How to Auto-Publish New Videos from RSS to Buffer with Zapier

If you want zero manual steps after a YouTube upload, you can chain RSS, Zapier and Buffer so every new video automatically becomes a queued post. Zapier watches your channel's RSS feed, and the moment a new item appears it adds a Buffer post on the channels you choose. This guide builds that flow end to end.

What you need

• A Zapier account (the RSS trigger works on the free tier)
• A Buffer account connected to Zapier
• Your YouTube channel ID, used to build the RSS feed URL
• At least one Buffer channel to post the link to

Step 1: Build your YouTube RSS feed URL

YouTube exposes a public RSS feed per channel. Take your channel ID (the string that starts with UC in your channel URL) and drop it into the feed pattern below. Open the URL in a browser to confirm it lists your recent videos as XML.

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Step 2: Create the Zap trigger

In Zapier click Create, then choose RSS by Zapier as the trigger app and New Item in Feed as the event. Paste your feed URL into the Feed URL field and test the trigger so Zapier pulls a sample video to map fields from.

Step 3: Add the Buffer action

Add an action step, pick Buffer as the app and Add to Queue as the event. Connect your Buffer account, then select which channel (or channels) should receive the post.

Step 4: Map the fields into the post

In the Buffer step, build the text from the trigger's fields. A clean pattern is the video title followed by the link. Use the Title and Link fields from the RSS step so each new upload posts with its real title and URL.

Step 5: Test and turn it on

Run a test; a post should land in your Buffer queue. Then toggle the Zap on. Note that RSS by Zapier polls on a schedule rather than instantly, so expect a few minutes between an upload going public and the post appearing in your queue.

Result

Every time you upload to YouTube, Zapier catches the new RSS item and Buffer queues a post with the title and link to your chosen channels, turning a manual cross-post into a fully automated step you never have to remember.