Publish a video to YouTube

Aug 19, 2026
Knowledge

Procedure Steps

Article updated: June 21, 2026

Publish a video to YouTube

You can publish or schedule videos and shorts to your YouTube channels from Hootsuite, and then easily share the video URL in posts to your other social accounts.

Note: Members of a Hootsuite organization need Editor, Advanced, or Unlimited permissions for the social account to publish videos to a YouTube channel (learn about these permissions).

This article describes the new Social OS experience. If you haven't switched yet, select the Classic tab for instructions. Learn more about the Social OS experience.

Video file requirements

File types - mp4, m4v
Max video length - 15 minutes. You can upload longer videos with a verified YouTube account. For more information, see the Google help article Upload videos longer than 15 minutes.
Max file size - 1GB
Aspect ratio - 16:9. If your file is not 16:9, YouTube adds space on the sides of your video so it displays correctly without cropping or stretching.
Video shorts - Videos less than 1 minute in length with a 9:16 aspect ratio will automatically publish as YouTube shorts. Learn more about YouTube shorts file requirements.

You can also use formatting tags to change the appearance and format of your video when it's published. For more information, see the Google help article Add tags to videos.

Publish or schedule your YouTube video

Once you've connected your YouTube channel to Hootsuite, you can schedule and publish videos from Hootsuite. A video cannot be uploaded to the same YouTube channel more than once. YouTube removes duplicate videos.

Go to Perch, select Create a post, and then select YouTube video from the list.
Select the YouTube channel you want to publish to and enter a title for your video.
Drag a video into the upload area or select choose a file to upload to YouTube. Videos less than 60 seconds long will publish as YouTube shorts.
- Optional: Enter a video description and tags, and select a category for the video.
  Tags are not displayed publicly, but they can help make your video easier to discover.
- Optional: If you have a verified YouTube account, you can select a video thumbnail by using the left and right arrows (see the Google help article Upload videos longer than 15 minutes).
Select a privacy setting. You can schedule Unlisted or Private videos to go public at a later date and time. Turn on Schedule to go Public, and then select a date and time.
Select Done or Schedule in the top right to publish or schedule your video. You'll also get an embed code that you can insert into a website and the YouTube video URL that you can share to other social accounts.
Select Share via Hootsuite to start a new post that includes the video URL. Learn more about creating posts in Hootsuite.

Go to Create, and then select YouTube video.
Select the YouTube channel you want to publish to and enter a title for your video.
Drag a video into the upload area or select choose a file to upload to YouTube. Videos less than 60 seconds long will publish as YouTube shorts.
- Optional: Enter a video description and tags, and select a category for the video.
  Tags are not displayed publicly, but they can help make your video easier to discover.
- Optional: If you have a verified YouTube account, you can select a video thumbnail by using the left and right arrows (see the Google help article Upload videos longer than 15 minutes).
Select a privacy setting. You can schedule Unlisted or Private videos to go public at a later date and time. Turn on Schedule to go Public, and then select a date and time.
Select Done or Schedule in the top right to publish or schedule your video. You'll also get an embed code that you can insert into a website and the YouTube video URL that you can share to other social accounts.
Select Share via Hootsuite to start a new post that includes the video URL. Learn more about creating posts in Hootsuite.

If you have a My Videos stream set up in Hootsuite, you'll see all your published and scheduled YouTube videos there. Learn how to create a My Videos stream. You'll see thumbnails for Unlisted and Public videos in streams, and, if you're signed in to your YouTube channel in the same browser as Hootsuite, you can view Private videos from your streams.

Tip: You can monitor and track engagement on your videos and channels in Hootsuite Analytics. You can also use the following Channelview apps available in Hootsuite Apps:

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