Building empires

I talked about some of the downsides of social media the other day. Having said all that I am pretty involved in it, although not as much now that I'm working. I don't visit those sites while I'm at work. And yes, this is where Megan shows up and complains about organizations blocking these sites which could actually be beneficial to them. I tend to agree, but that's a decision above my paid grade.

Anyway, I also mentioned nearly two months ago my friend Dups was the CEO of a new website company called Empire Avenue. You can reread that post to get all the details of what he and his cohorts are trying to do, but boiled down to its simplest description - it's a stock market for social media.

For the first few months, Empire Avenue has been a closed beta. Meaning a select group of really cool people (ahem) got to play with the site. I've got to say, it was a bit of fun. I was in the Top 10 for earnings, always tended to flirt around the top 20 for highest share value and portfolio value. I was never going to be at the top, simply because I'm not one of these people who put updates on Twitter and Facebook 20 times a day, but I was doing fine.

Then they rebooted everything and wiped it all out.

That was, of course, part of the plan. The great reboot puts everyone back at even footing. It also means they've opened the doors to more people to join. You still need an invite, and it's still beta, but you can join. And it so happens I have three invites I can use.

I'm willing to give them away to readers of this blog. However, there are three conditions involved.

1. You should be actively using social media. You do really need to be active on either Twitter, Facebook or blogging. If you're not doing at least two of the three, I'm not sure how much fun this is for you.

2. I want you to really promise to give this a whirl. I think Dups and the gang have created something kind of cool here. Whoever gets the invite, I'd like them to give this at least a couple of weeks of serious playing around. I think if you do, you'll grow to really love what they're doing.

3. You have to buy at least 50 shares of my stock (I'm "Townie" on the stock ticker). I admit it, I'm totally shallow. And I will buy some of your stock to reciprocate. However, I am an excellent investment. Trust me.

If you're interested, post a comment or drop me an email and I'll see what I can do about getting you an invite.

Last Five
1. Letterbomb - Green Day
2. Whatever gets you through the night - Los Lonely Boys
3. Sunday bloody Sunday (live) - U2*
4. Chinese - Lily Allen
5. Jesse James - Bruce Springsteen