10 Ways to Automate YouTube with Zapier to Improve Your Business Operations, Fast

YouTube is a must-have for business marketing these days. There are a lot of different ways that YouTube can be used for marketing, client and customer engagement, and so much more. In fact, it’s a recommended part of any business marketing strategy to add videos to social media, your website, and other places where you can make an impression on your audience. As with anything, though, it’s about making sure that you’re using it correctly. 

Of course, you’ll have two different options here. You can choose the standard YouTube platform that allows you to post videos of all kinds and share them with your audience, or you can choose to set up a YouTube Ads profile and campaign and use that to leverage your marketing potential. The secret? You need both. The good news is that Zapier works with either, and there are countless automations that are going to help you get more done when you’re trying to engage your audience with YouTube. 

Zapier is a business automation tool that’s got automation down to a science. The tool currently works with more than 3,000 different apps and software platforms, and there are hundreds of pre-built workflows and triggers that you can use to keep your marketing and business operations moving even when you’re busy doing other things. With the power of Zapier, your own tech stack is going to take you further than ever before. 

How does it work? Really, it’s a simple process. Just create what’s known as a “Zap” (an automated workflow), set the triggers and actions into place, and watch the work happen right before your eyes (or not, if you’re off tending to other things while the automation is doing the tedious work). You can use Zapier to do things like:

• Publish YouTube videos or ads to social media 

• Track your YouTube videos and ads in Google Sheets 

• Notify your team (or yourself) when new videos or ads are published

• Share videos on various platforms 

• Upload videos from Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or anywhere else you store files

• Update your blog with YouTube videos via WordPress or another site builder

These are all things that can (and should) happen without someone having to sit by and handle each step of the process because automation can get it done faster and easier than ever before. 

Now, let’s look at some of the specific automations that are offered for YouTube through Zapier that will allow your team to work smarter. 

1. Send new YouTube videos to Facebook Pages  

Never worry about having to share to social after you create a new video again. Sure, YouTube makes it pretty easy, but this automation makes it even easier. All that you have to do is create and upload new videos and when the workflow is triggered, it will share the video to your Facebook Page for your business. You can even choose other Facebook accounts to post to or use this workflow for other purposes. Either way, it’s saving you a step and some time, even if it’s just a couple clicks. 

2. Upload new Dropbox files as videos on YouTube    

If you are using Dropbox to share and store files, this workflow is a great one to consider. Dropbox makes cloud file sharing and storage a breeze and provides a place where everyone can connect and keep in the loop with the latest files and documents, as well as media. This workflow lets you set it up so that when you drop files into Dropbox that are recognized as videos, they are automatically uploaded and published to your YouTube channel accordingly. It’s going to save you the step and free up more of your time and ensure that you never forget to share a video again, even if you get distracted or busy. 

3. Send notifications on Slack when YouTube videos are posted    

Slack is a great communication tool for teams that need to keep in touch. With Zapier, many of the notifications and communications in Slack can be automated, including this one. This workflow allows you to set it up so that when you post a new video to YouTube or even share a video from YouTube to your social media pages, your team is notified via Slack. You can set it up to notify specific people, an entire team, or even just to post to its own channel as a notification, making it easy to keep track of your marketing efforts via digital media. 

4. Upload new videos from Google Drive    

Google Drive is one of the most common storage tools for people today. This workflow makes it simple for you to post videos to YouTube without having to actually go in and do the work. Simply upload videos or ads to Drive, setup the workflow trigger, and then watch Zapier “zap” your videos to YouTube while you tend to other areas of your business. You can even take it a step further and tag certain videos or Drive folders to upload and add in a Gmail notification or another notification to let you know when videos are shared. 

5. Tweet new videos that are published in your YouTube channel    

Social media sharing is a breeze to automate, and it makes sure that you never miss a beat. Whenever you post videos to YouTube, you’re given the option to share, but what if you didn’t even have to go that far? This automation allows you to share any video directly to Twitter when it’s uploaded to YouTube, and you don’t even have to click an extra “share” button. Just upload your videos, integrate the workflow, and watch Zapier do the work for you. 

6. Create RSS feeds for new videos on your YouTube channel    

If you’re a fan of RSS feeds, this integration is for you. What better way to keep track of your YouTube channel and video publications than with an automation like an RSS feed stream? You can set this up so that anytime you post a video to YouTube, it’s turned into an RSS feed notification or item that you can address or share with your team. You can even customize the details of how the feed is shared and what information is included, and more. 

7. Post new videos to WordPress    

This workflow takes a step out of your blog posting, which frees up all kinds of time. WordPress is one of the easiest platforms to use for blogging and website creation and it works so well with Zapier, in several different ways. This workflow makes it easy for you to automatically post new YouTube videos and/or ads to your WordPress page without having to do the work yourself. Just set it up so that when new videos are posted to YouTube, they are also posted to your WordPress based on the parameters that you set forth. 

8. Share new YouTube videos on Trello     

Trello is a great tool for collaboration, and it’s used around the world by remote teams that need a way to work smarter. As a project management tool, it makes taking care of things easy by allowing users to create boards, cards, and categories that can be used to track projects and tasks that need to be completed. This automation will allow you to create all videos as cards on Trello, automatically, when they are uploaded to YouTube channels. You can simply integrate the workflow, choose the videos to share, and watch them show up in Trello where the whole team can see them. 

9. Create SMS notifications when new videos are shared    

Nothing is more important than staying on top of your marketing. With this integrated workflow, you can make sure that the right people are notified that new videos are available. This will make it easy for everyone to stay informed and keep the marketing strategy moving. It's also a good way to let people know It's their turn to start working on a project, or that they can share the content with their own audiences, respectively. No matter how you use it, it saves you sitting around and waiting to see videos come in. 

10. Save New YouTube Videos to OneDrive    

This workflow will allow you curate and upload videos in minutes, automatically, when they’re created or shared on YouTube. Simply set up the workflow so that whenever a video from someone you follow is posted, it’s saved to OneDrive so that you don’t have to chase down all the videos yourself. It's a simple integration that’s going to save you a lot more time than you realize. You can use this integration to make your archive work for you in more ways than one, ensuring that you have videos safely stored until you get around to watching them. 

Five reasons to use videos in your marketing strategy

Of course, a lot of people are still wondering what the value of YouTube videos is going to be to their brand. There are some industries where companies might not even understand how they can use YouTube to make an impact. Even if you’re just creating an ad campaign through YouTube ads, there are plenty of ways that you can embrace videos to get more out of your marketing, and even improve your reputation and your customer service. 

• Visual Content is In: People love videos, quick content, and things that are easy to digest online. With YouTube videos, people can click play and engage faster and easier than they can with text, banner ads, or other content. 

• Videos Give You a Voice: When you use YouTube videos to help build your credibility and brand reputation, you’re going to make a bigger impact than you would with other mediums. Because people like the content better, they pay more attention. 

• YouTube Ads are Dynamic: If you’re using YouTube Ads and not just standard videos, you’re creating a dynamic marketing campaign that will get a lot more attention than static graphics or text ads. Users like engaging content and this is one way to do it. 

• Videos Build Trust: When you use a medium that people are familiar with, you’re instantly building trust and credibility with people. You can engage with people and create that personal connection, give a “face” to your brand, and show that you have something of value to offer. Plus, it’s all done in seconds on a video. 

• Videos are Versatile: You can use YouTube videos for all types of purposes: marketing, lead generation, troubleshooting, customer service and education, and more. When you choose to use YouTube, whether it’s the ads or traditional videos, or both, you’re opening up a lot of opportunities to build your brand. 

Now that you’ve got a few more reasons to add videos to your marketing and branding agenda, let’s talk about what other powerful additions you can make with our assistance. 

Increase your versatility through a partnership with Smith.ai

We love automation, and even more than that, we love being the reason your business is running better. When you choose to work with our virtual receptionists, we can serve as the face of your brand for all of your needs, from after-hours call answering to live website chat and so much more. Plus, we’ll even work with you to develop the best strategy for fielding your needs, no matter what those are. 

Zapier is at the top of our list for tools because it makes creating smart workflows easy. You can connect so many different business software programs with this automation tool, and it’s because of Zapier that Smith.ai can integrate with more than 3,000 apps so every chat, call, text, and message is properly logged in your CRM, marketing platform, or anywhere else. 

Explore all of our apps and how they connect to Zapier! You’ll also love Smith.ai’s Answering Service app on Zapier and Smith.ai’s Website Chat app on Zapier.  

Schedule your consultation now to ask all about how we can be the virtual receptionist that your customers or clients rely on so that you can get back to business. You can also inquire about our temporary receptionist services or let us know what else we can do at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.