Why subtitles are a Must for Video Content
There are millions of various videos of any kind on the internet: education and entertainment content are considered the most popular and demanded. Despite the fact that all the content makers strive to find their audience, the vast majority of which will be able to perceive their media without difficulties, it cannot be denied that the audience of free video-sharing websites is extremely diverse.
When uploading a simple video to the internet, you should realize that it can be seen by millions of people around the world. That’s why it’s important to make sure it’s simple and understandable to all viewers – including foreign language speakers or hearing-impaired people, who can’t recognize basic audible speech on their own.
Unfortunately, many bloggers and public figures are still unaware of it: on the one hand, we could practically understand them, because subtitling is a long and laborious process that requires certain skills in editing and timing. In this case, we should take a closer look at the good reasons to add subtitles in video, as well as methods that can simplify the work of content makers. In addition to the benefits for viewers, there are quite a few positives for the content creators themselves that we’ll have to look out for as well.
Making your video accessible to everyone
Any of us have at least once encountered a situation where a YouTube video matched our needs and requests perfectly and could potentially solve our problem. However, it was filmed in a language we don’t understand – in such a situation, the author could have truly saved us by subtitling it, but for some reason, they didn’t.
Of course, most modern sites have an automatic subtitle function, but even that has its drawbacks. First, its accuracy often leaves much to desired – it fails to correctly recognize all the words spoken; or it even may skip a large part of the text being voiced; giving us no opportunity to listen to the information properly. Secondly, the playback speed of automatic subtitles is not always adjustable, so viewers are not only unable to understand the purpose of the video but also cannot catch up with whatever is happening on the screen in time.
In this case, the situation can be considered rather inconvenient both for foreigners who do not have the required knowledge of a certain language and for the deaf. The optimal solution is to add subtitles to videos online in the video editor; setting them at a speed that matches the pace of your speech.
Expansion of the target audience
Oddly enough, subtitles added to the video can be useful not only for viewers but also for the creators themselves. When you add subtitles to videos online that are understandable to everyone, you give people from all over the world (not just those living in your country or speaking your language) the opportunity to fully familiarize themselves with your content.
If your audience has previously consisted only of native speakers of your language; but you’re thinking about expanding your audience and giving your channel more exposure; it’s time to consider creating English (and beyond) subtitles.
You have the ability to cater to viewers from a certain area if you want to: of course; if you decide to put subtitles in videos in various languages, it will take a lot of time; but users will start to see your content in recommendations much more often and pay more attention to it.
Most viewers watch muted videos
Unfortunately, that’s a fact. Statistics confirm that most users of social networks and video-sharing sites watch all the videos without enabling the sound. The reasons may vary, but this can be considered a new reason to think about subtitles added to the video. Even though someone will watch your posts without the sound; that user will still be able to easily find out what it is all about.
Increasing viewer engagement
Another fact that can improve your profile statistics: videos with subtitles are watched to the end (without pauses and skips) much more often than videos without them. You can discuss the reasons and interpret this audience behavior in many ways, but you can’t ignore the truth; – subtitles significantly increase the stats and allow you to get more views.
This trick is especially relevant if you post your videos on social networks; – their audience is much more receptive to videos with subtitles, interacting with them more often.
How to add subtitles to a video properly?
If you’re a blogger or content maker, you have a few options:
Add them using a video editor. In fact, any program that you are used to will do – the main requirement is that you only be able to add text;
Add them with the built-in editor. This feature works on YouTube – it’s very convenient and plus; it allows your viewers to turn subtitles on and off whenever they need them.
To add subtitles, you will first need to transcribe the audio into text format and time-stamp it. You can use different programs to do this – Google Docs, Dragon Dictation (available for iOS), or Rev. There are paid and free services that guarantee various levels of accuracy.
What’s the easiest method to add a caption to a video online?
Even if the authors don’t add the subtitles themselves, there is still a way out. As an alternative to the automatic algorithm, you can use online tools that will generate simple; and comprehensible captions for you throughout the watching process.
One of them is Rask AI – an AI-powered program that recognizes more than 130 languages; and transcribes speech even if there are several people talking in the video at the same time. The program can be considered useful for both creators and viewers of foreign content.
There are many such programs as well. Modern users always have a choice and an opportunity to select the software that meets their needs and financial possibilities. No special skills are required to use AI-powered programs – you will find instructions from the developers; or you can easily understand the workflow by yourself, as the algorithm will automatically start transcribing the video for you.
