Indeed, when we speak about gamification it's often closely tied to social media, another area in which the business community has realized it has to play a role. And in some social networks, the game aspects are not hidden at all. One of them, a Canadian startup known as Empire Avenue, is modeled after a game people have played for centuries: the stock market.

Buying and selling social

Empire Avenue is a social gaming platform similar to Klout in the sense that it measures an individual's or organization's global influence. This influence is quantified in the form of a share price, and each entity on the exchange has its own stock ticker. You can make money (called "eaves") by being social -- sharing a YouTube video, for example, or by investing in other companies that are themselves social.

Ric Williams, chief operating officer of Empire Avenue Inc., says that thousands of companies, including AMD, Intel, Ford and Appleby's have joined the site. Some enterprises, like Intel, maintain dedicated staff "playing" on the site while others take a more casual approach, letting their employees contribute here and there.