Selfworth and loafing in Empire Avenue

Over the last few weeks we've seen a bit of excitement surrounding Virtual Share Price and the way it interacts with the Empire Avenue Market Makers. So we, a few humble scribes within the Empire Avenue Monastary of Solitude, have put fingers to keyboard in an effort to spread peace and share understanding about some aspects of the Empire Avenue Virtual Share Price.

What your Share Price means
Your Virtual Share Price on Empire Avenue is a measure of your online activity and influence. A high score means you spend a lot of time interacting with a fairly large audience on social networks and creating your own content via blogs and such. Subsequently, a lower share price means you probably don’t spend a lot of time on social networks… and that’s okay!

How your Share Price is determined
Using a series of very complex mathematical formulae and a little Social Media magic, we generate a value which takes into account an analysis of the content every EAV member allows us to look at. That's important -- if we can't see your content, we can't include it in our analysis. We're good, but we're not mind readers (yet).

Lots of different factors will affect your Virtual Share Price, and we can’t tell you all the little secrets. Just remember: other users buying virtual shares in you on Empire Avenue is an important factor in your Virtual Share Price, but just as important is your activity on social networks and your own blogs.

Why your Share Price fluctuates
Your Virtual Share Price will rise and fall throughout the week. The drops may, at first, cause you to run around your house, shouting hysterically and ripping your hair out. Don’t fret: a dip in your virtual share price could come from a day of relative inactivity on Twitter, or a lower number of blog updates than usual during a given week. Does that mean you’re less valuable as a human? Of course not. It just means that, for one reason or another, you haven’t been using as much of your online influence or presence. Just keep doing your thing!

Market Makers
You may have heard the term 'Market Makers' before. Market Makers are how we determine your Empire Avenue score -- they do the heavy lifting in analyzing your trading and content, and each has a unique personality as to how it does this evaluation. We're constantly tweaking and upgrading Market Makers, which is why you may see the occasional 'odd' blip in your performance -- this is 'beta' after all :)

And, as we approach 2000 members in this limited beta, we are also learning a few new things about how content is being created and analyzed. We're developing new Market Makers to address these discoveries.

What your Virtual Share Price says about you
Over the last few weeks, we've noticed a few Influencer Groups becoming evident. We’ve put together a breakdown of what your Virtual Share Price may say about your online activity; check that out below. These are just some basic guidelines, and may not necessarily be applicable to everyone.

7-10:  occasional social media user or newcomer to social media

• limited activity on one or two social media sites
• averaging less than one post per day
• smaller audience size
• shares are slightly divested

10-15: average social media user

• somewhat active on a few social media sites
• posting frequency excellent for someone who primarily consumes content
• medium audience size
• beginning to draw attention of investors

15-20: above average user

• regularly active on a few social media sites
• posting daily on more than one site
• trending to above average audience size on at least one site
• investors have noticed you and are trading your shares

20-25: very active social media user

• very active on a few social media sites
• posts often to all their sites -- sometimes more than once a day on the same site
• audience size is above average on more than one site
• you have a good percentage of your shares in investor's hands

25-35: exceptional social media user

• very active on a handful of social media sites
• find it hard not to post on your sites (perhaps you should seek addiction counseling?)
• you are followed, nay, stalked -- you have a large audience on all sites
• it looks like investors like you -- they own more of you than you do!

35+: elite social media user

• highly active on almost every social media site on the planet -- and some off planet
• is likely a posting bot, no human can write this much
• Madonna wishes she had an audience this large
• you're starting to wonder if you'll run out of shares soon

Want to improve your Empire Avenue Virtual Share Price?
Study people and brands with Share Prices higher than yours. Look at who follows them and who trades them. Study their content creation pattern and frequency -- do they post to Twitter more often than they create blog posts? Consider emulating their trading or content creation patterns. Observe the results and apply what works.

On a basic level, an increase in your Virtual Share Price indicates an increase in your online influence. That could mean an increase in your audience. It could mean that you’ve posted more social-network updates this week than last. Maybe you convinced more people to buy your shares. If you want to significantly increase your Virtual Share Price, you need to increase your influence by doing more to get your name out there.

And to help you out on your research, here's a few blogs with tips, tactics and strategies:

• General Zod's Influencer Picks (ZOD)
• Brett Mirly's Empire Avenue Tips & Picks (QWERTY)
• Chris Quock's Empire Avenue Tips and Tricks (MAX)
• Adriel Hampton's Game Mechanics (ADRIEL)
• JOSH's Empire Ave. Tips & Tricks (JOSH)
• Colin's EA Picks (COLEAG)
• Empire avenue Stocks (ZACH)

Oh, and if you have a blog dedicated to Empire Avenue (or I've missed one that I already do know about)  -- let me know, and I'll add you to this list.