The Secret To Finding The Best Viral Videos...Before Your Friends Do

I like to think of myself as something of a viral video huntress. I spend quite a bit of my time scouring the web for the latest and greatest viral videos. When my friends send me links to the new videos that they've found I pride myself on responding with, "Oh yeah, I saw that last month" or "Yeah, I wrote about that video last week" and they always ask, "Where the heck do you find these things?" So here it is: my list of secrets that can help you become your own viral video maven, uncovering the best of the viral web before the rest of the world. YouTube Search Tips We'll start with an overview of how to search efficiently on YouTube. After all, YouTube is home to the most viral video content on the Web. That being said, a lot of people just don't know where to look to find relevant, worthwhile content on the video site. There are three main places to look for great viral video content on YouTube - the homepage, YouTube charts, and the search engine. The Homepage The YouTube homepage might seem like an obvious place to search for content on YouTube, but a lot of people overlook it, especially those who are browsing while signed in to their YouTube accounts. Since YouTube recently updated their homepage the easiest way to find content on the YouTube homepage is by being signed out. When you are signed out you will see videos that have been recommended for you as well as the most popular content at the moment in Entertainment, Music, News & Politics, Film & Animation, Sports, Comedy and a variety of other topics. These videos are often the videos that are just starting to go viral and by checking out the homepage you can catch them before your friends. The homepage is also a great place to discover other great tools, which will be discussed in greater detail later in this post, such as the search field and YouTube Trends. YouTube Charts YouTube Charts are one of the best ways to discover new content on YouTube. The charts are one of the first places I look for new viral video content each morning. From YouTube Charts you can search for the most viewed videos today, this week, this month or of all time in a variety of categories. They are listed according to the number of views. You can also search for the most liked and most discussed videos and more. Know How To Use The Search Fields If you are looking for relevant and worthwhile videos about a specific topic, such as "funny dogs" and you want to find the best of the best then knowing how to use the search field is one of the best ways. Search for a keyword or key phrase in the search field (in this case, "funny dogs") and then click on "Search options". You'll see that you can sort by view count, if you want to find the most-viewed funny dog videos of all time, or you can sort according to upload date, if you want to find the newest funny dog videos. YouTube Trends YouTube Trends is a new YouTube feature that launched back in December. Twice a day, at 4AM and 4PM, four trending videos that are rising the YouTube charts. In addition, they list trending topics that are currently popular on the video site and the most buzzed about videos. It's a great resource and if you take the time to check it out you can find tons of great new videos (before your friends, of course!). Viral Video Chart Viral Video Chart is another great resource, powered by Unruly Media. Viral Video Chart lists the top viral videos based on the number of people sharing them on Twitter and Facebook and blogging about them over the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 365 days and of all time. Follow Online Video Influencers On Twitter Another great way to discover viral videos before your friends is to follow web video experts on Twitter that are likely to tweet about new videos that are just being discovered and starting to spread. We've put together a list of 20 Tweeters Every Web Video Enthusiast Needs To Follow to help ensure that you're following the right people in the web video world. Follow Viral Video Blogs & Websites Like following influencers on Twitter, another great way to let other people do the legwork for you is to follow viral video blogs and websites. There are a lot of people out there who scour the web for the best new videos and share them, or have algorithms set up to do the work, finding the most-shared and most popular videos on the web. These include Top 10 Virals, Viral This and more. Subscribe To Popular YouTubers If you've found a YouTube channel that you like a lot, and that consistently puts out great viral videos then you can subscribe to it and ask to receive email notifications when they upload new videos. This way you are officially among the first to find out when they upload something new and you can watch it and share it before it starts racking in the views. Now you're set with a few good tips, tools and resources to help you find the most hilarious, shocking and amazing videos on the web before all your friends and you're ready to start viral video hunting. I wish you the best of luck on your path to becoming a viral video maven! Happy hunting!

Social Pro Daily

The Secret To Finding The Best Viral Videos...Before Your Friends Do

We're letting you in on our list of secrets that can help you become your own viral video maven, uncovering the best of the viral web before the rest of the world.

Megan O'Neill

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Megan O'Neill