Update: Since writing this post a number of apps have been developed that will do the job for you. One great one is called Cueler YouTube and here is a handy how-to video showing how to install it. Thanks @Jay for the heads up!

Uploading media content is a time consuming process and given the proliferation of sites and social networks out there it can be a full time job ensuring that all of your web properties are updated with your most recent videos, pictures and mp3s. If you have a new video and 50 new photos from a recent gig the task of uploading these to your website, Facebook, Myspace, iLike, Bebo, Muzu, ReverbNation etc. becomes pretty daunting. That’s why, where possible, we recommend that you centralise your content in a master site (YouTube for video and Flickr or Picasa for photos) and then embed content from these onto your other web properties.

Today’s “how to” shows you how to embed your YouTube channel into your Facebook fan page, rather than having to go to the time and trouble of uploading your videos onto Facebook itself. Apart from time-saving there are two other distinct advantages to doing this. Firstly, when you embed your current YouTube channel any future videos added to this channel will automatically be embedded so synchronisation  is looked after into the future. Secondly, video plays through your embedded channel will be counted by YouTube which increases the chances of you “charting” in YouTube (for example, if you have 800 Facebook fans who are viewing your video on Facebook then that’s 800 plays not being recorded by YouTube).

While trying to figure out how to perform this embed, I came across the excellent HyperArts website which goes through the task in a step by step fashion. Rather than repeating the contents of the articles here, please follow the links below and read through carefully. It’s a little bit tricky, but well worth the effort - what you will end up with is a new tab on your Facebook fan page (like your “Info” or “Photos” tab, but with your own YouTube channel player embedded. A familiarity with basic HTML will help but basically there are three steps involved:

1. Add the FBML application to your Facebook page. FBML is Facebook’s coding language and the application allows you to create new, customisable tabs on your fan page. You’ll probably want to call your new tab “Video” or “YouTube”.
2. Create a custom YouTube channel player and generate HTML code for this. You will need to copy bits of this code later on.
3. Embed your new YouTube channel player in Facebook. You will need to copy and paste the code from the article into your FBML tab but substitute the specific information (player url and image file) related to your channel.

My advice is to follow the detailed instructions in the article and read through the comments if you are having trouble as many questions are answered there.

PLEASE NOTE: This works only for Facebook fan pages - it will not work on your personal Facebook profile.