How do I publish videos to YouTube?

You can publish video posts to YouTube using Sprout Social. By investing in social video, brands have an opportunity to establish stronger connections with their audiences, and therefore, significantly impact their conversion rates and increase their bottom line.

No matter where you are in the platform, you can open Compose to draft, schedule, queue or immediately publish videos to YouTube alongside existing publishing capabilities such as tagging or message approval.

Upload Videos to YouTube

When you choose to upload a video to your YouTube profile, select the or camera icon in the Compose box. Select the video file (.MP4 or .MOV) you’d like to upload.

Click and select Add Video Title to give the video a title, add a subtitle file and choose a frame for a thumbnail. You can also upload a thumbnail, crop and edit your video and remove your video.

Videos are limited to 15 minutes in length for unverified YouTube users and 12 hours for verified YouTube users. The file size restriction for videos uploaded from Sprout is 3 GB.

You can manage several YouTube Video Options after attaching your video. To start, enter any YouTube Video Tags and separate them by using commas. 

Decide whether you want the video to be Public, Private or Unlisted. Next, select a Category for your video.

You can optionally select a Playlist to which you want your video published.

You can expand and manage several Advanced Settings by clicking the Show Advanced Settings button.

Once you've expanded the view, you can select the License Rights & Ownership setting and check a few other settings. If you're unclear about the meaning of any setting, hover over the and a description tooltip will appear.

You can use to expand or collapse any part of the Compose window.

Uploading YouTube Shorts

You can also upload YouTube Shorts to Sprout following the same workflow. To publish YouTube Shorts in Sprout:

• Ensure that your video is no longer than 60 seconds.
• Record your video with a square or vertical aspect ratio.
• YouTube recommends including the hashtag #shorts in the title or description for better discoverability.
• Follow the YouTube publishing workflow above.

Metrics for Shorts are included in video view counts.

YouTube Publishing FAQ

How do I shorten links in the video description? Add tracking parameters?
After providing your desired description and link within Compose, select Shorten Links to shorten the link and add tracking parameters.

Does Optimal Send Times support YouTube Publishing?
Yes.

Does YouTube have an anti-spam policy?
Yes. YouTube does have an anti-spam policy. Please review it and their violation policy here.

Is YouTube Publishing available on mobile?
Yes. It is available on Sprout’s iOS and Android apps.

What happens if a video fails to publish to YouTube?
A video can fail to publish to YouTube for various reasons. If that occurs, YouTube usually sends an email and Sprout will also send an email with more directions on how the error can be fixed.

Why can I see my published videos as a sent post on the Calendar but not in the Post Performance Report?
At the moment, you can only find published YouTube videos on the Calendar. If you would like to see published YouTube videos in the Post Performance Report, please let your Sprout representative know.

Can I select the thumbnail for a video or use a custom one?
Yes, if you're publishing from a verified YouTube account. Underneath the video thumbnail within Compose, please use the arrows to select a frame or select to upload a custom thumbnail.

Will comments on a YouTube video come into the Smart Inbox?
Yes, Sprout supports YouTube comments in the Smart Inbox. To learn more about this feature, read this Help Center guide.

Is targeting available for YouTube Publishing?
No, it’s not. YouTube doesn’t currently support audience targeting so it’s unavailable to apps like Sprout.

What are YouTube’s basic settings?
Sprout’s YouTube Publishing currently supports basic settings. YouTube’s basic settings are: title, description, video tags, privacy, category and playlist.

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