As most of you know..or now know..I am not a fan of Games on Facebook. Now that I have that out of the way, let me eat a little crow and talk about one of the Games recently launched on Facebook that I think makes sense. Well, as much sense as a friggin game in a social network makes. Empire Avenue , a Social Media Exchange game for Facebook, has caught my eye, which is directly tied to my interest. The concept of exactly how Empire Avenue is played..if that is what you do with it..is not clear. Seems the founders of EA, as humble as they look in this picture, have take some pains to not really explain to the the slow adaptors..like me..exactly the rules or the goal of being on Empire Avenue. SO, here is a video on how Empire Avenue is played. 
Now that I jumped into the stock market exchange thing EA my fans, friends, family..and a couple almost strangers (their Texan so they are almost family) have asked me to show them how I am using it. Even though I have only been on Empire Avenue for a few days I am by far NOT an expert. For a quick review..here is 
Chris Pirillo who I met last year at Open Camp or Some Camp around..his video of Empire Avenue gives you a little flavor of how you can get hooked. Yes, Chris can be a little long winded, but he does give you a sense of how Empire Avenue can work for you. Below..is how I found it to work for ME.
Jump In and Interact
Really, if you sit back and look at what is blatantly apparent Empire Avenue is in a way kinda like Monopoly, without the Going the Jail and rolling the dice crap. You just have to jump in and start pressing buttons..and Oh Yaw..read what the button does. When you join EA you are given Eaves, which in some alien languages must translate into MooLa or Cash. You are also given a value from the evaluation EA does of you social spaces. Naturally, like most games Facebook allows in, you are encouraged to invite your entire contact list, friends on Facebook and all your Followers as well as LinkedIn, Flickr, FriendFeed and YouTube, to join. I never do that but I am sure most people do and it probably makes a difference to my EA value, but I would rather not Bug my contacts since many of them are YOU. Of course there is the infamous Profile Page every site uses. And yes, they ask for your photo which I HIGHLY recommend if you are wanting the game to play out like it should. Posting a character, or even worst posting nothing, will probably get you nothing since their is this thing growing online called TRUST that is resulting in people pushing back from getting involved with anyone or anything that is not trusted with their personal information. Once you get through the basics it is time to find someone on Empire Avenue you know. If they are not there get someone you know to go in with you on this since it is good to have a Go-2 person to compare notes. I have several I know in Empire Avenue so I went and bought as many of their Shares as I had ‘Eaves’. Just doing that automatically raised my EA value and the price per share. I can hear most of you going..AAAH..so it is like the Stock Market…answer: DUH! But Wait..there’s more! (Man I hate that line..but there is).
Awards
Along the way you will get these somewhat annoying pop-ups awarding you with badges and stuff. It is your choose to take them. In most cases it is good to take them since you get paid Eaves for doing it. What happens is EA shares the announcement of what you were awarded on Facebook and Twitter, or just one social space if you choose (I only work Facebook since these type of announcements are near Totally worthless on Twitter).
Shout Outs
There also Shout Outs which are updates or comments you can make that get posted to you profile or to a person depending on where the shout out is made. It is good to do a few Shout Outs because any activity you show on EA increases your value.
Communities
Of course there are sub networks called Communities for special interest to gather. Yes, I am in the GOLF and the Dallas Communities where I quickly have become the CEO of the Golf Community and I must just be a street person in the Dallas Community since your position in the community determined by how activity you are in that community..I think.
Watch
I like the Watch feature since when you run up on someone’s Profile and buy their shares you can press the Watch button under their picture and it places their Ticker up in the header of your site so you can see if their value is going up or down.
Tickers
Now this is where EA starts looking like, and has the feel of the Day Traders of the Stock Market. Along the top of the page you will see scrolling from right to left the Tickers (or the abbreviations of the person’s Share name). This is where you can see how well your Portfolio is doing. If you see someone’s E share price in Green with a ‘+’ it means that person’s share price is going up..the figure next to the ‘+’ tell you how much. The same with the ‘-‘ sign..tells you their share price is going down. How the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ are determined is from the person’s activity. If someone is REALLY active in all of their social spaces the amount in the ‘+’ goes up. If they are not active much anywhere then the ‘-‘ sign starts to show. This is not to say there is a problem when you see the ‘-‘ sign. Everyone is not going to be able to be 24/7 online so it should be normal to see the ‘-‘ from time to time. However, if the ‘-‘ shows up for several days it might be time to help them out. Remember..you have shares in that person’s social media so you have some investment in that person. If they go down..you go down. Here you make decisions.
Help Others
If you see someone shares going up you may want to go over and buy more shares in that person. Because..you get get paid a dividend from each share you buy. Those dividend Eaves go into your account. The more their share goes up the more the dividend the more Eaves you have to buy more stock. If you see a friend going into the ‘-‘ you can go to their profile to see why and here is where you might be able to help. If you see it has been a few days since they have been activity it might be time to send a Shout Out. If they are not responsive..it might be time to Sell…yes..sell. It is your investment. You can always go back and buy..maybe at a lower price. Just re3member, the more people who buy your shares the more value your shares become..but think about this..look how big and influential that following..or Stakeholders are to you influence. HUM>>>gets ya to think doesn’t it? I know the Stakeholders I have on Empire Avenue are starting to be more valuable than my Twitter followers.
Time Suck?
Yes, like anything online, Empire Avenue can suck the time right off your work day. That is why I leave EA up on my FireFox browser and go over to it when I can. Empire is a Game, but it really is more than a game. It shows you who is REALLY active…honestly active… in their social spaces and shows you who are Really the Influencers. I have only been on EA for a week and like I said..I am just touching the surface of what EA can do. From what I see it is for Real, and I kinda like it. I could see in time it being more valuable than say..Twitter since it helps cut to the chase to who you should really be checking out for information on you interest. I’ll be back with more once I learn more. Until then..Buy my shares on Empire Avenue..I am going for Cheap. Let me know how I can help.
