What Are YouTube Groups

Introduction to YouTube Groups

youtube_groupsYouTube Groups allow users to come together and hold public discussions, post relevant videos, and ultimately add to the YouTube community. If you’ve ever participated on a bulliten board or a forum, you should feel right at home.

YouTube Group Benefits

Although there aren’t any immediate SEO benefits, participating in relevant YouTube Groups can help you:

  • Stay Informed on a Topic
  • Ask / Answer Questions
  • Generate Video Ideas
  • Meet and Interact with other YouTubers
  • Generate Views for your videos

Groups are also widely used to host video competitions, so checking regularly for new groups could uncover opportunities you wouldn’t normally be aware of.

Where Can I Find YouTube Groups ?

The YouTube Groups section can be found by going to the community section of YouTube and then clicking on Groups:

find_youtube-groups-small
You will be able to scroll through the more popular groups created on YouTube this way, but you’ll soon notice that there isn’t an easy way to search for specific groups to join. Well I’ve got you covered.

youtubegroupsearch2
To help find relevant groups to join, check out the YouTube Group Search tool. This custom search engine searches only YouTube Group pages based on your particular keyword. Give it a try and see what you can find, because there are a lot of great groups out there !

UPDATE

Read my latest post about the YouTube Group Challenge !


45 Responses to “What Are YouTube Groups”

  1. divya 07/10/2009 at 1:37 am #

    Can u tell me the latest verion of beta 2.0 youtube group. I think they have changed complete layout of youtube group in the latest version. Its really very shit to use. SO can u explain me detaily abt the beta 2.0 youtube group version.

    Reply
  2. lemurcat 07/18/2009 at 8:49 am #

    YouTube Groups sound great, but when I made one I discovered how monstrously impossible it is to keep the contents organized. Videos randomly go into whatever topic they feel like, or none at all, and the only way to move them is to delete the topic they belong to and try to resubmit them where they are supposed to be. Is there any way to delete individual movies, or move individual movies to another topic? What is the best way to actually determine which topic you’re submitting your video under? (Clicking “Topics” and choosing the topic doesn’t work at all, it makes them go to topicless limbo where they cannot even be deleted for resubmitting.)

    Reply
  3. lemurcat 07/18/2009 at 9:02 am #

    Hmm, it seems to have been adding the videos to a topic that had been deleted. AWESOME.

    Reply
  4. lemurcat 07/18/2009 at 9:15 am #

    Okay, it seems you CAN control which topic they go to IF you select the topic and then change the view! Can I just say this is a complete and utter piece of crap? If my C assignment was this hard to use, I would get a bad grade.

    Reply
    • vidiseo 07/18/2009 at 11:35 am #

      I’ve noticed that YouTube doesn’t show groups in the new beta channels, and Groups are no longer an option when you perform a search on YouTube. I have a feeling that YouTube is phasing out Groups (possibly to reemerge under a new name/experience). Based on your comments and my personal experience, a re imagining of the groups concept is absolutely necessary.

      Reply
  5. Rico 07/21/2009 at 5:22 pm #

    I created a group in my profile and can

    Reply
    • vidiseo 07/21/2009 at 5:34 pm #

      YouTube is doing some wacky stuff with Groups at the moment, because I don’t see a delete option anymore. A temporary fix would be to edit the settings of the group and change it to private. That way only you would be able to view the details of the group.

      Hope that helps !

      Reply
  6. Rico 07/21/2009 at 5:38 pm #

    Thanks Vidiseo,
    But I can’t edit at all…it doesn’t give me the option to edit it…any thoughts?
    Thanks a lot for your prompt response.
    Rico

    Reply
  7. divya 07/21/2009 at 11:27 pm #

    We can even edit the groups. May i know how to edit the settings of the groups? Bcoz i surfed the net whole nite to edit my group. But yet i cant. If my groups goes in Private it will help me lots. Help me in this issue.

    Thanks

    Reply
    • vidiseo 07/22/2009 at 8:38 am #

      To edit a YouTube Group click on the ‘Account’ link at the top of the page, then click on the ‘Groups’ link. From here you’ll see a list of groups that you are in along with the ones that you are the owner of. Click on the group that you want to edit. Then click on the ‘Edit Group Details’ on the top right hand side. Here you’ll be able to change all the group details including the ability to set the group to private.

      Hope that helps !

      Reply
  8. lemurcat 07/22/2009 at 10:09 am #

    I am not seeing any “Edit Group Details.” Clicking the group just takes me to the group page. I seem to recall a similar instruction in YouTube’s help page, but it didn’t exist then either.

    Reply
  9. divya 07/22/2009 at 11:55 am #

    i couldnt find any ‘edit group details’ options there. Im using latest version of youtube Groups. If i click the any group in the group list which i own, it directly takes me to my group page. for example if i click anyone of my group it takes me to this page http://www.youtube.com/group/tpt10102010
    Pls guide me how to change it to private group

    Reply
  10. trust 07/22/2009 at 2:11 pm #

    vidiseo — not sure what you mean by “Edit Group Details” — this button is nowhere to be found when I’m accessing my group through the same means you described. All that seems to do is drop me on the group page just like normal, which has no editability.

    Reply
    • vidiseo 07/22/2009 at 2:23 pm #

      For those that are having trouble editing the group details, try this out and see if it works. Go to:

      http://www.youtube.com/groups_layout?name=YOURGROUP

      Replace YOURGROUP with the name of your particular group. That is the URL I get sent to when I click on my group’s name, and I am able to edit the group details from there. Give it a shot and let me know if it works.

      Reply
  11. divya 07/22/2009 at 10:43 pm #

    Nope. We cant even do that. I tried it. If we go to this page http://www.youtube.com/groups_layout?name=opensourceyouth by giving our youtube group its straightly directs to this page http://www.youtube.com/group/opensourceyouth. Its breaking my heads. How to edit it now?

    Reply
  12. Rico 07/23/2009 at 9:59 pm #

    Hi Guys,
    I tried the procedure vidiseo mentioned above. It links me straight to my group as normal. Edit Group Details, no where to be found. I looked all over the net and haven’t found anything. I tried to contact youtube, but can’t find the dang CUSTOMER SERVICE FORM they mention…I am so frustrated. Please help.
    Rico

    Reply
  13. shanu 07/23/2009 at 11:00 pm #

    Hi VidiSeo

    AS u said to edit the groups by this url of changing group name is doesnt work out.http://www.youtube.com/groups_layout?name=YOURGROUP
    Give me any other suggestions to Edit groups. Bcoz its striaghtly takes me to group page not to edit page.

    Thanks

    Reply
  14. Swag4567 07/24/2009 at 7:48 pm #

    Help me please how can you change group owner ship i tried you tubes version but it dosent work

    Reply
  15. Rico 07/24/2009 at 10:21 pm #

    Does anyone know how to contact youtube? There has to be a way…

    Reply
  16. Divya 07/28/2009 at 4:56 am #

    Hi Vidiseo,

    I have created topics in youtube groups. But i cant add video to that. How can we add a video to topic? Can u help me in this issue. Bcoz the videos which we are sumitting first displays to the featured topic groups. But when we creating separately a new topic i cant add video. Pls guide me to fix this issue.

    Reply
  17. shu 08/06/2009 at 1:39 pm #

    This is crazy, i don’t understand why they would create this function and forbid anyone on editing the details…..

    Reply
  18. SMC 08/10/2009 at 5:27 pm #

    Try this to edit your group:
    http://www.youtube.com/groups_create?edit_group=yourgroupname
    This is really is crazy though!

    Reply
  19. Rico 08/11/2009 at 9:51 am #

    Hey SMC!
    I guess it works! I know it always takes a while for the changes to be updated, so I will wait with my fingers crossed.
    I’ve just tried to turn my groups to “private to founder”, and one of them I tried transfering to a user that should be shut down.
    Let’s see if it will work! I will let you all know.
    THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

    P.S: Don’t know if matters but my profile still has the original layout settings.
    Rico

    Reply
  20. Rico 08/12/2009 at 2:10 pm #

    Well, it didn’t work out. It does give me a message of “group updated”,but it actually doesn’t change at all.
    It has been more than 24h and nothing…
    Any other suggestion, plese, someone?
    Rico

    Reply
  21. Engir 08/19/2009 at 8:49 am #

    I am having the same problem with the group I just created there is no way to edit it? I have contacted two ppl I know who have groups but have not heard from either at this time. This is really stupid whoever is designing this is a moron.

    If anyone gets a answer please post it? One thing for sure the answer is not going to come from youtube.

    Reply
  22. divya 08/19/2009 at 10:57 pm #

    Guys i think youtube groups had been solving our issues one by one. Yes. We can delete the topic now which wont display as author has removed the topic. We can change or block or remove our members and also we can transfer our group ownership to anyone. I think this helps u guys. Try it out. Thanks for youtube for solving our problem.

    Reply
  23. Engir 08/20/2009 at 8:12 am #

    Divya,
    This does not solve anything!

    I have a solution on how to create your group channel without all these problems. If you want to know how to do it email me at DBBromberg@gmail and I will reply with how to do it.

    Reply
  24. Rico 08/22/2009 at 10:50 am #

    What’s the catch, Engir? Please post the info here so everyone can see.

    Reply
  25. Engir 08/24/2009 at 6:10 pm #

    This is how everyone is doing it they are using a user account.

    Create a new gmail account, sign in and create a user channel for your group then you add anyone you want to post as a friend to your channel and give them to gmail name and password so they can sign in and post videos to your group.

    Yes someone could change the password but you as the creater of the gmail account can use your security phrase and get it sent to you so you can change it again and regain control.

    This is not a flawless way of doing this but this is what everyone is doing to be able to edit their group page take a look at any groups you see on youtube look at the url is it http://www.youtube,com/group/GROUPSNAME or is it http://www.youtube.com/user/GROUPSNAME.

    Reply
  26. beccaxxxxxxx 08/26/2009 at 6:47 am #

    hi, i hate the new ‘beta’ group layout, so does anyone know how to change it back to the old design? kinda urgent…please help!!!x

    Reply
  27. Engir 08/26/2009 at 8:23 am #

    yes beccaxxxxxxx from your channel page at the top right you see your user name with a arrow next to it that drop down will come when you mouse over it.

    Go to account then on the page that comes up find edit channel there are two places one is by your channel picture and the other is in the area below that.

    The next window that opens it should be right in front of you a button to change your layout if not look in the tabs on the left.

    Reply
  28. Ania 09/17/2009 at 3:50 am #

    SMC, your link works for me (http://www.youtube.com/groups_create?edit_group=yourgroupname)
    Thanks :-)

    Reply
  29. Ania 09/17/2009 at 3:53 am #

    Well, it works on the account page. I don’t see new name of the group on my channel page (maybe later).

    Reply
  30. yazi 10/13/2009 at 5:09 pm #

    hello
    i have a question
    in the group the owner can promot members
    but what can it do for them ?

    Reply
  31. Yusei 10/14/2009 at 11:23 pm #

    Youtube groups are a sheed, you can

    Reply
  32. LalaKirsten 12/29/2009 at 6:26 pm #

    Ive Joined many groups but why won't it show on my channel?

    Reply
  33. LalaKirsten 12/30/2009 at 12:26 am #

    Ive Joined many groups but why won't it show on my channel?

    Reply
  34. atlbraves312 01/31/2010 at 6:28 pm #

    How can I leave a YouTube group?!

    Reply
  35. HydroRacer TV 04/01/2010 at 10:27 pm #

    YouTube groups are complete trash and very difficult to work with

    Reply
  36. Moose 04/07/2010 at 9:45 am #

    Are YouTube groups considered to be separate “channels”? In other words, if we already have a channel, are we adding a second “channel” by creating a group? Some of the existing groups I've found don't have the word “channel” in their URL.

    Reply
  37. june14 04/29/2010 at 8:08 am #

    i cant find the community button. and i cant find out how to find groups. plz help

    Reply
  39. sprite430 06/22/2010 at 1:32 pm #

    i deleted my group due to spamers but its still appers in my channel. how do i fix that?

    Reply
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    Reply
  41. LILLCHAMAK 03/13/2012 at 9:41 am #

    I LIKE TO JOYN I WANT TO BE RICH

    Reply

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