Repurpose YouTube videos into social posts and thumbnails with OpenAI

Description

Quick overview
This workflow accepts a YouTube URL via webhook, pulls video details and a transcript, uses OpenAI to generate repurposed text content and a thumbnail image, uploads the thumbnail to Google Drive, and stores everything (including the public thumbnail link) in a Notion database.

How it works
Receives a POST webhook request containing a YouTube video URL.
Extracts the video ID, then uses the YouTube API to fetch the video’s metadata and Apify to retrieve the video transcript.
Cleans and normalizes the transcript text (for example, removing HTML entities and extra whitespace).
Sends the cleaned transcript to OpenAI to generate a LinkedIn post, Twitter/X thread, blog draft, and YouTube description in a JSON format.
Uses OpenAI to create a thumbnail image prompt from the video title and transcript, then generates a 1024×1024 thumbnail image.
Uploads the generated thumbnail to Google Drive, shares it publicly, and prepares the public URL.
Saves the video title, video URL, transcript excerpt, AI-generated content, timestamp, and thumbnail URL as a new page in a Notion database.

Setup
Create and connect credentials for YouTube, Apify, OpenAI, Google Drive, and Notion.
Create a Notion database with properties matching the workflow fields (Video Title, Video URL, Transcript, LinkedIn Post, Twitter Thread, Blog, YouTube description, Thumbnail, Timestamp) and select its database ID in the Notion step.
Choose the Google Drive folder to upload thumbnails to and ensure link sharing is allowed for your Drive.
Activate the workflow and send a POST request to the webhook URL with a JSON body containing url set to the YouTube link.

Additional info
How To Customize Nodes

Customize AI Content Style

Modify OpenAI prompts to generate:

Professional content
Casual content
Technical content
Viral social media style

Customize Thumbnail Design

Update thumbnail prompt instructions:

Colors
Fonts
Lighting
AI art style
Branding style

Customize Notion Storage

You can add additional fields:

Video category
Tags
SEO keywords
Publishing status
Approval status

Customize Google Drive Storage

You may:

Upload to specific folders
Organize by date
Organize by creator/channel

Add-Ons (Optional Enhancements)

You can extend this workflow to:

Auto-post content to LinkedIn
Auto-post to Twitter/X
Generate Instagram captions
Generate Facebook posts
Add SEO keyword generation
Create email newsletters
Generate short-form video hooks
Add Slack notifications
Add Telegram alerts
Store analytics in Airtable

Use Case Examples

1. Content Repurposing

Convert one YouTube video into multiple content formats automatically.

2. Social Media Automation

Generate ready-to-post social content using AI.

3. AI Thumbnail Generation

Automatically create engaging thumbnail images.

4. Content Database Management

Store all AI-generated content inside Notion.

5. Marketing Workflow Automation

Reduce manual content creation workload.

Troubleshooting Guide

| Issue | Possible Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Transcript not found | Video has no subtitles | Use videos with captions enabled |
| OpenAI generation failed | Invalid API key | Reconnect OpenAI credentials |
| Thumbnail not uploading | Google Drive issue | Reconnect Drive account |
| Notion data not saving | Wrong database fields | Match field names correctly |
| Webhook not working | Workflow inactive | Activate workflow |
| Empty AI response | Transcript too short | Test with longer videos |

Need Help?

If you need help customizing or extending this workflow by adding auto-posting, advanced AI prompts, SEO automation, multi-platform publishing, analytics dashboards or production-level scaling, then our n8n team at WeblineIndia can help with building advanced workflow automation solutions.