This is the workflow for sending one vertical video to several networks. The question of whether YouTube can schedule a Short at all, and how its Schedule option behaves, is answered in can you schedule YouTube Shorts.
If YouTube is the only place the video goes, YouTube’s own upload flow is all you need. Everything below is for the case where it is not.
Why it is a multi-platform job
Vertical video is costly to make and cheap to distribute, and it goes to the same few places each time.
| Platform | Caption limit |
|---|---|
| YouTube (Short) | 5,000 |
| TikTok | 2,200 |
| Instagram (Reel) | 2,200 |
| Snapchat | 160 |
One file, four destinations. By hand that is four uploads, four captions and four queues.
What each accepts
Through BulkPublish:
- YouTube: video up to 128 GB, MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV or WebM, 5,000-character description
- TikTok: video up to 4 GB, MP4 or MOV, 2,200-character caption
- Instagram: video up to 1 GB, MP4 or MOV, 2,200-character caption
- Snapchat: video up to 1 GB and 60 seconds, MP4 or MOV, 160-character caption
The tightest file limit in the set is 1 GB, and the tightest caption is Snapchat’s 160. Plan for those two.
Steps
- Export one vertical video that is under 1 GB and, if Snapchat is included, 60 seconds or less.
- Open the composer, upload it once, and select YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.
- Choose the right format on each: Short, Reel and so on.
- Write the caption for each from one draft. Snapchat’s has to be written, not trimmed.
- Pick the date, time and time zone, then press Schedule.
Media rules are checked per platform before the post is queued, so a file one network would reject is flagged while you are composing.
Captions still should not match
The file can travel unchanged. The text should not. Hashtag conventions differ, audiences behave differently, and a YouTube description does search work that a TikTok caption does not. Four versions from one draft in one composer take a couple of minutes, and that is the difference between a Short that looks native and one that obviously came from elsewhere.
Pre-flight list
- File size fits the smallest limit in your set.
- Length fits Snapchat if it is selected.
- Each caption is written for its network.
- Times are staggered if you do not want the same video appearing everywhere in the same minute.
Plan limits
- Channels: Free: 3 (1 per platform). Pro: 30 (2 per platform). Business: 75 (5 per platform).
- Posts: Free: 1/day. Pro: 30/day. Business: unlimited.
- Storage: Free: 100 MB. Pro: 2 GB. Business: 10 GB.
Storage is the number to size against if you post vertical video regularly. Channel count rarely is.
