Social Media

Tips from Berrie Pelser – #1 business on Empire Avenue (@Berriepelser)

August 24, 2011 By admin 4 Comments

Berrie Pelser

Interview with Berrie Pelser, owner of Ber|Art – a WordPress Hosting and Social Media / SEO Company in The Netherlands, and player on Empire Avenue.

How long have you been playing on Empire Avenue (EAv)?

For 4 months now. I started on Queens day, April 30 2011. I received an invite from somebody and thought: this looks promising so I started right away. The first couple of hours I compared it with Klout, but then I figured that EAv does much more. Klout indicates how much somebody is engaged in social media. If you see a tweet from somebody with Klout score 8, it probably is spam. But if somebody has a Klout score of 80, it most likely is good content. It says something about the credibility of the person that tweets. This is also the case in EAv, but here it is more about engaging and sharing. If you compare shareholders to Linked-In connections, Facebook friends and Twitter followers, shareholders are much more. Buying shares in a person means you want to engage.

Could you describe to my mother what EAv is?

It is a game. A game is about sharing information and engaging with people. What is there to win? That depends… for some there are friends to win. EAv allows you to play as a private persons or as a branded person (people vs companies). Companies like Dell, Nokia and Intel are not there to make friends, they are there to promote their products and brand. It will be possible for them to (virtually) sell Branded Luxury Items. For example Nokia can ‘sell’ their new Nokia N8. They will also tweet about this product on Twitter, post it on Facebook but they can also virtually sell it on EAv. EAv for them, is a very serious game. For private persons it is a fun game to meet friends and promote your social accounts.

What is your benefit in playing EAv?

I am a business owner. I run an Internet business which offers services in Social media and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If I can add a link to my website where I can show people what I do, it is beneficiary for me. And social media is one of the services I offer. If I want to offer EAv services to EAv players, I have to know the tool just like I learned Twitter and Facebook. I offer fully managed and fully hosted WordPress sites including SEO and integration and branding in social media. Just running a website is not enough in 2011. In my opinion you have to have at least Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and EAv. My reason to be on EAv is business-wise, to let people know what I have to offer, and I can do that better if I try to be ranked #1 on EAv.

You are ranked as #1 in the Top Business Stocks with share-price above leaders like Mashable, Nokia, Intell, AT&T and more.What would your advice to companies be if they are thinking about joining EAv?

Call me. They “should” not start before talking to me. You can do a lot of things before you enter the game. If you want to start, DO NOT ENTER YET. If you do things beforehand you have a better start and focus. The first 7 days are most important. On the seventh day a new account will ‘open up’ to investors to buy more than the limited 200 shares. On day 7 it becomes possible to buy (virtual) Luxury Items, and a Bigger Piece of the pie which enables investors to buy more. Day 7 is a crucial day. Shares of most of the newcomers will go down after day 6 or 7. There are more than 1000 EAv players that buy newcomers every day, and sell them after 7 days if they are not performing in the game. You have to go through that day 7. I get 200-300 unique visitors per day from EAv only. This is important for Google ranking, especially now EAv is growing fast. It will get more value fast.

How much time do you spend on EAv?

Not much, the only thing I do is buying and selling. In the beginning you have to do more work. You have to build your account, let people know who you are and what you do. Just like Facebook and Twitter, setting up an account and get it going takes time. If your profile is up and running, it can become a routine. I am on EAv less than one hour daily. EAv counts everything you do online in social media. A tweet is a point, a Facebook post is a point. EAv is all about sharing and engaging. If you have something to say, share it everywhere so that everybody can see it in their own social tool of preference. During my vacation I shot a lot photos because I am a amateur photographer. I uploaded the photo’s to Flicker, and because of that my dividends grew. It is all about social media to get your dividend up.

Airplanes, virtual Luxury Items to buy with the virtual currency 'eaves' on Empire Avenue

It is optional to buy certain upgrades on EAv with ‘real’ money, like a ‘bigger piece of the pie’ with which you can buy more shares of any given person, or Luxury Items that pay out in ‘eaves’ (the currency of the game). What is your point of view on buying with real money?

If you just want to have fun, don’t buy. The only reason to buy something when you just want to play, is to do it for EAv itself because they deserve it. Just to say thanks to EAv for playing the game. If you are serious, you have to buy as much as you can on day 7. After that, luxury items (virtual items you can purchase on EAv) are not interesting for new players until their portfolio value will go over 15,000,000 eaves. Look at Chris Pirillo (ranked #1 private person on EAv), for two weeks he has been buying all the airplanes (virtual Luxury Items you can buy on EAv). And recently I started to understand why and bought planes too. If you invest all the dividend earnings in new people, that means they will buy you too. With that your share price will rise. If your share price is rising but your dividend is stable, your ROI (Return on Investment) will drop. You don’t want to have ROI dropping, because that is the most important number in your EAv account. How do you calculate your ROI? Divide your dividend per share by your share price, times 100. So to make sure your share price is NOT rising that fast, buy luxury items.

And the list of tips goes on and on when you talk with Berrie

Berrie shares tips on Facebook groups (Dutch language) https://www.facebook.com/groups/empirelaan

Find Berrie Pelser on Empire Avenue http://empireavenue.com/BERRIEPELSER

Visit Ber-Art WordPress SEO Hosting

Filed Under: Empire Avenue, Interviews, Social Media Tagged With: Berrie Pelser, EAv, Empire Avenue, shares, social media

Social Media? Don’t give up! Interview with @mqtodd

August 20, 2011 By admin 2 Comments

Interview with Micheal Q. Todd

Michael Q. Todd

In your Facebook profile it says you are living the dream, what does living the dream mean to you?

For me living the dream is not having a boss, not having clients and that I can control what I do every day and control time. There is no limit on the hours of the day. You can create hundreds of hours a day. My philosophy about Internet is know – like – follow – promote me. When people are promoting me more every day, I create hundreds of hours a day. When I write a blog post and a lot of twitter friends share it, they promote me. I don’t need to promote my blog, I got 1000 of people doing that for me. Every day is big fun for me.

You wrote The more I learn the more I realise that we are all connected, can you tell me about that?

We are not far away from being all connected. The more you trust and believe this is the case the more it will happen. Things are happening really fast. We build relationships with people, channeling people. If I think about somebody they pop up on my twitter account, this keeps happening to me more and more. We are very close to being connected totally. This is what the Mayan prophecy was 2600 years ago, that in 1999 we would start connecting. This was the year when LinkedIn and Friendster started. The Mayans said this was going to take 12 years. A wave of consciousness is starting in 2012. We are in the final stages of everybody connecting and then the wisdom is going to spread really fast.

You seem to have a lot of life experience. Did you ever consider the fact that this could make you an old soul, somebody with a lot of responsibility…?

I have seen my past lifes. I have been hypnotised a few times. In one of those sessions I was in an ancient country, 200-400 years ago where I was speaking to a crowd of people protesting against a government. Then guys in uniform came with big swords and killed me. I feel like I am dong now what I did before. When I was 12 years old I have been speaking to an audience about the environment. When social media came along, I saw the huge potential to have a voice here. Maybe I am an old soul, yes. I feel I enjoy being in the center of it.

You are helping people on Twitter and Facebook. If there would be a # 1 tip for a Twitter user wanting to be successful, what would that be?

In 3 words: don’t give up. 96% Of twitter users give up within 1 month. People give up all the time. It is not so easy to get started when you are not a celebrity, but you have to keep going. You have to trust Twitter and trust your friends that are successful with it. A lot of people use only 2 or 3 kinds of tweets. They don’t get the right balance, not using different kind of tweets. That is my main advice; to study different kind of tweets. I wrote a blog story about 6 different kinds of tweets. Twitter is about knowing why you are on there, and you have to be there for a long time. I am there to teach about twitter and social media and to promote and connect good people. If I put out good material about social media, people start to like me and read about the environment at the same time. If I would speak about the environment all the time people would stop following me.

And Facebook?

Facebook is not a whole lot different. Facebook has threads of conversation. Also here it applies: remenber who you are and why you are there. I am about Social Media, Environment and Japan. You have to have a place where you are from. Say thank you a lot on Facebook and Twitter and be fun! Give information on what you know about and ask questions. When you make a comment in a blog, you should say thank you, give information, have fun and ask good questions. That is the big tip about being successful on Facebook. And get a lot of friends.

And last: quoting you: “What if we are the ones we have been waiting for?”

What if we were. We can all wait for somebody to come. Maybe Jesus is coming or somebody else to save us. But what if it is us. We are here for a reason. There have never been times like this. There must be a reason. A lot of things are happening and we are here. Maybe it is time for me to do something quite special. I am just asking people: look at yourself, what could you do? What is your potential. What if you are that prophet that stops everybody form fighting? People have unlimited potential if they decide who they want to be. There are new things everyday on the internet. Now Skype and Facebook are hooking up and there is talk about Foursquare joining Facebook. Every day there are new apps to share information. If people can just try 1 thing every day, then they will keep up with everything. And when they try 2 things a day they move ahead of everybody else. Do things for the first time, make a Youtube video for the first time. Try something new every day. Only good things will happen out of that.

Follow Michael on Twitter: @mqtodd
Visit www.michaelqtodd.com

Filed Under: Facebook, Interviews, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: facebook, foursquare, Japan, social media, Twitter

Social media is not social, people are. Interview with @Themelis_Cuiper

August 19, 2011 By admin 2 Comments

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein ~

Interview with Themelis Cuiper, seo social media marketing expert from Amsterdam.

What is your speciality?

Themelis Cuiper in front of Central Station in Amsterdam

Connecting people. That is the main speciality that aligns with my character, my basic self.
I want to be a hub to people, a connector, to involve people with other people. I always have been reaching out to people. I even see it in my children, they are like me. The things against it is that you bump your knocks a lot of times. You learn by experience. I learn a lot from people. I have become a market sociologist, not because I choose to have this profession, but because it is me. It comes natural with me. I work with my instinct to know how people act and behave. Most important in life is the time you spend with people, making the best time you could have with each other.

What do you like most about social media right now?

Social media is the freedom to connect and express ourselves. It wasn’t available before. I like the possibility to carry your mobile phone with you and you can type anything in to the internet and reach out to people. In a basic way we are all connected one way or the other. We are not that different from each other in the basic blueprint. Of course we can have opposite attitudes or opinions but the basics of humanity is in all of us.

Are you spending time on social media activities of which you would rather spend less time? In other words, is any social media activity over your head?

No. If the thing you are busy with at the moment sucks you up it is not good, you should do another activity. I live with social media, it is interwoven into my life and into my family life also. We practise social media all day. I am living my life, the social media walks with me. I have organized things. The social media is following my habits.

Social media is not social. People are.

It is an illusion to think that social media itself is social. I am not saying that social media is a fad. It is no hype and it is no bubble, it is real. Social media is a tool that will evolve the big world mass of people.

What will be the future of social media?

People should evolve in social media, people should evolve and learn how to use it. If I want to draw a piece of art, I need to hold a pencil. I need to know where to put the pen to the paper. But the expression itself will be unique. Nobody can teach me how to express myself. You can learn basics about drawing but the expression itself comes from the artist. In that sense everybody is unique. If I want to sing, I can learn to sing. How you sing will make the singer.

Social media tries to be the same. There is a big difference in how you use social media. What is the goal and purpose for being in social media, that’s the question. People themselves use the tools in a way that expresses something of themselves. The way I use Facebook is totally different from how you will use it, and the way I use twitter is totally different from the way you will use it. It is about my intention and my goal with it. The purpose of communication and human connectivity is the same without social media. Social media is just a tool.

What message would you like to send out today?

Don’t take yourself so serious! Put in some humor to break the suffering. There are real big ego’s on the net, and life is not all about drama. We live in a Social Garden together and we ourselves are responsible to build it into a paradise. With social media, nothing can hold you back to do so. You are the master of your own universe. You can choose the friends you want to be with, and choose whom to spend your time with. Go make the best time you could have with each other!

Follow Themelis Cuiper on Twitter

Filed Under: Interviews, Social Media Tagged With: future, intuition, marketing, seo, social media, themelis cuiper

Triberr (@triberr) just made me buy ‘bones’, yikes!

August 18, 2011 By admin 2 Comments

Dan & Dino

OK it got me. I tried to avoid them, those two funny looking guys both in one photo in their Twitter av (who does that?!), but I am in now. I even bought ‘bones’. How am I going to explain THIS to my mother…

Here it goes. Before my summer vacation I was invited by a ‘Tribe‘ (watch the video below what these funny words are about) with a few members, who now instantly tweet what I put on my blog. Even my story about rotten tomatoes. Just because we committed ourselves to the same Tribe, we tweet each others posts. All very nice and innocent, when there are only 5 members in a Tribe, but now I am in a second group of which the Chief keeps on inviting more and more people with each and one of them lots and lots of followers.

When I add the followers of both Tribes I am in, it means that what ever article I post on my blog now will be shown into the timeline of 400,000 viewers. Each member of both tribes will tweet this blog article automatically the moment I push ‘Publish’. And the number grows.

Is this a good thing? I don’t know, but we are having fun and I love exploring new things, so lets see what happens. It all looks pretty simple but the impact could be HUGE. So here’s to Dan & Dino: way to go!

More about Triberr: http://triberr.com

Filed Under: Social Media, Triberr Tagged With: tribber, triber, triberr

Nicheprof’s Online Tutorial Series – Empire Avenue New Design

August 11, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Look what I found! Well, found…. it was thrown into my lap. Great website about EAv.

Filed Under: Empire Avenue Tagged With: Empire Avenue

WARNING: Facebook publishes the phone numbers from your cellphone

August 11, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

ALL THE PHONE NUMBERS IN YOUR PHONE are now on facebook! go to the top right of the screen, click on ACCOUNT, click on EDIT FRIENDS, left side of screen and click CONTACTS. you will see all phone numbers from your phone (FB friends or not) are published that you have stored in your mobile phone. TO REMOVE, go to RIGHT column, click on “this page.” please repost this on your status, so your friends can remove their numbers and thus prevent abuse if they do not want them published.

UPDATE – read this too: http://techieminx.com/facebook-phonebook-are-my-contact-numbers-on-show.html