Planting in Empire Avenue

I have been playing on Empire Avenue for a week or so.  I am trying to make sense of EA from a couple of directions.  First I want to figure out how to win.  My competitive streak is grabbed by the game.  Second I want to figure out if EA can really be used for anything important.  I also wonder if useful and winning are mutually exclusive in this game.

For now I am running as many missions as possible to build my currency.  So many missions that EA has throttled my mission running a few times.  I am turning all my currency into purchasing stocks; primarily Newbies.  The next challenge will be to prune those Newbies that have become disinterested before their price plummets.  I am also investing in folks who have made substantial investments in me to stabilize my share price.  I hope my investments in them will discourage investors from selling my stock in the event of a price dip.

I am not sure how this relates to building my personal brand.  I notice from Klout that my Social Media engagement is rising, but I am concerned that much of it is fluff or unrelated to me.  EA has encouraged me to engage in several media that I had ignored previously.  This blog is an excellent example of something that EA has prompted.

I don't have any conclusions yet.  I plan to continue to stumble around (another SM that EA pushed me into) Empire Avenue and the rest of the plethora of Social Media to see what turns out.