Empire Avenue, Twitter Buys

Empire Avenue just raised $1.2 million in funding for a product that they hope will turn Social Influence into a virtual Stock Market where “users take the role of a company and their product value is determined by the level of your online activity and the networks one creates during daily webernets surfings.”

Empire Avenue uses a range of social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Flicker) to create an individual score with this score equal to an individual’s share price. The list of the top 100 most followed users on Twitter yields no major surprises with #5 Kim Kardashian describing herself as a “business woman, exec producer, fashion designer, perfumista” and Kanye West following exactly 0 people. 

From reviewing the list, the potential one has to climb the ladder of social influence, at least in the celebrity world, would appear to be based on a combination of the following factors:

1. Career 

The Top 20 goes as follows: 

11 musicians (#1 Gaga, #2 Bieber, #4 Katy Perry, #6 Britney, #7 Shakira, #8 Taylor Swift, #12 Rihanna, #13 Selena Gomez, #16 Timberlake, #18 Eminem, #19 Nicki Manaj)

3 TV show hosts (#10 Ellen, #11 Opah, #20 Seacrest)

2 Twitter services (#14 Twitter en espanol, #15 Twitter)

1 President (#3 Obama)

1 Actor (#9 Ashton Kutcher)

1 Athlete (#17 Kaka)

1 Kardashian (#5 Kim)

A very musician heavy list. Namely because: 

a. musicians are more likely to be interesting and transparent on Twitter than their actor or politician counterparts who have their careers more innately tied to their likability

b. musicians will often be able to update directly about their shows, albums etc as they are the principal person driving the decisions
c. musicians were the first entertainers to embrace social media because they stand to enhance their careers and distribute the actual material directly over the internet whereas actors' work (in its initial release) is strapped to movie theaters or television timeslots  

d. musicians also give you social commentary such as this:

katyperry Katy Perry

REMIZZLE ur PaR TaY tonight with my new @MissyElliott featured REMIXED Last Friday Night!

2. Trajectory of career  

#2 Justin Bieber is at the peak of his influence as a young pop star with nearly 12 million followers. He is likely headed for more than a few unfollows when he:

a. gains weight (#26 Mariah Carey)

b. rumors surface of she-male prostitutes (#45 Cristiano Ronaldo)

c. combines the previous two (#81 Snooki)

3. I’m married to the game, you just got relations

#47 Perez Hilton has 35,632 tweets at the moment this sentence was written. With 3,712,504 million followers that gives him a follower per tweet of 104. #18 Eminem on the other hand has 5,356,439 followers with only 153 tweets giving him a follower per tweet of 35,009. Eminem has the ability to substantially increase the amount of people following him by exuding even a minimal effort. Conversely, Perez has essentially tapped out his ability to ramp up his followers.

Mr. Mathers will probably never ramp up his social media game but the potential for growth could allow him to grow past his value at 18.

4. The Meltdown  

The potential for a meltdown should be valued in some way. #27 Charlie Sheen reached one million followers in a day and the chance someone else has a come apart would lead to sky rocketing value

Based on the above criteria the following are people that present value based on their current position in the Twitter top 100 and potential to gain followers. 

Buys

#61 Daniel Tosh - 3,073,286 followers / 3,738 tweets / 822 followers per tweet - Tosh's show has taken off as a something larger than cult favorite. His celebrity seems to only now taking off and he actually seems to have the talent to become a legitimate star. His issue is the highest ranking comedian currently is #36 Jimmy Fallon and he appears too smart to meltdown or get caught up in celebrity gossip. Plus penis jokes play to a limited audience.

#68 Russell Brand - 2,942,747 followers / 2,074 tweets / 1,419 followers per tweet - His career trajectory would seem to hold him back from reaching Twitter super stardom (actor / comedian / comedy musician) but in buying Russell Brand you're really betting on his come apart potential, which is almost Rodmanesque. Married to #4 Katy Perry, Brand has been arrested 12 times and addicted to heroin and sex (although sober for nearly 10 years).  Their divorce (inevitable for volatile celebrities) will likely lead to unfiltered Twitter meltdown that could allow Brand to sky rocket in the league tables.

#73 Lil Wayne - 2,840,562 / 261 tweets / 10,883 followers per tweet - The most prolific rapper in the rap game remains completely un-prolific in the Tweet game. The Carter documentary showed a narcissistic, hard-working insane person that appeared to be completely removed from reality. While his popularity may be at a high, or even peaked around the Carter III, he's coasted to nearly 3 million followers without much effort, is in the most successful Twitter career and all it would take is either a little commitment or a styrofoam induced Twitter Michael Richards to really take off.

#91 J-Lo - 2,495,196 followers / 478 tweets / 5,220 followers per tweet - Jennifer Lopez is currently staring down the barrel of a career revival with her bank and Twitter account as the beneficiaries. A big year for J-Lo, she signed on for a second season of American Idol, was named to the Most Beautiful People list, released a top 10 iTunes hit with Lil Wayne, and has just gone through a very public divorce. Jennifer Lopez was a paparazzi and media darling for nearly a decade prior to her marriage to Marc Anthony, her twitter should see a major boost when/if this returns.

Honorable mention:

#34 Chris Brown (meltdown)

#35 Jessica Simpson (career recovery)

#54 Kourtney Kardashian  (Kardashians tweet)

#71 Drake (Career and trajectory)

Appears companies (or at least mine) are ahead of the game already blocking Empire Avenue from their servers and it seems to walk the line with gambling, but a fun concept to mess around with. Remains to be seen if Empire Avenue will take off but with virtual stores and products making unvirtual money, a virtual social stock market is a somewhat natural offshoot.