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Well, a lot of us think the stock market is a bit unfair since we know so little about the companies that make up our mutual funds and 401ks. Wall Street markets were meant to be simple: Let ordinary people become partial owners of businesses, profit with their success and liquidate their investment at anytime.

While this simple premise has been somewhat tarnished recently, a new consumer market is emerging.

Consumers Can Now Monetize Social Media Marketing and Word-of-Mouth

Empire Avenue is a site that allows people to monetize their online influence through various social networks:

Welcome to The People’s Market on Empire Avenue, where you can have fun buying, selling and trading shares in your best friend, your favorite blogger, that band you like or even your mom… anyone! Best of all, it’s totally free.

Our theory goes like this: if you’ve ever told someone to watch a movie, buy an album or eat at some restaurant, you’re using influence. Being the generous people we are, we thought we’d give you a way to measure that influence and stack it up against anyone else. Nothing like a bit of friendly competition among friends, social networks and complete strangers, right?

Get it? Well it may seem a bit confusing, but look at it this way: People—who often play the role of reviewers or brand curators thanks to social media—now recommend services and products like and it actually affects buying behavior.

Here’s more:

Like a real stock market, your stock price on Empire Avenue is affected by others buying and selling your shares. But you’re also spreading your online influence when you write a blog post, update your Facebook status, post something on Twitter, and so on. The more you do online, the greater your influence and the faster your stock will rise!

Genuine word-of-mouth has always been the Holy Grail for marketers—not manufactured or contrived chatter by marketers—and this may prove to be a valuable outlet for big and small brands that are attempting to tap into a willing market.

To take it a step further, this site touches on Ed Keller and Jon Berry’s 2003 book “The Influentials,” which notes that one American in ten tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat and what to buy. The potential of word-of-mouth marketing is stunning.

Implications for Mid-Size Businesses

For resourceful businesses with authentic brands and services, credential-ized word-of-mouth markets are fertile marketing opportunities. Find the influencers with big market caps. Show them what you’ve got. Invite them to experience your brand. And be heard online.