Dos and Don'ts for Businesses on 'Empire Avenue'

Last week, I wrote about Empire Avenue, the "social media exchange" that enables players to buy and sell virtual shares in another person or business or brand. With an expanding user base, marketing by social media the game helps players monitor their social influence and garner business-related connections that may lift sales and boost their bottom line.Ford (FORD) started trading at 25.35 eaves -- Empire Avenue's fake currency -- on its first day and ended the day at 45.61e. Today it trades at 102.77e.This week I chatted with representatives from two of the largest conglomerates on the real New York Stock Exchange about their participation in Empire Avenue. That’s right. Both Ford Motor Co. and AT&T established themselves on the site two months ago. While they’re new to the game, check out their stats.The representatives at Ford and AT&T say their companies spend less than an hour a day managing their Empire Avenue accounts. Ford's account is managed by Scott Monty, the company's global digital and multimedia communications manager. AT&T's account is managed by Christopher Baccus, the executive director of digital and social media.Since both of these fledgling Empire Avenue companies experienced fast success on the platform, I asked them to offer some dos and don’ts for other business leaders who may be considering using Empire Avenue as well.Then add fresh links, posts, images and branding information right away. Go back to your personal page and pull off any unprofessional photos or info that may hurt the image of your brand. Slowly what will emerge is a coherent, up-to-date personal and professional image of you and your company. social media marketing Think of Facebook as good latté--keep it light, sweet and short. Remember, it's called Facebook, not Crankybook or Boringbook. Keep your posts upbeat, useful and informative.With a solid website to show users who you are, the means to connect to your best customers on LinkedIn and a platform to post your latest work on Facebook, you are ready to add in the fast-twitch marketing muscle of Twitter.

Don’t forget to reward

Think about giving something of tangible value to players who take the time to invest in and evangelize your brand. Aside from purchasing their shares, Ford's Monty recommends those with a brick and mortar or social media marketing strategy ecommerce operation should consider offering a discount code or coupon as a beneficial way of saying thanks. Monty also suggests profiling or featuring one investor each week by means of a "Shareholder Mail" message. This rewards a person for their exemplary support by encouraging other players to invest in that person.Start with a personal, rather than a company, Twitter feed. The goal here is to follow your customers, tweet about what's relevant to your business, retweet content that's interesting to your customers and offer short, concise thoughts--140 characters or less--on your market. Remember, it's about getting your finger on the pulse of your current customers and offering useful information to potential customers. A few tweets a day is more than enough.Go mobile. Twitter is great, but it's not worth sitting at a computer tweeting all day. Get Twitter's mobile client and tweet directly from your phone. Note: Though it might seem like a timesaver, don't set your preferences to automatically place Twitter content on Facebook and LinkedIn--they're unique tools and each requires its own messaging.For retail and sales, a well-thought-out, geo-targeted presence on Foursquare makes sense. The goal is to reward loyal customers with preferential treatment and discounts.The king of social discounting, this tool lets you offer a deep discount on a single day for a single product to drive awareness and business. But be careful, social media marketing plan your operation may be flooded with deadbeats who have no intention of ever returning to pay full price.Truly the cutting-edge of social media, ShareSquare uses customizable barcodes that can be loaded with company information and placed into business cards, pamphlets or other printed materials, where customers then use their smartphone cameras to capture the encoded info and automatically connect to everything from company images to sweepstakes.

Don’t opt out -- register your brand

As an aside, Randy Gage, author of Why You're Dumb, Sick & Broke...And How to Get Smart, Healthy & Rich!, says that even if you have no intention of ever putting your business or brand on Empire Avenue, social media marketing companies you should still go to the site and secure your business or brand ticker before someone else does. Better safe than left out of the game, he says.LinkedIn may not have the social media hip factor of Facebook, Groupon or Foursquare, but it does have one thing those services don't: all the information on your best customers laid right out where you can find it.Tools to use: LinkedIn is a very powerful tool, but it has a lot of extraneous features (e.g., LinkedIn Answers). All you need is a solid personal profile touting your experience, why someone would want to do business with you and about a half-dozen recommendations. Then, qualify your contacts into legit sales leads by ranking them in terms of how much business they do--or are likely to do--with you. Next, one at a time starting at the top of the list, request a connection with each and every qualified lead. Sure, it will take some time to rank your connections, not to mention for them to respond, but you have a full four hours for this, so fear not.Timesaving tip: Do not create a separate company presence on LinkedIn. That's what your website and Facebook page are for. Your LinkedIn presence is about you. So get a professional head shot taken for your profile.Overall, Facebook is miserable for running your business. It's not secure and it basically forces your employees to fool around. What it is fabulous for, though, is posting an up-to-the-minute log of what you and your business are doing. social media marketing services You will need a personal Facebook profile and a business page. Once you set up a personal profile, creating a business page is a breeze. Just click on the "Ads and Pages" link on the left-hand side of your personal page and click the "+ Create Page" button. When creating your company profile, don't be shy about recycling your branding info from LinkedIn and your website.