepa Wijayawardhana
I spoke to Duleepa earlier about the site. Here's a bit of what he told me. "Empire Avenue is a revolutionary, online, influence stock exchange. Which is combined with an advertising platform that allows individuals and organizations to turn their online influence and reach into revenue."
"It's free to get in, and it's free to trade shares and things like that. And as you do stuff online, you, the person who's the Influencer, who is connected to Twitter for instance - every time you tweet, you're going to be paid a certain amount of virtual currency." Duleepa explains, "At the end of the day, that is your earnings - so to speak - and that is going to get passed on through your stockholders. So it's kind of a nice way to find out what people are doing. And if you invest wisely, you'll be virtually richer."
"So what we're doing is connecting advertisers, consumers, and Influencers in a way that no one's actually done so before in an online space." So let's say you're on Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is for people whom you already know. Twitter is people whom you probably haven't met yet, and you're only seeing one slice of their online imprint. With Empire Avenue, it's all under the same umbrella. See their other social networks, and more importantly - see what people are saying about them. This showcases not only a persons work, but how much their peers value their work and influence.
And yes, you do have influence. According to Nielsen Research, 70% of all advertising is done by word of mouth, which includes your Tweets and Facebook statuses about that delicious cup of coffee or terrible restaurant service. You're already endorsing brands, hobbies, and interests - this just tracks the amount of people you are influencing.
Now, I know what you're thinking. If your stock price is related to your blog, tweets, and Facebook statuses, what's stopping you from just updating nonsense all day long and jacking up the price of your stock? They've thought of that.
Empire Avenue is designed to reward quality, not quantity. Sure, you might think you can tweet 1,000 times a day and become a fast rising stock. However, if you aren't providing value to those who follow you, they can negatively effect your score. Sooner or later, your stock values (and reputation) will plummet. Empire Avenue really is about value. In fact, Dups mentioned value so much last night that it really almost rivaled me. And if you've ever heard me talk about social media - well, I say it a lot.
Now, the online stock exchange between friends is fun just on it's own. But Dupes says there will be an option for users to actually make money by endorsing brands THEY choose - and have those brands/companies pay for it. You can choose keywords and interests, and choose the companies you endorse for yourself. This could potentially really disrupt current advertising and business plans. Instead of buying Google Adwords or a Facebook Ad to annoy people who just happened to mention photography once... you would actually purchase ads aimed directly at, and approved by, people who care about photography and who talk about it already. (For example) You already talk, tweet, Facebook, about brands and products you like - this just gives you the opportunity to have fun, and potentially make some money in the long run as well. The ads, if you choose to use them, would come as either an embeddable widget for blogs, email signatures, and etc - or go right into your Twitter stream or Facebook statuses.
In my opinion, this is something good and bad. On one side of the coin, you can earn money by doing things you already are doing. You already are talking about your favourite bar, you already mention that coffee shop you frequent - so is this really that big of a change? On the other hand, do we want to see more ads? It's one thing when Joe tweets he likes coffee cakes, but it's another thing when that brand of coffee cakes talks to you through your friend Joe. And are we selling out? With that, in itself, affect your offline reputation? I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this.
I can't complete this blog without mentioning another fun aspect of Empire Avenue. You can earn achievements!
A list of achievements can be found on the site - some with multiple levels... but there are also a bunch of SECRET achievements. Now, the Empire Avenue team isn't saying what they are. But, they did hint that at least a few secret achievements are based on the members of the team. Let me know if you find out how to achieve them.
Alright, what are you waiting for? Go! Sign up for a beta account, and get buying, trading, influencing!
By the way, buy stock in BRITL.
Want a beta invite? Get it first! I'll be giving away three invites by Friday - just send me an email to brittney.leblanc@corusent.com with the subject: Empire Avenue Beta and tell me why I should buy stock in you.
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Brittney Le Blanc
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Great run down of EmpireAvenue.com The market is small right now which makes it overly volatile so get in on the Beta and start growing it. Buy up those who you think add value to the web as a way to show your support for them.
Oh yeah and if you value Education Technology buy ABALL ;)
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Posted By
Aaron Ball
On
2/27/2010 1:43:21 PM
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I want to learn more. Amazing.
Valerie
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Posted By
A Canadian Foodie
On
2/27/2010 12:52:15 PM
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