How to Find New YouTube Content

YouTube is pretty incredible. Surf from cat video to amateur vlog to high-quality episodic show in just a few clicks, all under one network.

Of course, with billions of hours of video available to chose from, how does one go about tailoring his interests and finding the people who create that great stuff? While extensive YouTube searches can help fix your bike or tie a Windsor knot, a television-like experience that offers a stream of entertaining content requires more work.

If you arrive at the YouTube's homepage with no clear search goals in mind, it can be difficult to discover something new. The best way around this? Subscribe to several channels and find great YouTubers. But if you're struggling to start, Mashable will guide you to finding quality video creators, no matter what your tastes.

Start With the Big Names

YouTube has its celebrity set — if you are a frequent reader of Mashable, you probably know some of them — and they are a good place to start. You can check out the 100 most subscribed channels to get an idea of what's popular on YouTube. The most popular stuff seems to fall under a few categories: comedy, gaming, style and music videos, with strong showings by a few brands and publications.

If you don't see any from a category that interests you, check out our guides for standout YouTube channels for home improvement, fitness, sketch comedy, travel, beauty and cooking.

Once you've found a few you like, check out the sidebar on each channel page. It features channels that user has recommended or subscribed to. You'll find great suggestions there.

YouTube is a solid community first, and most video creators interact with each other through comments, likes, subscriptions and even video shout-outs.

If you want to get even more granular in the YouTube community, your "My Subscriptions" tab on the left side comes in two categories: "Uploads Only" and "All Activity." The first shows you the new videos that channel has uploaded, but the "All Activity" tab displays all the comments, likes and new subscriptions from every YouTube channel you follow. Is this overwhelming? Yes, but it's a great place to find channels and videos you've never seen before.

Get Social

Aside from useful ways to find content within YouTube's walls, you may also have to explore other social networks to find content you're interested in.

If you're already plugged into Twitter, finding your favorite YouTube channels there will ensure you not only stay updated, but also follow who they retweet and share content from. If you're hooked into Google+, you can see videos your friends share from the "Social" tab on the left side of the page.

There are also a few great YouTube-focused blogs that highlight up-and-comers, including New Media Rockstars and TubeFilter.

Plus, check out the very active r/YouTube subreddit, where creators share videos and talk tips for maintaining their channels.

Watch, Share and Interact

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for finding great YouTube content at the moment, so you'll have to get your hands dirty and dive in.

Because YouTube is so social, inevitably, watching videos will surface new YouTubers. Plenty of personalities guest star on each other's channels, across all kinds of interests, and videos can sometimes daisy-chain off each other. Plus, the web produces an infinite number of trends; YouTubers are bound to respond. Take the biographical video trend "Draw My Life." Once you discover a popular video topic, you'll find other participants.

The best thing to do is start exploring — there's no wrong way. And don't get discouraged by all the content. While there might be a lot of crap on YouTube, you'll find the best, most relevant stuff by staying active.
What are some of your tips for finding new YouTube channels? Please share them in the comments.

Image: iStockphoto, tomispin

Why Social Media Is A Must For Your Business

For a long time, social media sites were only perceived as places where young people could stay in contact with one another: somewhere they could share their thoughts, photos and videos with their friends. Sites like Myspace and Bebo helped users connect with new people and keep in touch with their friends online, while also giving them a platform to express themselves.

After a few years at the top, however, Myspace and Bebo were replaced by new kid on the block Facebook. Facebook, a site designed so that Ivy League college students could create a profile and exchange messages, has become something far greater than its humble origins. Companies and brands quickly realised that they could set up their own profiles, just like the college students, allowing them to connect with Facebook’s millions of users. In 2007, only a year after Facebook went public, there were over 100,000 business pages on the site.

Now, Facebook has over 1 billion users and millions of company and brand pages. The site’s huge membership figures give companies a present and active audience, one they can reach and engage with promotions, and even interact with easily. Companies can use Facebook to keep fans and customers up-to-date with new products, or even to run competitions and contests.

There are a number of other social media sites that provide businesses with fantastic marketing opportunities. Twitter, for example, is where the conversation happens. Twitter’s 200 million users access the site to talk about what they are doing and current topics of interest. Businesses can use Twitter to see what people are talking about and even what people are saying about their brand.

Picture sharing sites like Pinterest and Flickr give businesses a place to showcase their work with eye-catching images, while video sharing sites like YouTube help companies reach the public with viral video adverts. Google+, Google’s answer to Facebook, provides a very similar service to Facebook, but with a focus on building interest-based communities.

Over the last two years, social media has moved onto mobile devices. With apps like Instagram, Vine and Facebook Mobile, people can stay constantly connected to their social media profiles. Meanwhile, with geotargeting social media networks like Foursquare, and similar services on Google and Facebook, local businesses can even find customers nearby and target them with advertising.

In fact, thanks to the reams and reams of personal information users put on social media accounts, businesses can target their ideal customers with adverts.

Social media has become one of the most powerful tools in a business’ arsenal, providing them with a low-cost platform for advertising and marketing, an enormous and targeted audience, a place where they can keep up-to-date with all the headlines and breaking news, a stage on which to release and promote new products, and a forum to speak to customers and monitor the conversation.

How do you use social media to help your business?