You Tube Is Adding More Features For Users

You Tube Is Adding A Politics Channel and Video Rentals for Citizens of the UK

It’s been a busy week for YouTube with them adding features like a Politics Channel and the ability to rent videos in the UK.  So if you like watching videos online about sharks, lowlifes, criminals, clowns and dimwits, you can do so.  Plus, you can also rent videos online now as well(bu-dum-ching).

YouTube is Adding More Features | Politics Channel

YouTube has launched a new Politics channel that will allow people to find political videos, parodies, debates, and the channels of political candidates.  You can find the Politics page at YouTube.com/Politics.

In addition to seeing the most popular videos, users can view a chart of the 2012 candidates. You can view the popularity of those candidates on YouTube by either video views or subscriptions.  Unlike the regular press, YouTube will actually acknowledge that Ron Paul has by far and away the most subscriptions as well as actually acknowledge his physical existence.

A “meet the candidates” section allows you to see the popular videos for each candidate, look at current YouTube statistic related to the candidate, and navigate directly to the candidate’s channel. All of the 2012 potentials have a presence on YouTube.

Of course, since the only people with footage will be the candidate’s campaign, I’m doubtful that we’ll see much candid, behind the scenes footage.

A YouTube spokesperson stated, “The Hot Political Videos tab which you can see at the top of the page takes you to that week’s top videos that could be from right across the spectrum – citizen-created, gotcha moments, news footage, etc. That section is curated by Storyful. […] While a citizen can’t add a video directly to youtube.com/politics, if someone uploads a video and it starts to take off, it would possibly be included in the Hot Political Videos list.”

It is good to see that politicians are recognizing the value of utilizing social media marketing in their campaign strategies.

YouTube is Adding More Features | UK Video Rentals

YouTube has entered into a partnership with film studios such as Universal, Lionsgate, Entertainment One, Metrodome, and Revolver Entertainment that now gives users the option to rent films directly from YouTube.

YouTube posted the following on their blog:

We’ve got some cracking films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter months and beyond. From blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs, to new releases such as HannaFast Five, and Red Riding Hood, and even British classics like Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you can find many of your favourite films in high quality available to rent now at youtube.com/movies.

There’s always more to explore on YouTube. Many movie pages also feature YouTube Movie Extras with free behind-the-scenes videos, cast interviews, parodies, clips and remixes from YouTube’s unique community of content creators. Over time we’ll also be adding additional videos and features to YouTube Movie Extras so that you can get even more into movies on YouTube.  http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/10/youtube-now-has-movies-in-uk.html

YouTube is Adding More Features | What Does this mean for Businesses?

According to the results of a recent survey on Social Media and Marketing (October 2011), Facebook is used by 94% of businesses and Twitter is used by 77%.  YouTube is used by just 42% of businesses.  There is a rel=”nofollow”huge growth potential for business owners using YouTube.  People are more likely to watch an informational video about a product or service than read text.  The trend is definitely shifting towards video, so the more benefits that YouTube gives its users, the more frequently people will visit YouTube and the more beneficial a video marketing business plan will become.  As a social media marketing consultant, we are happy to see that YouTube is adding more features to its site and hope they continue to do so in the future.