AllHipHop + Social Networking = HipHop’s Biggest Social Network?

Visually…Very nice, I was totally impressed and eager to explore the site more when I just happen to login one day a few months ago. Overall content was presented effectively (I didn’t expect anything less, they have insightful editorials, reviews, and features); a commerce element (powerd by Amazon) was intergrated into the site seamlessly; media in the form of video, audio, and podcasts received a makeover and are now in a slick branded player that gives the user the option of opening it in a new window.

I do wish there were more social networking features intergrated directly into the site. While AllHipHop.com has a presence on MySpace and MySpaceTV the only other social type of website I could find them on was Yahoo! Answers. I also really feel like their content; especially in their ‘media zone;’ could benefit from adding a ‘share’ feature. Most content on the site includes a rating system for users and allows comments.

AllHipHop.com’s community forums are extremely active so there is definitely a community aspect to their new 2.0 redesign. I think the community and website could benefit from using tools such as Twitter for their users and also staff. Not like they don’t have an engaged community already; I just think that doing so could add that much more to AllHipHop, creating a HipHop portal of sorts, where users could be engaged literally 24×7.

With so many options for using Social Networks, which do you think would be most successful in a scenario such as this?

***Note: I wanted to add that the do have a forum called IllTek that is technology based for Techie’s who also love Hip Hop (we do exist).***

About the Author
Angela Benton is the Founder and Publisher of BlackWeb20.com. Her experience spans a variety of industries including consultative relationships with companies such as UPS, Bizjournals.com, Realestate.com, and Lendingtree.com.
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