Didn't Saturday Used To Be A Slow Day Online?

Wow.  In the years that I have been publishing the book review blog,  weekends, in  particular Friday evening through Sunday afternoon have always been a slow time online.    This is I believe the third weekend that I have spent my Saturday hanging out on Empire Avenue,  Facebook and Twitter.   And for both personal and game reasons,  today totally  ROCKED!

The incomparable Frederic Denomme  tipped off  his Team Zen Community first thing this morning about the arrival on the Avenue of AT&T.  (e)ATT   I had to sell off some shares to raise cash.   There were a couple of players in my portfolio who had made no investment in me.   These I ditched quickly.   I then reduced my holdings in some of the shares I was least bullish about.    Within 15 minutes I owned 200 shares in AT&T,  which as of this writing have appreciated by more than 3,000e.   While lots of folks on the Ave spent the day racing to buy AT&T and pushing its price up, up, up  I spent a day at times almost feverishly chatting with my #SocialEmpire buddies,  a couple of whom are kind of moving past chat buddies to actual friends and one who is even moving along to family.

This personal stuff occurred against a backdrop of yesterday's post, which discussed (e)FORD's entrance on the Ave and questioned how the huge companies would stack up in terms of dividends, and which  succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.    Scott Monty,  Ford's VP for social media commented not only here on my blog,  but accepted the invitations of a whole bunch of #SocialEmpire members and joined our FB group and commented right there on the thread where we'd been discussing (e)FORD all day.     Honestly,  I have to say I'm genuinely impressed by Scott Monty.    His recent blog post about Empire Avenue indicates that he really does 'get it'  in a way so many 'copy/paste'  social media  'experts'  really don't.   Monty stressed that Ford wanted to work with Empire Avenue players in a way which does not "disrupt the ecosystem" (of game play).    While not everyone who has purchased shares in (e)FORD has gotten a buy-back yet,  lots of people,  such as Stu Rader report having engaged with folks from Ford and sold them a number of shares.  (I was very gratified that even before Scott engaged with us in the afternoon,  Ford invested in 150 shares of (e)LIBDRONE.)

That Ford is buying back but not all that rapidly suggests that they may be limiting their purchases of EAves, so as to, as Scott mentioned not disturb the game ecosystem.   This would seem to address some of the concerns that users like John Henry DeLong and Stephen Tiano  expressed-- to the effect that if companies like Ford can come in and buy a couple of million eaves,  how can players who are relying only on their wits and social skills hope to compete at all.   That Monty and team Ford seem to have put a considerable degree of thought and research into their Empire Avenue campaign is evident to me.    And by and large player reactions seem to range from enthusiastic to cautiously optimistic.     All in all I think it's been a dramatically successful introductory weekend for (e)FORD and the most active Saturday I ever remember having online.

Please visit again tomorrow when,  barring a crazy Sunday filled with other incredible news I hope to talk about some of the other big companies recently arrived on the Ave,  including (e)AUDI and (e)ATT.    I also hope to talk a bit about whether and how the arrival of all these big companies will change the dynamics of game play on EAv and  how players may or may not have to adapt.    Here's hoping that your Saturday too was filled with good friends and good fun.   Goodnight.

It Isn't A One Way Street

It was exciting.   When I heard from Frederic Denomme that Ford-- the huge car manufacturer-- had just listed itself on Empire Avenue,  I admit that I rushed over and bought a few shares.   And then I thought about it for a few minutes and  bought a few more and a few more and within a couple of hours I was maxed out with 200 shares in (e)FORD.   I also bought 200 shares in (e)INTEL-- another big name that suddenly appeared on the Avenue late last week.   As of this writing,  it's not clear what kind of dividends these huge companies will pay.    Given the .01 div per 1 share price ratio that most sophisticated Empire Avenue users apply when evaluating shares,  Ford would need to pay off about  .50/ per share to be a good value and I'm not at all sure they can do that.   At any rate I am thrilled with the enormous growth the stocks have quickly accomplished--  I'm up over 4,000e  between the two companies' stocks.

The problem that big companies run into on social networking is that they are very rarely prepared to enter into two way back and forth communication with other users.   Partly this is a question of resources--  if a company has 30,000   "friends" it would take not merely a full time employee but a full time department to remember their spouse's names,  inquire after their children and keep up a social chit chat.   Their real life (as opposed to EAv) shareholders would never stand for it.   But it also seems to me that the cost of genuine engagement is not what stops most companies.  Shannon Morgan  has talked about how challenging it is to get even the relatively small companies she is a consultant for  to understand that a blog is not just another place to distribute your press release.  So I do give executives like Ford's Scott Monty props for his presence on the Ave and for putting (e)FORD and (e)LINCOLN into the game.

I have to wonder, however,  how well  Monty and his Ford team can do in the one on one socializing that is the essence of Empire Avenue and which the most successful players on the Ave inevitably excel at.   It's not enough just to buy shares in your investors-- while Ford does appear to have bought into some of the  "big name"  (usually in other words "copy/paste") "social media experts",  they have not as yet thought to make an investment in (e)LIBDRONE,  although as I say I am maxed out in their shares.    It will be very interesting to see if major corporations can learn to play in this currently popular sandbox.   It's possible that they can.  However it is also possible that via investment or other means they will manage to pressure (e)DUPS (Empire Avenue founder and chief executive Duleepa Wijayawardhana) and the Empire Avenue team to make the game a bit friendlier to major sponsors,  rather than as at  present to the unusually sociable average Joe.   I will not even speculate as to how well Ford and the other major brands flocking to the Ave will fare.   But I am thrilled to have a front row seat to watch and find out.