Captioning Your Videos: A Guide for Every Social Media Platform
Can you believe nearly 85% of mobile users watch social media videos with the sound OFF? Truthfully, I can. I almost never have my sound on - I’m always worried about my phone going off in an exam room or waking up a kiddo at home. It’s just easier to leave the phone’s sound off. Consider this stat along with the fact that:
Videos are the preferred social media content (from the perspective of users and algorithms alike) and
We have just a few short seconds to capture our viewer’s attention.
Combined, these reasons make captioning your videos a worthy investment of time and, in some cases, money. Captions are a great way to improve the length of watch time and get your viewer to understand your message. Even on image-heavy Instagram, captions can increase view time by 12%. Adding captions sounds hard but really can be done in just a few steps. A quick note about file type: I had never heard of an .SRT file (SubRip file type) before I started captioning videos, so don’t feel bad if you hadn’t either!
Here’s the roundup of the platforms and options:
Facebook Auto-generated:
Click Photo/Video at the top of your timeline or newsfeed.
After the video has loaded and you’ve added your title and description, click “subtitles and captions” in the right-hand toolbar.
Click “Auto-generate” under “Add New Captions.”
Wait for Facebook to quickly generate and add your file before posting.
Upload your own caption file (we recommend Rev.com to generate):
Click Photo/Video at the top of your timeline or newsfeed.
After the video has loaded and you’ve added your title and description, click “subtitles and captions” in the right-hand toolbar.
Click “Upload” under “Add New Captions.”
Select your file and file type(s) and click next when uploading is complete. Note: you’ll be looking for a file that looks like this: YourCaptionFile.en_US.srt.
Choose the default language for your caption file (English).
Publish your video.
Adding captions to previously posted videos:
Click “Edit Post” and follow the steps above
Create a new post and click the video icon to add a video to it.
When it has fully loaded but before posting, click the Edit icon in the upper right corner.
Select video settings.
Select file.
Attach your SRT file.
Click save.
Add any additional text, hashtags, etc and post!
The only downside with adding captions to a LinkedIn video is that currently, I haven’t found a way to schedule captioned content.
Instagram Unfortunately, the only way to include subtitles on your Instagram videos is to have them be a part of the original file. There are a few apps that can help with this, or you can usetraditional video editing software like Adobe Premier Pro. YouTube
Go to your Video Manager by clicking your account in the top right > Creator Studio > Video Manager > Videos.
Next to the video you want to add captions or subtitles to, click the drop-down menu next to the Edit button.
Select Subtitles/CC.
Click the Add new subtitles or CC button.
Choose how you want to add or edit subtitles or closed captions to your video:
Note: If you’re using a service like Rev.com, you’re in luck! Rev integrates with YouTube and will auto-upload your captions.
Click on a video within your Media Studio library.
Select the “Subtitles” tab in the pop-up window.
Select the text language of your subtitle file from the dropdown menu.
Click the “Upload” button and select the .SRT file from your local computer.
The file is now associated with your video. To update the file, click the Pencil icon.
Happy Captioning!
The Social DVM Team