How to Automate YouTube Research with Claude 3.5

In the age of digital content, staying ahead of the competition on platforms like YouTube is crucial. The sheer volume of data makes it challenging to manually track and analyze competitor channels or even your own. That’s where automation can make a big difference. In this article, I’ll guide you through automating YouTube research using Airtable, Make.com, and Claude 3.5, an advanced AI assistant. By the end, you’ll have a system that monitors YouTube channels and gives you daily summaries of top-performing videos.

Step 1: Setting Up Airtable

The first step in this automation process is setting up an Airtable base. Airtable is a flexible database tool that will serve as the backbone of our system, where we’ll store all the relevant YouTube channel data.

Create an Airtable Base: Start by logging into Airtable and creating a new base. You can name this base anything you like, but for clarity, let’s call it “YouTube Channel Leads.”
Set Up a Table: Within your base, create a new table. This table will be where we store the YouTube channels you want to track. Let’s name this table “YouTube Channel Leads.”
Create Fields: Next, set up the necessary fields in your table:
- Channel ID: This field will store the unique identifier for each YouTube channel.
- Channel Name: This field will hold the name of each channel.
- Created Time (Optional): If you want to track when each record was added, create this field.
- RSS Feed URL: This is where things get interesting. Create a formula field that generates the RSS feed URL for each channel. Use the following formula to concatenate the channel ID with the base URL for YouTube’s RSS feeds:”https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=” & {Channel ID}

This formula automatically creates the RSS feed URL by combining the channel ID with YouTube’s RSS URL structure, making it easier to fetch updates later.

Step 2: Gather Channel IDs

Before we can start monitoring channels, we need to gather their unique IDs. This is essential because the RSS feed, which we’ll use to track videos, is tied directly to each channel’s ID.

Identify Target Channels: Start by identifying the YouTube channels you want to track. These could be your competitors, channels similar to yours, or channels targeting a similar audience.
Find the Channel ID:
- Go to the YouTube channel page.
- Click on “More” and then “Share Channel.”
- Select “Copy Channel ID.”

Store the IDs in Airtable: Once you have the Channel ID, paste it into the “Channel ID” field in your Airtable table. The RSS feed URL will be automatically generated thanks to the formula we set up earlier.

By gathering these channel IDs, you’re essentially creating a list of YouTube channels that your automated system will monitor.

Step 3: Configure Make.com

With Airtable set up and your channel IDs in place, the next step is to build the automation workflow in Make.com. This tool will link Airtable with Claude 3.5 and handle the heavy lifting of data processing.

Start with Airtable: In Make.com, start by adding the Airtable module. Use this module to search records in your Airtable base. Specifically, you’ll be pulling in the channel IDs and channel names that you’ve stored.
Add the RSS Module: Next, add the RSS module to your workflow. This module will fetch the latest videos for each channel using the RSS feed URL generated in Airtable. The feed URL is essential as it provides a constant stream of new content from the channels you’re monitoring.
Text Aggregator Tool: The next step is to use the Text Aggregator tool, which combines data from multiple channels into one large text block. This step is crucial as it prepares the data for analysis by Claude 3.5

In the first Text Aggregator module, as shown in your provided screenshot, begin by extracting details such as the video title, author, URL, view count, and like count from the RSS feed module. This module will compile all these details into a single, large block of text for easy analysis.

Second Text Aggregator Module: After the initial aggregation, you can use a second Text Aggregator to further refine and expand the text block, creating an even larger consolidated text block, as shown in the provided screenshot.

Optimize for Claude 3.5: Claude 3.5 is a powerful AI, but it’s important to manage the context window effectively. If you’re dealing with a lot of video data, you might need to reduce the token count by eliminating unnecessary details like video descriptions. This helps ensure that Claude 3.5 can focus on analyzing the most relevant information.

Step 4: Create Your Prompt for Claude 3.5

Now that your workflow is set up and running, the final step is to craft the prompt that you’ll send to Claude 3.5. The prompt is crucial because it guides the AI in how to process and interpret the data.

Here’s an example prompt you might use:

<p>You are helping the user who is a YouTuber. The user will provide you with the following data of videos. Identify the top-performing videos for further research. Return the output in HTML format.</p>

This prompt instructs Claude 3.5 to analyze the aggregated video data and identify which videos are performing best. The request for an HTML format output makes it easier to present the findings in a web-friendly way.

Advanced Features:

If you’re looking to take your automation to the next level, consider adding some advanced features:

Automate Content Ingestion: Instead of manually adding your own recent videos, you can automate this process by fetching data directly from your channel’s RSS feed. This will allow Claude 3.5 to give you more personalized recommendations based on your latest content.
Customized Recommendations: With your own videos integrated into the system, Claude 3.5 can provide tailored insights that help you refine your content strategy further.

Conclusion

And there you have it! With just a few tools and some strategic automation, you’ve set up a system that not only tracks YouTube channels but also provides you with daily summaries of top-performing videos. This setup allows you to stay ahead of the curve, make informed content decisions, and optimize your YouTube strategy.