Turn followers into cash: Company rewards web users

A new social media project wants people to profit from their Twitter followers, blog subscribers and Facebook friends — and they want to pocket a percentage of that profit, too.

Empire Avenue, an Edmonton-based company with employees across North America, allows members to use digital currency to buy shares in other users based on their online influence.

The name has a double-meaning — it's about building your online empire, and it's the name of a street in St. John's, N.L., where most of the company's employees either grew up or went to university (Bond Street was their first choice, but the URL was taken).

Empire Avenue users can be individuals or businesses, and they buy shares based on how much influence or value they believe other users have online.

The more people who buy shares in a user, the more those shares will be worth, and the more digital currency that user and their shareholders will earn.

The value of a user's shares also depends on their online reach — how many followers they have on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, how many people visit their website, how often they interact with their readers, etc.

Duleepa Wijawardhana, Empire Avenue's CEO and co-founder, says in an increasingly social media-based world, individuals have plenty of influence.

They share breaking news on Twitter, review books and music on their blogs and Facebook, and express their thoughts and experiences in many other ways.

It's that kind of word-of-mouth influence that Empire Avenue hopes to cash in on.

“We're asking you to put value into what other people are writing on the web,” said Wijawardhana.

But Empire Avenue is more than a game — it's an advertising platform.

Eventually, the people with the highest-valued shares will be able to enter into advertising partnerships with companies that suit their influence spheres.

For example, someone with highly valued shares who blogs about video games may be asked to run video game ads on their site. The user would take a chunk of the profit from the ads, and Empire Avenue would collect a percentage as well.

Wijawardhana calls it “influence-advertising,” and says it rewards people for engaging with readers and publishing valuable content.

“The whole point is to connect you to people of value,” he said.

Learn more at Empire Avenue