Is Empire Avenue the Cure for Social Media Procrastination?

Are you following me on Twitter?

I joined Empire Avenue a few days ago. Oddly enough, I hadn't really heard much about it before last week. I am trying to secure a gig for my company to provide social media training for a large media company. I was asked last week if I was on Empire Avenue myself and if I could incorporate this into the proposal I am working on. I had planned on doing this legwork over the weekend, then I saw a tweet from a Twitter follower mentioning Empire Avenue and decided to dive in. I was addicted within minutes.

If you aren't yet on Empire Avenue, I'll get to explaining the benefits of it in a bit and provide you with some tips on getting started. If you are already on there, you can buy shares in me at (e)SHARONHAYES. After all, you know I'm a social media junkie and a fairly solid investment :-)

What Is Empire Avenue?

Empire Avenue is a virtual stock exchange where you can buy/sell shares in individuals and organizations who are active in social media. You build your own portfolio and make eaves (e= Empire Avenue's currency) based on your own social media activity, dividends earned on the activity of those you invest in and profits (or losses) by trading in shares.

Social media activity that is currently tabulated are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr. Blogs are also taken into account but scoring is not made public as of yet. Of course, your activity on Empire Avenue itself generates a score.

Is This Just A Game?

No.

From a business/organizational perspective, it's a great way to get additional exposure.

From a personal perspective, it's provides a great networking opportunity.

For me, the biggest benefit is in timing. You see, I've been pretty consistent in social media with Twitter. But outside of Twitter, I've not been "good" at doing the things I should be doing. Since the year started, I've been stalling on formulating and following a solid plan to work on my own social media marketing more consistently. Empire Avenue has been the key that has finally made me make the plan I should I have created a couple of years ago - and start to put it into action. Take this blog for example. Whenever I have had a post to it, I have gotten anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 visitors. Yet this is my first post since December 2009!

Since your activity earnings on Empire Avenue are calculated on a daily basis, if you are a procrastinator like me, it is a great way to make sure you stay on track with your social media marketing efforts.

Some people do play it as a game. Some play it as an ego booster. There are some that do things just to manipulate their numbers. Since your home page shows the collective feeds of those you buy shares in, some people are using it as a content aggregator.

I'll be posting tomorrow some tips about getting started on Empire Avenue. If you want to set up an account there, you can use this link and you'll get 2,000 extra eaves. Make sure to follow my blog so you won't miss the tips!

'Til next time!

Sharon