Video content is on the upswing on social media. Cisco claimed that videos are expected to make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. Social media giants, like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, are also offering various options to brands to share their video content with their target audience.
Viewer engagement is critical for the success of social media videos. But despite dedicating hours of your day making high-quality videos, some videos do not get a high amount of engagement. This is where subtitles and closed captions come in handy. According to research conducted by Facebook, adding captions and subtitles to your videos can boost the view time by 12%. Further, it showed that the average reach of a captioned video was 16% higher than the one without.
But, how does adding subtitles and closed captions make a difference to the engagement on social media videos? Let us have a look at three main reasons for the same.
1. Everyone cannot hear your audio
This is one of the primary reasons for using captions in your social media videos. Deaf or hard of hearing people cannot access and engage with your video content in a way similar to those viewers without impairments. Without captions and subtitles, they cannot learn how your product or service can benefit them and where they can find it.
Moreover, you are going to miss out on a huge audience if you do not make the use of captions in your videos to the fullest. ‘Why’ you ask? Because studies show that 6.1% of the world’s population comprises of people with hearing disabilities. And, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this number could very well rise to 900 million by 2050. Hence, you would not want to exclude millions of people from watching your content.
2. Many people are unable to turn on the sound
Subtitles and captions come in handy when people are unable to view the video content with the sound on. This usually happens when they are commuting in public transport or sitting in a quiet place, such as an office. According to research, 85% of the Facebook videos are viewed on mute, while 2/3 of the Snapchat video views happen with the sound off. Further, some people tend to turn off the audio simply because they do not want to pause their favourite song or movie or even a call while watching the video.
Hence, captions will allow such people to easily grasp the message conveyed in the video and maximize your reach.
3. Subtitles improve SEO
You have spent hours on producing high-quality video content. But, if it does not rank higher in search results and reach a vast audience, it will only lead to wastage of your efforts.
We know that search engines cannot understand what is spoken in the video. Thus, subtitles work as the text version of the videos and allow search engine bots to crawl through its content, resulting in an increase in search traffic, views, search rank, and engagement.
Final thoughts
The above pointers prove that adding subtitles and closed captions in your social media videos is an absolute must in 2020. Although it requires a lot of effort and time, you will be rewarded with increased accessibility and engagement of your potential customers in the end.
Want subtitles and captions for your social media video content? Find the best partner for your all your subtitling and captioning requirements – DUBnSUB. DUBnSUB is a full-service post-production company based in Gurgaon, India with branch offices in Myanmar, France, Germany, and the USA.
We offer high-quality Subtitling & Captioning services in over 100 languages for pre-recorded television programs, documentary films, feature films, webcasts, e-learning videos, and podcasts.
For any requirements/queries, please contact [email protected] or give us a call at +91 124 498 2484. We will be more than happy to help!