Is Global Grind’s Star Power Enough?

By Markus Robinson | Fri, Jan 30, 2009 4:19 pm

Global Grind, Hip-Hop’s Digg, has now positioned themselves to be “Hip-Hop’s Huffington Post” according to the new editor in chief Russell Simmons. Russell has enlisted the help of some of his A and B (some C and D) list celebrity friends in music and on screen. Stars including Nia Long, Dame Dash, LL Cool J, and others will now have their own little piece of blog heaven under the Global Grind brand. Lynne D best described GG’s new model as reminiscent of UBO, but as GG’s traffic growth continues to stagnate, will GG’s star power be enough to save them from the same fate as UBO?

Celebrity gossip/entertainment blogs are among the most trafficked websites in the blogosphere, so experiencing news straight from the celebrity’s mouths is very appealing. But let’s be completely honest, hearing directly from the celebrities will have a difficult time competing with the posts that we have come to expect from our celebrity/entertainment blogs. So in order for Global Grind’s blogs to be entertaining, they must use their star power to deliver something that the entertainment blogs cannot, and that is exclusive content, testimony, and most importantly conversation.

At first glance, it looks as if some of the celebrities don’t understand the nuances that make for great blog post. Case in point: Nia Long’s CAPITALIZED babble entitled PURPOSE (no disrespect to Dr. Maulana Karenga or Kwanza. Just not what I expected from a Nia Long post.), little Bow Wow’s post/press release, and Sanaa Lathan’s single sentence post more suitable for twitter than a “blog”. I was also disappointed by, LL Cool J’s Inspiration, which is simply Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” copied and pasted into his post. Thanks for the post LL, but it would be really cool if you followed up with some commentary or background or something. There are some bright points. Like Ed Lover’s Life as I See It or The World Famous G-Mack’s Pledge To Be A Change Agent, and my personal favorite, Katie Rost’s The Hot List. Katie’s post was my favorite, not only because of the content, but because of her engagement. Katie took out time to respond to most of her comments (Take notes celebs!!).

The bottom line: with structure, the celebrity blogs could bode well for Global Grind’s traffic, but their success hinges upon how much work each celebrity is willing and able to put into the posts. If Global Grind becomes a repository for YouTube videos, press releases, and babble then we might see the reincarnation of UBO.

Category: Blog, Celeb 2.0, Content, Web 2.0

Tags: blogging, Celebrities, Entertainment, global grind

This post was written by:

Markus Robinson - who has written 162 posts on Black Web 2.0.

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j

I believe their positioning is intrinsically flawed. They're trying to reinvent the wheel in a digg and twitter era. Hip Hop bloggers don't need any aggregator portal and RSS feeds deliver hip hop news right on your computer. Star power won't do anything for them. Almost 2 years after their launch I remain quite dubious about the direction they took... unless they're working on an upcoming shift of strategy justifying the $4.5M they raised. So far it looks like only the google adwords people to benefit from this money.

Maurice Cherry

Markus, I love how you characterized each type. I would have preferred to see some more diversity and cutting edge ish out of Simmons' camp instead of regurgitating a "Black" version of something else. With this much star power, they could have generated more than a few one-line, all CAPS posts, but only time will tell. I'm surprised to see both Nia and Sanaa blogging with Global Grind though; maybe they're reconciling their earlier talk in 2007 with Essence about gossip blogs?

james

you all seem to say what you don't like i but i don't see any suggestions about what they could do or even a vain attempt applaud the effort to serve an underserverd audience. I dare not use the word "haters" but it seems to fit

Markus

Ouch James, but have you taken the time out to peruse our other coverage of Global Grind? Better yet, did you read this post? In particular the line where i said:
In order for Global Grind’s blogs to be entertaining, they must use their star power to deliver something that the entertainment blogs cannot, and that is exclusive content, testimony, and most importantly conversation.

I also included: with structure, the celebrity blogs could bode well for Global Grind’s traffic.

We also commended GG for their use of FB connect (which no other "Urban Sites" are using), and their star-studded streaming event, which i thoroughly enjoyed.

Why must every critique be consider hate? In fact, we love Global Grind so much, we're willing to critique.

Mike Street

As an advertising blog partner with Global Grind I really fail to see how this strategy will improve the over all experience of the site. None of the new content is though proving and Global Grind still lacks the solid community that makes HuffPost thrive.

Observing...

@James - why should anyone give them any advice. They scrap content from site owners (without their knowledge or permission), they use ad partners to piggy back off their traffic and sell more impressions for a bigger cost and claim it is helping them and give their site/blog exposure - the funny thing is their publishers have more traffic then they do.

They change up their strategy every 6 months( Black Digg now Black Huffington Post) and still can't break 100K in uniques (based off their Quantcast -- in which they are not even quanitfied - which makes me wonder even more) I am also convinced they don't know who they want to target.

I am not "hating" this is stating what I see going on. They need to either smarten up or bow out and quick. All the stars in the world can't save them without a clear strategy. I was also surprised to see they partnered with Rushmore Drive - I am not sure how this will play out but this will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Ty

Traffic stats as of Dec 31

Quantcast estimate: 81,500 uniques (US only)
Compete estimate: 54,000 uniques (US only)
Average estimate: 67,550 uniques

To be compared to NahRight's Quantcast certified traffic of 100,000 US uniques/month

james

@Markus, That comment was not to you for writing the post but was at the commenters. @ mike street. Who were you partnered with before and did they serve you better? If so why are you still with Globalgrind? You must see some value there. @ observing, They are doing the same thing that digg and even huffpost does but gearing it towards the Urban audience. I don't see any slams here on either of those sites. If you have a better idea why don't you start a competing site? if you are just a consumer then have you ever sent an email to Globalgrind to say : hey i would like to see this or that?" My point is we should hold them to task and push them to give a better product but at the same time tell them what we would like to see. I look at this company and the have a facebook application, facebook connect they even have a mobile version! and if they are all not up to par they appear to be trying to service the audience's needs. I've seen alot of other sites reported on here that are doing a 10th of that. LEt me clear by saying i think there is a lot they need to do but can't we constructive? MArkus you guys have interviewed the guys over there. What is your take on them?
thnks for listening

Markus

My impression of Navarrow is that he seems to have his finger on the pulse of the urban blogosphere. He's intelligent, keeps his ear to the streets, and has been able to adapt his business model based on feedback and the changing market (though that may be to a fault). I do agree with Mike about GG not having the solid community that makes HuffPost/Digg thrive, and that will be essential to GG's growth in the future. Only time will tell if celebrities blogs can help drive that community.

Observing...

@ James- why would I compete - or start a competing site - LOL. Not my cup of tea.

Let me clear, I am not their audience (and like stated earlier - they don't know who their audience is either) and they are not doing the same thing as Huffington Post. Huffington Post is a content based site. They are more of a online magazine or daily news portal such as a CNN, Daily Kos type of site. Again GG takes content without consent ( i know you can take up to 200 words) but most sites don't even know they are aggragating their content. That's not transparent or cool.

And I won't blast Huff Post or Digg sites because they have their strategy and working it everyday. They have a defined audience and have not moved on and off of it.

As for when they were on they Digg model - did they or have they truly researched social bookmarking sites and how their target using them -- if they do at all. Cause I bet you will see most of us don't. These key research facts are important for them to start doing.

A facebook application, mobile marketing does not make a site, it adds to it. I would love to find out the stats on that as well to see if their audience even understands or uses them. And Facebook Connect is great but this again does not make you a leader in the space -- Facebook Connect is open and everyone can use it.

I feel like the people that run GG live on TechCrunch looking for anything and everything to add to their site, but without testing it or seeing if their audience wants it or really needs it. I challenge them to put out a survey and ask their readers on what they are aware of and know - they will be surprised.

Clearly, James you either work for GG or are a fan of them so you might be the perfect person to try to change their direction or in 1-2 years - it's going to be... do you remember GG?