If you need to automatically post YouTube videos to Twitter, you’ll find the all guides point to a now obsolete method. YouTube, before January 2019, allowed users to connect their Twitter account to the service and automatically share videos. It has now removed this option. In order to automatically post YouTube videos from a particular channel to Twitter, you need an intermediary service to do the job. Zapier fits the bill perfectly.
Zapier has a free plan with limitations. The free plan allows you to use 5 ‘zaps’ which are basically 5 automated actions, and these can be simple 2-step actions. Sharing a YouTube video to Twitter fits this perfectly however, if you need to share videos from multiple channels, i.e., more than 5, you will likely need to buy a premium subscription for the service.
YouTube videos to Twitter
Sign up for a free Zapier account and verify your email before you proceed. Once you’re signed up and verified, click the ‘Make a zap’ button at the top. On the ‘Choose a trigger app’ page, select YouTube. On the triggers for YouTube, select ‘New video in Channel’. On the next page, select ‘Connect account’ and authorize Zapier to connect with your YouTube account.
After you connect your account, you have to enter the name of the YouTube channel you want to automatically share videos from. Click continue. The default action will do the trick. Test it when prompted and it will be able to pull the most recent video from the channel you selected.
After the testing phase, you have to select an Action App. Select Twitter and for the action, select ‘Create Tweet’. Next, connect your Twitter account.
When prompted to set up the Twitter message, click the add items button and select Title and URL from the options in the list.
Click Continue, and send a test tweet to make sure everything is set up correctly. Click Continue and turn the Zap on when prompted. That should do the trick. Zapier will now tweet videos that are uploaded to the channel you selected to the Twitter account you connected. The URL doesn’t indicate that it has been shared via a service. It appears as though you shared it via YouTube’s built-in sharing option.
Since you have 5 zaps to use on a free plan, you can set more up to tweet new videos from four other channels of your choice. Zapier is a bit slow to check for new videos so it has this small drawback but at present, this is the best way to automate sharing.