Social network - what should I concentrate on?

best practices for startup

[carpediem]

Hi all,

I recently started a website - social network (about one specific music genre) that basically have "content" section and also "user" section. User section is something like myspace, user can create his profile, manage buddylist, upload photos, write blogs etc...

As for the content section, besides news and reviews, I was thinking creating something like encyclopedia for that specific music genre. "Encyclopedia" about this genre of music would be a lot of static articles about different artists and stuff like that. My question is, is this worth doing? Do you think this "encyclopedia" section is unnecessary? Should I forget the "encylocpedia" section and concetrate more on writing original content (like news and reviews) and getting people register?

In order to attract users from SEs, I should have some content on the subject. How else do I attract people to social network? I don't want to create fake accounts... I can invite my friends to register, though.

Thanks in advance.

[maximillianos]

It is my experience that having some new, fresh content added to the site daily helps promote conversation among your social network... else people run out of things to talk about.

So yes, having articles/content to go along with the site can only add value in my opinion.

[jdancing]

Why not make the encyclopedia a Wiki and let your users create and maintain your content? You could hire a power Wiki writer to get the Wiki rolling but with a good size social network this will take care of itself after awhile.

mmmmm, free content...