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#da12social‬ Is Europe ready to strategically leverage Social Media for business? Interview with Axel Schultze @AxelS

June 12, 2012 By 1 Comment

In 4 weeks time, 30 strategists, 250 volunteers created 1,000+ pages of crowd sourced research and 1 strategy proposal for the Digital Agenda Assembly 2012 of the EU Commission. Yesterday I had the privilege to talk to the man that initiated this group of highly qualified volunteers; Axel Schultze.

Axel Schultze, CEO of Social Media Software company XeeMe, Palo Alto, California - Chairman of the Social Media Academy, Palo Alto and active social media practitioner since 2003.

As part of the Digital Agenda Assembly 2012 of the EU Commission, you created a Digital Agenda Strategy Team. Can you tell me more about your motives to create this team? When and how did you come up with this idea?

The EU commission invited me to do an opening keynote at the Digital Agenda Assembly conference at the 21st of June in Brussels. I reviewed the European situation and realized not only is Europe 4 years behind the US but also not ready to strategically leverage Social Media for business. I proposed to the EU Commission to develop an open strategy to stimulate small and medium business to create growth and to compete on a global market. The scope is huge, so we need a clearly defined strategy to go after that objective. But as an experienced strategist I know it is possible. My motive is to make Europe a more stable and better place to live and work.

Very high goals: sustainable growth, additional jobs and being able to compete in a global market. In the meanwhile we see the news that Europe is struggling to keep their (financial) heads above the water. Do you think Social Media can ‘save’ Europe business wise?

If you look at the struggle Europe is in, there is a difference in what the press is saying and global reality. A large part of the EU, northern countries are economically very strong compared to US and Latin American countries. All in all, we see a rather strong Europe. We are always challenged around the globe. Even when disaster strikes there will be a way to create business.

There are various aspects of growth. If you look at the shoe industry, in Italy and Spain, the leather industry is big. However, both Italy and Spain are struggling. On a global scope, DC Shoes in California, has 8 million fans talking about their shoes on Facebook only. Falco is an Italian shoe factory which is not present on social media at all. Both companies target young people – but the US one is clearly ahead of the European one. If we can stimulate the Italian and Spanish shoe industry online, people don’t need to order shoes from the US.

Then there is the Fascino Group Guangzhou Shoes Manufacturer from China who is a very potential competitive risk. These shoes are not known in Europe because Chinese companies don’t allow Facebook in their marketing strategy. Renren.com is a chinese social network and they are present there. As soon as Fascino is able to deal with western social media platforms, they will come to Europe over-night. Whilst Falco is still not present at all and doesn’t even know how to deal with it. We need to prepare our local businesses. If businesses like Falco are not present other than through old fashioned business concepts, they will not be competitive. And the shoe industry is only one example.

The US and China are big countries with a lot of people speaking the same language. In Italy and Germany almost all television broadcasts are synchronised into their respective languages. Young people can only learn English from music channels, online and a bit from school. What about this language barrier?

Look at the kids in Europe. There are 230 million Facebook users who talk to friends in their native language but also to friends around the world in English. The common language has become English. As such we are initially focusing on those groups of people and businesses who are open minded, have typically a better financial position, and thus are more able to buy the products. They will lead the track and the slow mover will follow.

What if the Euro falls, what strategy will be needed for Social Media and business?

Companies who feel they have no time for Social Media need to learn that it is not a nice-to-have or fancy marketing play but a strategic tool to grow the business. The whole focus of our particular social media initiative is to help grow a business through widening the potential market – which today means more export. Whether the euro falls or not, business will need to continue selling their wares. And if they can’t locally right now, they can find consumers in other parts of Europe or the world.

The US economy almost collapsed 4 years ago. The US grocery brand Whole Foods was known as expensive. In that crisis even rich people saved money but Whole Foods grew. They understood they had to be as human as possible. Albertsons groceries was 10 times bigger at that time but closed more than half of their operation and almost vanished away, others even went out of business because they did not act on the opportunities to get closer to their respective markets which is one of the key advantages of social media. (read more about Whole Foods Social Media strategy on Mashable).

Zappos is an online shoe dealer. They had a hard time selling shoes online because people want to try shoes on. They started to send 10 pairs of shoes to fit on and let customers send the ones back that didn’t fit.  In a few years time Zappos grew to a 1 billion business. They recognized that social media is not about fancy, but about building relationships with as much consumers as possible. The prejudice that you can only talk to a few customers in so much time is not true when you apply social media as a business relation tool and not as a spam tool.

What is it exactly that your group is working on, what the European Digital Strategy is in need of? What is this groups added value?

This group has worked through thousands of pages of research. The real work is to make sense out of this information, to distill it. We focus on the 3 biggest industries in the countries. We look at the perception of social media in European countries, at obstacles, rules & regulations and what business owners think of social media. We need to know where they are and identify the opportunities. If we would be pure data junkies, we would see construction work is important because it is big in all countries. But knowing construction is very local, we rather focus on industry segments with a sustainable impact on a country’s economy. The most notable effect for businesses in this situation in Europe is to grow outside their country. We won’t be able to come up with that objective without knowing what is going on in the respective countries. Now, going forward, we cannot continue doing this for the next 4 years for free. We need to find funds and hope to get funding from various sources. And we will look for resources to execute this project in the next couple of years.

What outcome do you hope to present in Brussels.

We developed an execution plan where we hope to assemble a team for the entire project. We would like to see country specific teams and funding to get them going. We build a 3 tier engagement model, where we conduct an awareness campaign with sponsoring from industry leaders to fund this campaign. We recognized the need for profound education for business leaders, business teams as well as consultants and that will be the first problem we need to solve.

On the 20th of June we will reconvene with the team on how we will go forward. We will install more country teams where we get educated resources. We hope to reach 7-10 countries for the remainder of the DA 12. Cutting through the noise is the biggest challenge for all groups on the Agenda. I believe our group demonstrated that we are well able to cut through that noise.

Read more…

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My 7 Simple Pillars to build Online Success

April 16, 2012 By 4 Comments

This is my first assignment in the Social Media bootcamp I am following, organised by Michael Q. Todd.

Although I am playing around in social media a lot, I never really felt organized in it. I just did what felt good and followed my guts. I hope this course will give me some clarity and new strategies to follow.

The first assignment is to write a blog post with an honest appraisal of my social media experience so far, using Michaels post ‘Your 7 Simple Pillars to build Online Success‘ as a guideline.

These are my 7 pillars.

  1. Find your pot of gold and stick to it This is probably the hardest part to all humans and goes from cradle to grave. If you do not find your passion in life, your pot of gold and what makes your heart tick, there is no goal really. In social media I see a lot of people retweeting, repeating, reposting what other people create. If you are unable to find your pot of gold (and I am sure everyone has one), there is no creation, no originality and therefore no success. Does that mean that we cannot learn from our masters and teachers? Certainly not. We can copy our masters but more important is to become your own master in what you do.Does this sound heavy? Just think about your childhood. What did you like to do most when you were young and playing? I remember demonstrating in my street with a self-made banner on sticks that said: “no more school” and felt very successful in getting a crowd behind me. I remember my surprise at the followers I got. My quality lies in the fact that I am able to collect a crowd and draw the attention to something. There, I said it.My passion is Raja Yoga, which means connecting to the Highest Source of energy. Yoga means connection. Social media means connection. My goal and passion in social media is to use social media as a way to help people connect to their Source as well.
  2. Don’t be afraid of technique As a webdesigner, clients often thought of me as some computer expert. Well, I am not a computer expert. When my hard-disk crashes, I bring my laptop to the bicycle computer repairman. But, I do keep up to date with the software I am using. When I want to use something, or want to automate something, I am a quick learner of software tools that will get me there. I am not afraid to try new tools. But I am also trying not to be attached to them. If my goal is clear, any tool can get me there. The tools I use are under my command. It is not about technique, it is about strategy. Discussions about the differences between Mac or Pc, Facebook or Google+ are totally irrelevant to me.To me, the Empire Avenue game plays a big catalytic role in measuring the tools I am using. For each action online in any online tool I am collecting points. It gives me great insight in which tools work best for me and for the people I want to reach.

    Empire Avenue Connection Scores

  3. Give and add value I think the best strategy online is to share. People want to share, we want to give. The best things in life are for free. The whole internet consists of information people shared for free. This is the biggest power of the internet. In any online action you do, there is no sense of giving, then most likely your action will not lead to success. If you are afraid that what you post will be stolen, then don’t post. As soon as you push the ‘publish’ button on any tool, you give it to the universe. When you keep this in mind, the universe will give back to you in the same amount or even more. Sharing is giving and giving is receiving.In giving and receiving, timing is everything. Do not use twitter when you are tired. Do not write a blog post when you feel down. If you see Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools as a way to interact, look at it as if it were a cocktail party. You dress up (mentally), find yourself in a good mood and then go and engage with the crowd. Only when you feel fresh and recharged, you can give to others. Posts, tweets, comments will be useless when you feel drained. With every action, online or not, you transmit energy. When there is no energy, do not act. For me this means, that my best time is early mornings. For other people this maybe evenings or nights. But for me after 8 pm, most things I do online are not giving energy, but rather taking. I use the evenings to read some and listen to music and stopped forcing myself being productive at that time.
  4. Be social Say thank you when somebody mentions you in a tweet. Re-share a post when somebody adds it to your timeline on Facebook. Click Plus when somebody makes a comment on your Google+ posts. Answer, engage and be attentive. People will feel the energy you sent out in this too. If somebody mentions you in a tweet, you can give back with mentioning them in your tweets, or a Follow Friday tweet.
  5. Create a party Social media is here for years now and is here to stay, and yet I still hear the same old prejudices that say: but I don’t want to share my whole personal life, I don’t care about people tweeting about what coffee they drink and where. If you don’t like what is being tweeted, posted and YouTubed, do it better! Be challenged to make a party out of your own life. Social media is not about locking yourself up in a room and stay behind your screen all day. Look at the beauty that happens outside. For me personally I love attending lectures, going to museums and talk about it. Having small children my time and geographic area for doing this is limited but there is a lot going on in my garden and kitchen table. Look at all the crafting we do and sharing it. I love the activity that is going on in my small housebound world here. If you think your life is boring, start making it exciting!
    #howto #paper #flowers #narcis

    Forest walks, play gardens and our crafting table is my world. I make a party of it every day.

     

  6. Pay it forward Give help and receive help to get shared. Do other people share your same goal? Add them to your circles, share their posts, give shout-outs. Being online alone is no fun. Get in circles, groups that can share your content and pay it forward. Don’t be afraid to lose anything when you promote your competition. The pie is big enough for everybody.
  7. Think BIG I don’t mean a little bit big. I mean HUGE. Transcend the role you are playing now or the role you think you are playing. Are you a housewife? A mother like me? Are you trying to run a business and get the laundry done in between? It doesn’t matter. You are infinite. You are what you create and what you can create is much bigger than what you see now. You can be a King in your next life. Don’t hold yourself back with false modesty. Thoughts like “nobody is interested anyway” or “whatever I do is meaningless” are arrogance really. Who are you to judge? Let your audience judge about that. You just create the best you can and skip any limit.
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Empire Avenue as the champions league of social media

September 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Interview with Tim Gorree, IT solution architect for Nokia, about NOKIA on Empire Avenue

What is your role at Nokia?

Tim Gorree

Tim Gorree, managing NOKIA on Empire Avenue

My job title is IT Solution Architect, End User Solution Architecture. I have been responsible for Nokia’s presence in Second Life and am now also looking after Nokia’s presence on Empire Avenue. I work on other projects as well, like our internal social media engagement tools and http://www.ideasproject.com.
I have been a leading advocate for virtual worlds in Nokia and virtual currencies are part of that. The virtual currency that is used on Empire Avenue, the Eaves is interesting, because companies have found it difficult in the past to measure their Return on Investment on their social media activities, efforts and investments. A lot of companies are embracing social media, but how do they measure up in their various engagements? There is Klout, but Empire Avenue is a very exciting alternative. You can see how you measure up to others.

Why is Nokia playing on Empire Avenue?

We are there because everyone else is there. Microsoft with Xbox, Intell, BMW, Ford, etc. When Justin Boverton, CEO of Rivers Run Red, posted about Empire Avenue I signed up for a personal account. I noticed a person had registered the Nokia ticker and asked him if he was willing to hand it over to Nokia. From that moment on people started to buy Nokia like crazy. I went to Nokia’s marketing department to have the Nokia social media accounts connected. Already during the first week we saw a large amount of people connecting with our LinkedIn groups which we use to recruit people. This demonstrates that Empire Avenue is a good resource to find social media talent. I call it the champions league of social media.

On Empire Avenue it is very transparent what people and companies are doing with social media. When you sign up on EAv you see that there is more to social media then just Twitter and Facebook.

Nokia is performing well on EAv, is Nokia is inspring other companies to join?

I would hope so, companies who are engaging actively are doing better. We use it to amplify our other social media presences on Empire Avenue, and that does seem to work well. If companies are serious about their social media activity, they should be interested in learning more about how well they are doing across the social media landscape.

What is more important for Nokia, ‘winning’ the game or making connections? In other words, is it easy to sell stocks of people that don’t perform well?

To perform well we have to sell sometimes because we have to look after the interest of our shareholders. If you want to keep the interest of the shareholders in mind you have to sometimes make tough decisions and sell somebody we have invested in. On the other hand, when we buy somebody, the person is really happy with Nokia on Empire Avenue. The point is to not take it personal when somebody sells you. When somebody sells you, you might have to improve in one of your areas.

My mission is to amplify the social media presense of Nokia. It is about what we do on Foursquare, on Facebook, on Youtube …. Empire Avenue is a platform that helps to amplify this presence and allows us to connect with and discover new people. The metrics of how well we do compared to other companies on each of the different social media platforms are valuable to us and help to monitor progress.

More about Tim Gorree on Tim Gorree’s Nokia page, on Twitter
Visit Nokia on Empire Avenue

Written by Elza van Swieten, (e)CONFLUENCE on Empire Avenue

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To buy back or not to buy back, that’s the question on Empire Avenue

September 8, 2011 By 3 Comments

Being in Europe, it is so wonderful to be in the middle of time. The east side of the world is fully awake and active whilst the USA/Canada players on Empire Avenue are getting ready for the night, spending their last eaves. I just stumbled in to a essential discussion about buying and selling strategies. Core question: is buying back really social and is not buying back anti-social?

Warren Whitlock I’m starting to think that “buying back” is anti-social. We play EA to make new connections, expand our networks and have fun, yet many want me to seek some kind of balance in shares. It’s a bad play for doing well in the game. The only factors that count is how good the stock is and if you want more shareholders, you will do better to play well.

Tom Cooley that’s why I sold my 500+ shares in you, Warren. Because you don’t seem to get it.

Jane Chin It’s funny, I’ve started buying back but not always matching. Sometimes I just can’t do it… not enough eaves. Sometimes I don’t want to, because it’s obviously not a good investment. So I don’t expect people to buy me back (my shares go up and down because I can’t be on social media all the time), either.

Tom Cooley it’s not about matching share for share, but it is about connecting through mutual stock holding.

Jane Chin That I agree Tom. Recently I’ve sold off the “1 share” players (meaning we both own 1 share in each other) and when I did, I literally feel this twinge in my mind — the kind that says, “by doing this I am about to break that tie”.

Warren Whitlock ‎Tom Cooley how am I more connected if I buy a lousy stock. Wouldn’t I be helping the player more to reach out and help them learn the game and perhaps meet goals other than holding hands on EA?

Tom Cooley ‎”it’s bad play for doing well in the game” – I owned 500+ of your shares for several months, you owned none of mine, so I sold you. Presumably that qualifies me as a “lousy stock”. Yet I have 33M more eaves than you do and started only a month before you did. Explain…

Warren Whitlock ‎Jane what kind of tie did you break? I have many wonderful friends who don’t play EA. (most of them in fact). I bought hundreds of stocks of people that were friends on Facebook, and felt that twinge when I had to give them up to buy stocks of real players. Then I noticed.. Those people weren’t even logging into EA. They had no idea I had bought them and couldn’t care less if I sold them (I know, I’ve talk face with at least a dozen).

David Sanger ‎Warren, I like buying back for the social aspect, and for some kind of connection/support, but agree with you that the notion of “matching” is a bit odd, and not really helpful. Some people buy me, and I have excellent divs and they have terrible ones, so I buy some back for courtesy but am not going to invest heavily because I’d be losing money and not helping anyone. Some people sell off from 155 just to match my 150, according to some formula, which seems strained.

So I agree it is worth playing well, but a certain degree of mutuality is also part of the game and I don’t just make friends with hi-div folk.
By the way, I have had 100 of yours for a long time, and you bought 2 of mine and sold them. Now I am doing quite well so it could not have been because of a smart investment strategy that you sold me.

At the same time, unlike Tom Cooley, I’ll keep my shares in you because your divs are great, and even buy more. But I’d be much more pleased also to interact with you and get to know you a bit better.

Jane Chin ‎Warren the tie I felt I was breaking was “a potential”. Granted it may be an artifact of the game construct — because of the way this game is structured, this is an aspect of “investing in a connection” however transitory. There are some relationships that came first from EA but then we grew it on Twitter and now that person’s social stock I’ll probably not want to sell & will want to match as much as possible.

—

etc. etc.

As much as there are players on Empire Avenue, there are strategies. There isn’t one strategy right because it is all very personal. Everybody has different objectives in the Empire Avenue game and this is what makes this game tick. Finding your own strategy can be a challenge. Ask yourself, why am I in this game, what’s in it for me? And do I really need to buy back to socialize?

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Empire Avenue – don’t put reputation at stake when taking a break

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How to leave your shareholders behind with style when going on Vacation from Empire Avenue?

Going on vacation is a blessing. Vacation is a luxury, isn’t it? Still I see a lot of players complaining about their stock price dropping as soon as they get back. What? Didn’t have a good time? Who cares about your dividends and stock price?

OK, maybe your shareholders do. And if they don’t they would have sold you while you were at the beach drinking tequila. Shareholders have a right to know when you are going to take a vacation and when you are coming back. Don’t they? Or is it what you do, too private?

Shareholders will notice your absence on Empire Avenue; as soon as your online activity slows down, your dividend and stock price will drop. Will you leave your shareholders behind guessing why you are sliding? The most impolite thing to do when going on vacation is not to inform your shareholders. Unless your vacation is filled with an equal amount of online activity like uploading your thousands of vacation photo’s to Flickr. In that case, don’t tell anybody you are on a vacation. Your dividend will stay high and everybody is happy.

Breaking away from Empire Avenue

Breaking away from Empire Avenue - choose a strategy

If you are going on a real vacation, meaning zero activity online, your dividend and share price will drop. No matter what. You might as well drop in style and inform your shareholders, of what I think they have a right to know, you are planning to do. When will you be back, for how long will you be gone. Should they hold you or not? If you are only going away for a week, you could ask your shareholders to hold you. If you are going away for a serious amount of time, let your shareholders know. All in case of zero activity that is. Not letting your shareholders know could even damage your EAv reputation. They will see you ‘in the red’ day in day out in the ticker tape, but if they know why, it saves them worries.

Is it fair to ask your shareholders not to sell you?

Yes and no. It depends on the duration of your absence. If your online activity is zero for one week, you could of course ask your shareholders to hold. You can put that in your bio so shareholders know where they stand. If your online activity is zero for a duration of, lets say, several weeks, you might as well tell your shareholders to sell you – but keep 1 share – so they can be informed the moment you are back, using a shareholder e-mail sent out.

I see a lot of people taking the welfare trip telling vacationers ‘no worry, I will hold you’. This is NOT helping, it is in fact holding you back. Why? Because your dividend will drop for sure if you are not active only, but if shareholders keep your stock, your share price will stay high. At the moment you come back, you will find your dividend low and your stock price high, who is going to buy you then? Therefore, holding on to shares of somebody going on a vacation, is not helping at all. You might as well take the dive and leave in style. That is, help your stock holders by letting them sell you (you are all doing this for your shareholders aren’t you?), ask them to keep 1 share to be able to inform then on your return and then, on return, politely ask to buy you back, just after a few days of online activity, so they can see the proof of your return.

Whatever you do, it is advised to not use the Vacation mode that Empire Avenue offers. It will show your shareholders that you are not paying out any dividend and that doesn’t make you trustworthy. In other cases you might think of a ‘suspend your account’ mode, and plan on how to come back. More about that later.

Summary

  1. leaving your shareholders behind uninformed can damage your EAv trustworthiness, other way around – informing them ads to your credibility. Your reputation is worth more than your stock.
  2. make a happening about going and leaving, it is a game, taking a dive is too
  3. on coming back, work a few days on your dividend first and then invite your (1-share) shareholders to buy you back
  4. if this all sounds to complicated and you don’t want curvy stats – hire a pro to manage your account
  5. travel light

Written by: Elza van Swieten – (e)CONFLUENCE

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

August 24, 2011 By 4 Comments
Berrie Pelser

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.

Empire Avenue virtual airplanes

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

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

August 20, 2011 By 2 Comments

Interview with Micheal Q. Todd

Michael 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

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