In the last few years, videos have literally conquered social media. You cannot go on these platforms without finding videos of every kind.
Realizing how much users consume these contents on the go, these platforms have also increasingly favored playback without sound in their algorithm for appearance on the feed.
This is why subtitles have become central to any marketing strategy on social networks. But their creation is not done anyhow. Here are the best practices to remember to subtitle your content and improve their visual impact.
Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, or even Snapchat or Tiktok, videos have become the forefront of any content creation strategy on social media. Videos are expected to represent 82% of internet traffic in the next few years.
However, as these types of content are pouring in from all sides, it's becoming increasingly difficult to hold the attention of users. Users can easily switch from more entertaining content to more informative and serious content, without really paying attention or remembering the message.
To differentiate your content, subtitles have become strong allies. Not only do they adapt your content with current algorithm changes (playing without sound), they allow you to maximize the visual impact of your content. Here are the many marketing benefits to expect from them:
Pretty interesting, isn't it? Check out the rest.
As far as subtitles are concerned, it must be said that almost all social networks are using them. Here is a small summary of the need and possibilities of subtitles for each of these platforms:
Social MediaCaption importanceCaption featureSupported formatFacebook
Essential Automatic and manual caption editorSRT, VTTInstagram
EssentialCaption importSRTLinkedIn
GrowingCaption importSRTSnapchat
Necessary in Discover platformImport by technical supportAll typeTiktok Text and captions growing Caption editor and importSRTTwitterIndispensableCaption importSRT
Are you on one of these platforms and seriously considering doing subtitles? Here's how to get started.
There are several ways to subtitle your video. If you want to be sure of a clean and quality result, you can simply ask a professional service. But if you want to do it yourself or with the help of a subtitling tool, here are some best practices to remember:
If subtitles are not yet regulatory on the Internet (as on television, for example), you might although comply to specific standards concerning the accessibility of your videos. Media or official organizations such as the BBC have given precise guidelines to do good subtitles. Here is what you can learn from them:
Now you also need to know the right tools to achieve this result. Since the invention of television, captioning professionals have learned to transcribe and time code by hand. Their work was arduous and complex, especially when it came to long movies. Transcription tools (such as keyboards or headsets) or software such as Aegisub made their jobs easier, but still required a great deal of concentration and careful listening.
Fortunately, those days are partly over with speech recognition technologies. We'll talk about this later, but these new tools are a blessing to save time in your video production. Be careful though, this does not mean that the result will be perfect. There is often some editing and optimization work to do to finalize your subtitling. This is why professional subtitlers are still essential.
If you post your videos on social networks (especially LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), be aware that your audience is increasingly international. Indeed, a video in English would be limited to a market whose opportunities are increasingly exported to high-growth countries (Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico…).
But this is not done just any old way. Translation also has precise rules. So, if you are not familiar with the language you want to translate, it's better to refrain from doing so and ask experts of that language. Automatic subtitle translators still exist, but professional translators are still needed to have that human understanding of things.
As you probably already know, users watch video content without sound on their device. Platforms are well aware of this and therefore progressively promote soundless playback by default in their scrolling interface. Subtitling is obviously a good response to these changes.
However, it should not stop there. You also need to make your content more interactive and expressive. More expressive body language, more varied and animated shots, better structure of your video guarantee the best visibility of your content. Think about it when you make your video!
As you might have noticed, subtitle options available in each platform are diverse and sometimes complex. Sometimes a subtitle generator and editor is included, sometimes not. Sometimes you can use your Srt file, sometimes not. But if you want a productive and efficient way to do it for each platform, here's something that can help you with that.
We have created an automatic subtitle solution, which allows you to create subtitles for all your social network videos. Whether you upload a SRT or VTT file or embed the subtitles in your content, our tool will do the job with quality and in a short time. This is thanks to a number of specific features. These features allow you to:
You have 1 hour free trial to explore and test the platform. Here are a few steps on how to use it:
As you may have noticed, using Checksub by yourself saves a lot of time, but still requires some effort and energy.
We are well aware of this, and that's why you can contact our subtitling service directly from our interface. Professional subtitlers and translators will take care of your video projects. Don't hesitate to ask us for more information!
Now you know how to maximize the impact of your videos with subtitles. We hope this helps you become a rising star on social media!
