Empire Avenue: Social Media Never Sleeps

If you haven't heard about Empire Avenue yet it's a social media stock exchange game which allows you to invest Eeaves in brands and people and eventually make it to the top of the corporate ladder in your niche.

It launched back in July of 2010 but I've heard a lot of chatter about it lately and seems to be growing in popularity.

The goal of the game is to be successful buying and selling virtual stocks and at the same time connecting with other people and brands though the site's social media aspects such as Shout Outs, Mentions, Recommendations, Advertising, Status Updates and the various chat rooms and communities.

Why should I bother with it? It's a game.

It's a social networking site cleverly disguised as a game or vice versa. The purpose of any social networking site is to meet other people and promote yourself, with EA you can do just that and have a little bit of fun.

Seeing the value of your stock raise and earning new achievements is just one of the ways to have fun while playing day by day.

Earning achievements also nets you more Eaves which increases their incentive to participate in the site.

For example you can earn some easy Eaves early on just by filling out your bio and joining a community.

Secret Acheivement: Put "I Love You Rudiger!" as your status and you'll unlock a secret acheivement.

Climb The Corporate Ladder In Your Niche

My symbol is (AKLM), I listed myself in the Blogging index. You can go from a simple shareholder all the way to the CEO of your niche. This in effect is how you win at the game along with unlocking the achievements and creating a valuable profile.

Getting Started

If you haven't signed up here is my personal invite link: http://empireavenue.com/?t=kq6eltz1

Joining through that link will give you a free bonus and me as well. I'm not totally sure how many invites I have so get it while you can!

After signing up you may feel a bit lost here's a quick start guide I've come up with just to get the ball rolling.

Get Connected - One of the first things you should do is link up your social media services to your Empire Avenue account.

Go to your Getting Started Dashboard and you'll see where you can connect Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more.

Doing so will unlock your first few acheivements like Tweetin' Away to Margaritaville which is worth 1,000 Eaves.

This will also let other users network with you better since they'll be able to see these accounts too on your profile when they check you out.

Connect your Blog's RSS feed

To do this you must go to My Connections and down at the bottom you'll see Add New RSS Feed / Blog

After you do so you'll need 4 endorsements, just ask nicely in the chatrooms and explain a little about your blog or post in your niche's community asking for help and someone will eventually help.

Make some investments

You've got to spend money to make money in this game so look for active users who take part in the site and on other social media sites. These are usually your best bet. I've had good luck with trolling the chatrooms and seeing who's always online playing the game these types are usually a sure bet.

While it's easy to just blindly invest but try to at least check out their profile before you make your decision.

You can always invest in the Link Medic (AKLM) if you're looking for a winner. :P

You can always sell your shares if they're not performing to get that new hot stock, so try for some short-term investments as well as a few good long-term ones.

Whore yourself out a bit

For lack of a better phrase you should give potential investors a quick pitch in the "Buy Me Spam" chat room. Mine goes something like this.

I live on twitter, fb and you tube and I blog as well. Invest in me and I'll try to buy back what I can, thanks.

This is actually more effective than you might think of course think of your own pitch but people monitor that chat room looking to dump some credits on something that sounds good. It's not the real stock market so people aren't that picky. Keep in mind this is only a good short-term strategy and should only be used sparingly in my opinion.

Do what you normally do and socialize

Your stock can go up from participating in social media sites so start liking commenting and tweeting if you don't do it already.

This is one social media ranking site that doesn't reward celebrities just for their name it actually rewards individuals who are active.

In fact I would suggest steering clear of big names as it's up to them to earn your money and since they can't rest on their laurels they are usually a bad investment. Unless of course they just signed up, see below.

The best investment is an up-and-comer who is new to the site and has a low price but will no doubt be active. I look for people who have all their connections made with a little bit of proof of their social media activity.

Join Communities

Empire Avenue allows you in the beginning of the game to join two City Communities, 2 Interest/Brand communities, and 2 personal private communities.

Joining the 2 Interests of your choice in your niche should be a top priority, right off the bat I joined the Blogging community and started post and have already met some cool people.

You can then advertise using your Eaves in these communities giving your pitch or promote your blog.

Check out the competition

Check out who's making all the Eaves and invest in a few of them, this will return a solid investment without a doubt.

While you're doing so you can see what they're investing in and who they recommend as well.

You may not have enough Eaves to buy many shares at first but you could make it a goal to invest in the top dogs over time.

Stop in and say Hi

EA rewards you for your activity remember? It's a good idea to check in on things everyday if you can but chances are you'll want to seeing as you could be already addicted especially in the early stages.

End Results

At the end of the day you can only have a little bit of fun with Empire Avenue as well as connecting with people, promoting yourself and get rewarded for participating on the websites you already frequent.

The worst that could happen is that you become obsessed and you fail to write any more blog posts but hey at least you'll have an awesome virtual portfolio eh?

If you enjoyed the post drop by my profile and invest some of your hard-earned Eaves and I'll do my best to pay you dividends!

EA users feel free to comment here with your pitch so that others can find you on the site just leave your ticker symbol.