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Pop quiz, hot shot.
As consumer demand for online video continues to increase, understanding how audiences engage with this type of content is a crucial consideration for digital marketers. Surprisingly, many people prefer the sound of silence when it comes to their viewing habits. TO recent Preply survey found that 41% of Americans choose to have video captions turned on when watching content online, largely because they watch content in public places.
Marketers are picking up on this trend and taking advantage of the “no sound” experience for videos on their corporate channels. To do this right, it’s crucial to understand the ins and outs of video subtitles.
At Convince & Convert, we’ve partnered with hundreds of brands to produce social media. content and Strategic plans for channels like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Unfortunately, we found that captions are a part of the process that are often overlooked by busy marketers, even though incorporating them into videos can make or break the success of a campaign.
How well does it compare when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of video subtitles? The quiz below is based on real life questions that have come up in our clients’ projects. It is okay if you leave a blank space in the answers. We also provide a cheat sheet so you can later surprise your colleagues by pretending you knew the answers all along.
41% of Americans choose to have video captions turned on when watching content online. click to tweet
Questionnaire Instructions
Please read the questions below and reflect on your own level of knowledge and confidence in answering each one (don’t worry, there is no time limit). For the most successful, you can copy these questions onto a blank document and write down your answers to compare with the cheat sheet. To everyone else: have fun and keep reading to learn something new.
- What is the difference between subtitles and subtitles?
- Do all major social media platforms offer automatic captions?
- What is better to use in social media videos: open subtitles or closed subtitles?
- Do you have to include subtitles for online videos to be ADA compliant?
- Can Subheadings Boost Your SEO Efforts?
Video Subtitles Quiz Cheat Sheet
What is the difference between subtitles and subtitles?
First things first… there is a difference, and word choice is important. Getting this answer right is important to ensure you can communicate effectively with your team, with vendors, and with your audience.
Subtitle are used to describe the audio components of a video to viewers who cannot hear sound. They indicate what is happening audibly in the video, including when music is playing, the words people are saying, and whether there are other sound effects. There are different types of captions that can be used: open captions and closed captions.
Subtitle are used to help translate video dialogue into a different language through words written on the screen. They are created assuming that the viewer can hear the audio in the video, but does not understand the language being spoken. They usually only translate spoken words and do not include other background sounds.
Do all major social media platforms generate video captions automatically?
Yeah! It took years for them to get here, but now the biggest social media platforms have the ability to automatically generate captions when you upload a video. This includes:
- Tik Tok
- Youtube
The not-so-subtle context here: Any video you upload to these channels must include subtitles. But don’t stop there. Be sure to check them out first! AI-generated text will save you a lot of time (no more manual transcriptions), but it’s not always accurate. You’ll want to catch any mistakes before your viewers start exaggerating their comments by spotting a hilariously misspelled quote.
What is better to use in social media videos: open subtitles or closed subtitles?
Trick question! The answer here is that it depends on your brand and your goals for the video.
Open captions are when the words are “recorded” into the video file. The text always appears with the video; the viewer cannot choose to turn them off. They give you more control over the appearance, style, and placement of your text. Some brands do a great job of using open captions to create eye-catching graphics that encourage people to stop scrolling through their social networks. They can even serve as an artistic way to incorporate text as part of the visual story.
The disadvantages of open captions: They are not great for multilingual audiences, since different versions of the video are needed for different languages. It’s not that easy to create or modify them once they’ve been added to the video. They’re not as accessible either, as screen readers can’t access the text.
Rather, subtitles are added to videos as a separate file, and can be turned on or off by your audience. Give viewers more control over how they want to interact with your content. It’s also much easier to make adjustments since you only have to edit the text and not the actual video file.
Do you have to include subtitles for online videos to be ADA compliant?
For most organizations, the answer to this is “yes,” but there are a few exceptions (ADA compliance does not apply to religious organizations or private clubs). Regardless of the legality, it is always a good practice to ensure that your video content is accessible to all audiences.
For context, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a US law that prevents discrimination against people with disabilities. It requires state and local governments, as well as businesses and non-profit organizations that serve the public, to communicate as effectively with people with disabilities as with those without. This includes providing accessible web content, such as online videos.
ADA does not have clear and specific standards when it comes to video captions. Therefore, when preparing video content, a good strategy is to follow the rules set by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC created these rules for television programming, but they are equally relevant to social channels. Subtitles must be:
- Accurate: Subtitles match the spoken words in the dialogue and convey background noise and other sounds as much as possible.
- Synchronous: Captions match their corresponding spoken words and sounds as closely as possible and must be displayed on the screen at a speed that viewers can read.
- Complete: Subtitles run from the beginning to the end of the program to the greatest extent possible.
- correctly placed: Captions should not block other important visual content on the screen, overlap each other, or extend beyond the edge of the video screen.
Can Video Subtitles Boost Your SEO Efforts?
Yeah! This is another key factor to consider when deciding between using open or closed captioning. Adding subtitles will allow search engines to crawl the text file and understand the context of your video to improve its ranking. Additionally, subtitles (open or closed) will also allow more viewers to understand your video, leading to longer video watch time, something that algorithms highly favor.
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How did you do it? We grade on the honor system here. If you find that you need extra help when it comes to social media video strategy or production, we are here to help! Contact us at any time to learn more about partnering with our team of strategists.
