Tags: Alberta's Business, Greg Gazin, Straight Talk, Technology, Technology - Gaming, Technology - Social Media

Discover your social media rocket fuel

An Interview with Empire Avenue's top duo

{EAV:3f36d7563fa14835} May 15, 2012

Editor`s Note: Troy Media Senior Business and Technology Editor Greg Gazin recently interviewed Empire Avenue’s CEO and co-Founder Duleepa (Dups) Wijayawardhana and Ric Williams, its Chief Operating Officer. Empire Avenue, based in Edmonton and Montreal, is a social media site built on a unique gaming platform.

EDMONTON, AB, May. 15, 2012/ Troy Media/ - Gazin: First of all, tell me a little bit about yourselves?

Dups: My background is mostly in programming, databases and as a tech geek. I’ve worked with startup Columbus Networks in Kelowna, BC, BioWare in Edmonton, AB and MySQL, the database company, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems. But the business side of games, technology and communication has always fascinated me, which is why Empire Avenue seemed like such a fun idea to pursue.

Williams: I’m originally from Australia. I have worked in England and now Canada. My career started in factories, putting, of all things, seafood in cans. I then moved into business and marketing, in industries as diverse as dairy foods, mobile and video games. I met Dups while we were both at BioWare and I watched social media explode during some of our marketing campaigns. This led me to realize I really wanted to be part of ‘something’ in the social media space.

Gazin: How did the idea for Empire Avenue come about? I have heard it came up during a discussion – about Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, no less – between buddies over a few beers!

Williams: The idea of turning the online advertising model on its head is fascinating, as not everyone has clout, but we can drive engagement with our thoughts, reviews and content. So just because I tweet incessantly it doesn’t mean that I engage anyone in what I do. By engagement I mean people are actually listening, reading my content and then creating conversations around it. With these conversations comes engagement and then potential purchasing power.

Gazin: Where are Mike and Niall now?

Dups: Mike and Niall are still part of the team, Mike is part of the maths genius team behind the algorithms and Niall drives code into reality everyday.

Gazin: Explain to me what you mean by ‘everything you do socially has value’?

Williams: Value is ultimately in the eye of the beholder. A song is valuable to one person and can be trash to another! The same is true for all the content we create. If a piece of content makes you think, laugh, cry, comment, like, share, angry, sad, happy, then it has value. As we can only measure the digital response on a piece of content and the social networks have created great ways to show your emotional response to content in a digital way, i.e., like, retweet etc., we can assign value to that engagement.

Gazin: Part of the premise behind Empire Avenue has to do with what you call ‘value of engagement’. What do you mean by that and why is it important?

Dups: Value is measurable through the reaction it generates, specifically actions that you might take around that content. You can also value a piece of content based on the importance you attribute to its source. Empire Avenue measures both a piece of content as well as the value of the person’s overall engagement.

Gazin: What is your vision for the company? What do you want it to accomplish?

Dups: The company has a simple vision, “To enable everyone to be recognized for what they do online”.

Gazin: And how exactly does Empire Avenue achieve this?

Dups: Empire Avenue, as it stands today, does this in a number of ways. First, on Empire Avenue you can earn virtual currency, called Eaves, from what you do online and who you choose to invest in. Second, you can also profit by expanding the number of your followers, then engaging with your new audience through innovative features such as Missions, by which you can spread the word about your business and reach over 40 million unique people through Twitter and Facebook alone.

Williams: Initially, our goal was to fulfill our vision by tying our users’ social media prowess to an advertising engine from which they could directly profit. We’ve since realized that there are two facets to Empire Avenue. One facet convinces the social-media connected user to join, have fun, play the Social Stock Market and drive his/her online brand. The indirect outcome is more business for you and greater awareness of where you stand in your particular niche. The second facet allows the social media user or business to spread their message by rewarding their followers from within the game itself. Our message, Expand, Engage and Evaluate, talks to the life-cycle of both those facets.

Gazin: Can you give me an example of a Mission, and how successful it has been?

Williams: A Mission is a way for you to reward people on Empire Avenue for doing something for you online. The reward at the moment is for Empire Avenue’s virtual currency Eaves, we are discussing with some corporate clients the ability to reward people with physical and other digital items.

The Empire Avenue community has created many Missions helping individuals and businesses to drive engagement with their content.

For example, Kim Reynolds has driven the Empire Avenue community to engage with her business, Savvy Media Marketing, through Facebook and other social networks. Kim has seen an increase in business through the awareness of her services driven by Missions.

Gazin: Social media is always undergoing changes. Can you tell me where you think social media is going and how Empire Avenue will fit in?

Dups: First, social media is not going away. We thrive on connecting with others in communities, and therefore the future of the Internet will increasingly reflect humanity’s need to build, be part of and engage in social communities through technology. What we know of today as social media is only the beginning. Empire Avenue integrates gaming and social media but then turns it on its head by allowing the game to be used in a real and meaningful way. Empire Avenue is attractive to those active social media users and content creators who want to interact by more than simply pressing a ‘follow’ button. As more networks arise, the noise and quantity of social messages and data increases, Empire Avenue cuts through the noise, recognizes who you are and, more importantly, lets you have fun while engaging and connecting.

Gazin: How successful has Empire Avenue been so far?

Williams: The reach of our core audience is huge. On Facebook and Twitter alone, our super connected users reach 45 million unique individuals, giving them the ability to drive causes and brands into a well-educated socially conscious audience. We reach across 150 countries: people are substantially growing their social media footprint while engaging and having fun.

Gazin: What would you say is Empire Avenue’s main value to its users?

Dups:  Simple: Empire Avenue is social media rocket fuel. Join Empire Avenue and you can become a social media super star while having fun playing the game of social networking. Use Empire Avenue to Expand, Engage and Evaluate your social media usage. Expand your followers; Engage them in a fun game off and on our platform, then Evaluate whether any of it worked.

Gazin: That all sounds great but in the end, it all comes down to making money. How are you doing financially?

Dups: Currently, we make our money when our users purchase our virtual currency, and through advertising deals. Advertisers have access to the amazing network that we’ve built through Empire Avenue.

Gazin: Dups, Ric, it’s been enlightening. Thank you for your time!

To learn more about Empire Avenue, visit their website and sign-up for Empire Avenue and create your own social stock ticker. Follow Dups and Williams by using their Empire Avenue social stock tickers – (e)DUPS and (e)RICEAV.

Greg Gazin, known as The Gadget Guy, is a Tech Columnist, Small Business and Technology Speaker and Senior Editor at Troy Media. He can be reached at Gadgetguy.CA  on Twitter @gadgetgreg or you can find him on Empire Avenue at (e)GADGET1.

Previously: Empire Avenue turns social media upside down 

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