We just figured out a nifty way to have YouTube videos automatically feed into a website. For some odd reason, YouTube doesn't offer this service. They do give you embed code to put individual videos, but they don't have a simple way to add your whole video feed into your website.
We've had a number of clients who regularly post new videos on YouTube. Now that people can take a video from a smartphone or webcam, it has unleashed people to make their own quick vids whenever they get inspired. These aren't meant to be that "commercial video" where it is really professional. They are meant to show the human side of a business or organization while teaching people about what they do...
So, how do you get your YouTube page feeding into your site?
1) Your Feed Address: http://www.youtube.com/rss/user/USERNAME/videos.rss. Simply put your YouTube user name in the spot that says, "USERNAME" in the link. You can go to the page - it looks like most RSS feeds.
2) Use FeedBurner: This is a service owned by Google that has a lot of really great features for marketing. The accounts are free and typically if you already have a Google account, you can login with the same account info. Once you enter, you will see a field that asks you to put in your RSS feed link. Use the Link above and follow the setup steps on FeedBurner...
3) BuzzBoost: After you have created your FeedBurner setup, you should then go to "Publicize" and choose "BuzzBoost". This will allow you to customize the feed to have items you want like a Title, Date/Time, How Many you want Displayed, and you will also need to choose "HTML" as the way you want it displayed. Then, click "Activate" and it will spit out the code you will need.
4) Add Code into Website: You would then take the FeedBurner/BuzzBoost code and install it into your website wherever you wish it to appear.
And now, every time you post to your YouTube page with your new video inspiration, it will automatically change out the video(s) on your website within 30 minutes... Pretty nifty!
Please Note: All of the above may sound like a lot, but it really isn't hard to do at all. Clearly you need to have some understanding of how a RSS feed works, follow basic directions on FeedBurner and BuzzBoost, and then need to be able to install the code into your website. If you don't have this skill and need some help, just contact us and we can talk about the options and how we can help you out.
