Update: Empire Avenue, new social game or social media timesink?

Update – 04/23/11 to my Original Post from August 02, 2010 (be sure to check out the great comments from the Empire Avenue team)!

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Well, it’s been nine months since Empire Avenue opened its doors to the public and it seems to have really established itself as one of the more addicting social games out there. The site has evolved significantly since it’s launch, adding a enhancements such as the ability to invest in Twitter accounts, regardless of whether they have joined the site. Additionally, each persons’ stock price is now measured by their activity on Twitter, Facebook (personal accounts and pages), YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, and activity on your personal blogs. Activity on the Empire Avenue site, itself, also has an impact on whether your stock price rises or falls.

Where Empire Avenue beats other “social influence” sites, like Klout, is the fact that eAve focuses on measuring your activity not your “influence”. The site has also done a really nice job promoting internal communities on every topic from social media to stock trading tips.

Recently, the site has started to attract the attention of social media celebs such as Pete Cashmore, Brian Solis, Jeremiah Owyang, and Scott Monty. If you haven’t already checked out the site, and you love a good online game, give it a try.

And a quick Kudos to the team at eAve for building a site that goes beyond just a social media timesink to a useful tool for collaboration and measuring your social media activity. I’d still like to see ways to spend those eaves on real discounts…but maybe that’s a future enhancement.

If you’re interested in buying a few shares in SocMedSean, you can check out my profile here!

–Sean