Why should you add boring captions?

Cheerful senior mother and adult daughter using smartphone together, sitting on a bench at a park

Cheerful senior mother and adult daughter using smartphone together, sitting on a bench at a park

Captions play a vital role in making video content accessible to a wider audience, but unfortunately, many captions still fall short in terms of accessibility. In this blog post, we revisit the crucial topic of accessible captions, discuss Subcap’s commitment to accessibility over flashy features, and highlight Meryl Evans’ tweet and video on the importance of proper captioning.

Why Accessibility Matters:

Inaccessible captions create barriers for individuals with hearing impairments and those who rely on captions to understand video content. By focusing on accessibility, you help provide equal access to information and entertainment for all viewers.

Subcap’s Commitment to Accessibility:

Subcap is dedicated to supporting accessible captions. While some users may suggest animations or karaoke-style captions, Subcap prioritizes accessibility over these flashy features to ensure that captions are easy to read and understand by all viewers.

 

Meryl Evans, a deaf professional and advocate for accessibility, shared her thoughts on the importance of proper captioning in a tweet and video:

“Captioning should be more than just an afterthought. Quality captions make a world of difference for deaf and hard of hearing people like me. Let’s work towards making captions more accessible for everyone. #AccessibilityMatters”

In her video, Meryl talks about Hormozi captions, emphasizing the significance of accurate and timely captions for better understanding. She says “The best captions are boring. They let the video be the star.”

 

Best Practices for Captioning Videos for Accessibility with Subcap:
  1. Customize for Readability:

Subcap allows you to tailor the font, size, and color of your captions to ensure they are easily readable by all viewers.

  1. Choose a Clear Font:

Select a simple and easy-to-read font. Avoid using decorative or intricate fonts that may be difficult for some viewers to decipher.

  1. Keep it Plain and Readable:

Ensure your captions are presented in a clean and clear format that is easy for viewers to follow and understand.

  1. Subtitles in Blocks:

Display subtitles in blocks or phrases, rather than one word at a time, to improve readability and comprehension.

  1. Mixed Case Letters:

Use mixed case letters instead of all uppercase letters for a more comfortable reading experience.

  1. Punctuate and Capitalize Properly:

Proper punctuation and capitalization help viewers understand the flow and meaning of the dialogue. Include commas, periods, and other punctuation marks where appropriate.

  1. Use Clear and Concise Language:

When captioning your video, avoid using jargon, abbreviations, or acronyms that may be confusing for some viewers. Opt for clear and concise language that is easily understood by all.

  1. Synchronize the Captions:

Ensure that your captions are synchronized with the audio, allowing viewers to follow along easily. Captions that lag behind or run ahead of the audio can make it difficult for viewers to comprehend the content.

  1. Include Non-Speech Elements:

Caption relevant non-speech elements such as music, sound effects, and background noises that contribute to the context or atmosphere of the video.

 

By focusing on accessibility, you can make a significant difference in the viewing experience for all users, including those with hearing impairments. Embrace Subcap’s commitment to accessible captions and follow these best practices to ensure your video content is both engaging and inclusive.

If you like to read our previous blog post about this, here:

The Best Way to Caption Videos for Accessibility

The Best Way to Caption Videos for Accessibility

One elderly woman and one girl is lookin at a mobile phone

One elderly woman and one girl are sitting around a table, looking at a mobile phone

The last thing you want is for your audience to be left behind because they can’t understand what’s happening in your video. That’s why it’s important to include captions. Captions that are easy to read and understand ensure that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy your content, regardless of their hearing ability.

Plain and readable

To create captions that are both accessible and easy to read, you should make sure the text is large enough to read. Another important aspect of captioning is the font itself. You should also use a plain font with mixed case letters (i.e., not all uppercase). Fonts that are easy to read for a wide variety of people are best, so stick with something simple like Arial or Verdana. It’s also important not to use fancy fonts because they may not be legible for those who have vision problems such as dyslexia or color blindness.

Subtitles in blocks rather than one word at a time

Make sure that the subtitle is displayed in blocks rather than one word at a time. A subtitle that is displayed one word at a time will take longer to read than the same subtitle displayed all at once as a block. This option is more readable for those with dyslexia and other reading impairments.

If your captions move or fly, readers can’t keep up. Slow down that movement so everyone gets to enjoy them! A slow pace allows people with dyslexia to catch up and understand the message being conveyed by the captions.

Mixed case letters instead of all uppercase letters

You might be wondering why we’re so adamant about mixed case letters. It’s because they’re easier to read—for everyone. If you don’t believe us, take a look at this chart from the University of Washington:

Uppercase letters are harder to read than lowercase letters, which makes them harder for people with dyslexia and other reading disabilities to process. For example: “a” is a more visually distinct letter than “A.” That’s why it’s easier for most people to read Aardvark instead of AARDVARK.

Accessible captions to be enjoyed more widely by the disabled community

Video captions can be useful for a wide range of audiences:

  • People with hearing loss can use captions to follow along with the video, even if they’re watching it in a noisy environment.
  • People with cognitive disabilities may not be able to understand spoken language (or at least, not every time), so they may prefer text-only captions.
  • If your audience is made up of people who don’t speak your language fluently or at all, then native-language subtitles are an essential accessibility feature that should be included in all videos where possible!

We can all help make the world a more inclusive place by ensuring that we are creating video content that is accessible to everyone. You don’t have to be an accessibility expert to make these changes, but it does take some thought and effort. We hope these tips help you produce captions that are clear, easy to read, and fun for everyone!

How to Automatically Add Subtitles to Videos

How to Fix Instagram’s Auto-Generated Captions

Automatically generated captions are now available for all feed videos on Instagram and captions will be turned on by default. TikTok introduced this feature in April 2021, so it’s not surprising that Instagram did the same.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said that “It’s a long time coming, but we’re excited to share a new tool that empowers those in the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Videos on Instagram will now have auto-generated captions, where you have the option to turn them off or on.”

IGTV auto-captions two phones showing settings
Image Credit: Instagram

 

What is wrong with Instagram’s Auto-Captions?

Even though it is a late but great feature, it’s still not good enough.

Let’s look at all the features that it’s currently missing.

 

1. Customization:

Your videos on Instagram feed will have black and white text captions along the bottom of the screen and you cannot change the font, size or location. You cannot change the color of the text either. Needless to say, you can do all of those and more on Subcap. You can also add emojis soon with our upcoming update.

 

2. Editing:

You don’t have the option to edit the auto-captions on Instagram.  They will be auto-generated and that means lots of wrong captions which are doomed to become funny memes. Don’t risk it and edit your captions via Subcap.

 

3. Limited Language Options:

Instagram IGTV’s auto-generated captions are only available in 17 languages for now. Subcap supports 125 languages and their variants with great accuracy.

 

4. No Auto-Captioning for Stories or Reels:

Instagram hasn’t made any announcements about the auto-captions feature for Stories and Reels. In the meantime, you can use Subcap and post your videos on every social media platform including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram Reels and Stories, IGTV, Facebook, Twitter, or via E-Mail, Whatsapp, etc.

As you can see above, Instagram’s auto-captioning feature is great for accessibility and more. However, it’s not quite there yet.

If you’d like to try Subcap, click the links below.

iOS

Android

If you’d like to know why it’s a good idea to caption all your videos, read our blog post about it.

Why You Should Always Add Subtitles to Your Videos

 

Why You Should Always Add Subtitles to Your Videos

Did you know…

that 6% of the world’s population is affected by deafness or hearing loss?

that 85% of all social media videos are watched without sound?

that videos with subtitles are 80% more likely to be watched in full?

According to Forbes, 78% of consumers’ purchases are impacted by companies’ social media posts. For that matter, it’s really to your benefit to connect with as many social media users as possible, including people with disabilities.

After Covid-19 came into our lives, things have become more difficult for deaf or hearing impaired people. Communication with others was already challenging before dealing with everybody wearing masks. This barrier of protection has added a barrier to communication as well. Then they couldn’t lip-read or decipher people’s emotions anymore. And of course, the same was true for social media.

While the main use of accessibility features is to enable people with disabilities to use social media, using them properly provides more business benefits, such as greater reach, higher engagement and better SEO. Because not only the deaf community but also everyone who uses social media actively can benefit from readable videos.

85% of videos are watched without sound.  For this reason, subtitles can help boost your SEO and even improve brand recall by enabling search engines to crawl and index your videos. Despite all these benefits, only 36% of organizations add subtitles to all their video content. Wouldn’t you want to make a difference and get ahead?

 

 

So,  let’s sum up…

✅ Get 17% more reactions compared to non-subtitled videos 

✅ Get 26% more CTA clicks compared to non-subtitled videos

✅ Get 35% more viewers compared to non-subtitled videos

✅ Engage with 85% of viewers who don’t have their sound on

✅ Make your contents accessible to more than 400 million deaf people

✅ Increase your watch time and boost your ranking by 15%

✅ Connect with your viewers

✅ Instantly build more relationship

✅ Increase engagement rates 

✅ Create scroll-stopping videos 

✅ Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and more. Stories, ads? Them too.

✅ Get more clicks, sales and conversions

✅ Waste less time on creating subtitles and captions manually

✅ Improve SEO, index your videos in multiple languages

 

You want to add subtitles but you think you don’t have enough time for it? Why don’t you try an auto-subtitle app like Subcap?

Subcap allows you to shoot a video simultaneously or upload a video from the gallery. It automatically transcribes the audio to text which you can edit or copy. Subcap’s auto-captions maker uses artificial intelligence to generate subtitles with perfect accuracy. Subtitles can be added in different colors, fonts, or positions according to selection. With Subcap, you can easily and automatically add subtitles to your videos not only in English but also in 125 languages and variants.

Subcap is free to download and includes in-app purchases. If no subscription is purchased, you can manually add subtitles to your videos. If you want to add auto-generated subtitles, you have to get a subscription. Monthly, 3-month and 6-month subscriptions are available. During your subscription period, you don’t have to pay for anything extra, so no bad surprises!

 

Everything You Need to Know About YouTube Shorts

What is Shorts?

YouTube Shorts is a new short-form video experience for creators who want to make short, engaging videos using nothing more than their smartphones. You can create short videos up to 60 seconds with the Shorts camera in the YouTube app. To put it briefly, Shorts is YouTube’s version of TikTok or Instagram Reels.

It is not a separate app but a feature embedded in the app. Record a vertical video and hashtag #shorts in the video’s title or description. Videos must be 15-seconds or 60 seconds or less in length and do not disappear like Instagram Stories content.

Here are the key features offered by YouTube Shorts:

  • Short videos only.
  • Record using the camera feature in the app.
  • Option to capture multiple clips.
  • Timer for auto-start and auto-stop recording.
  • Text and music can be added.
  • Video speed can be controlled to speed up or slow down the recording.
  • Default clip recording time is 15 seconds, which can be extended up to 60 seconds.

YouTube on screen

Where to find YouTube Shorts?

Viewers may now find your Shorts by going to the bottom of the YouTube app and tapping Shorts.

They may also find them:

  • On the YouTube homepage.
  • In their notifications.
  • By checking their Subscriptions.
  • Featured on your channel page.

Once they tap into a Short, viewers can scroll to watch more short videos.

 

Is it worth using YouTube Shorts?

Shorts allows you to grab more traffic than normal YouTube videos and helps to grow your channel subscribers. As of right now, YouTube is boosting shorts, so go ahead and take advantage of it.

In terms of increasing content discovery, YouTube is experimenting with a number of different approaches to make the service smarter about the Shorts videos it serves to individual viewers.

 

To read more posts like this, please check out our Subcap blog posts. 🤩

Also, don’t forget to follow us on social media:

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5 Tips for TikTok Growth

TikTok is becoming more and more popular every day. Although it began as a lip-syncing app, it is now one of the best platforms for influencers and content creators. It can also be a powerful tool for brands. But first, you need to get more views on your videos.

Don’t worry. We’ll go through how to grow your TikTok account in this post.

 

#1 Post as much as you can

 

 

TikTok differs from the other social media platforms in so many ways. If you post too frequently on Instagram or Facebook, your followers might get annoyed. However, TikTok doesn’t work like that. TikTok shows your videos not only to your followers so even with only a few followers, your content can be viewed by thousands of people. Each video will be displayed to a different group of people, so you increase your chances of becoming viral. The more you post, the more you increase your chances. TikTok is promoting people that are very active on the platform.

 

#2 Participate in challenges and trends

 

TikTok app image on the phone

 

If you start seeing something on your For You Page frequently, it means it’s a trend. By joining trends, you can increase your exposure. You should also add popular songs or sounds to your videos. 

Trends come and go quickly on TikTok, so if you want to try one, act fast! Tap the Discover option at the bottom of the app to see the latest trending hashtags, sounds, and effects on TikTok.

 

#3 Add captions

 

Use text overlays to explain what’s going on or provide additional information. However, if you are just talking on the video, it’s better to use auto-captions.

The attention span on TikTok is very brief and people will scroll if they are not interested. Also, did you know that 80% of people watch videos without sound? If you have captions, you can catch people’s attention.

So that’s great but how do you add captions? I have good news because it’s so easy. Just download Subcap and it captions everything automatically. You can also easily edit, change fonts to make them customized.

 

#4 Find a niche

 

Writing comment on TikTok

 

The majority of well-known TikTokers stick to a particular niche. They create content that shows their talent and skills in their niche. Such targeted content, of course, not only attracts the right followers but also generates a lot of engagement.

Whatever your niche, there’s a space on the platform for you and your audience. It’d be a good idea to research the top creators in your niche and see what they post and what kind of content worked really well. You can get inspired by checking their most viewed videos.

 

#5 Call to action and make people comment

 

On TikTok, comments increase watch time. While someone is writing a comment, the video keeps playing in the background. So, the more comments you get, the better the video performs. Don’t forget to engage with the commenters, so you can encourage longer conversations.

I’m sure you’ve seen buttons on many websites or apps that say things like Read more, Take me there, Sign up, Do it, etc. These are known as CTAs, which are buttons that simply ‘call’ you to take an ‘action.’ CTAs motivate your viewers to interact with your content by taking actions such as clicking a button, signing up, liking, sharing, or commenting.

 

Make sure to check out our other posts!

How to Be More Accessible on Social Media

7 Tips for Increasing Your Social Media Engagement

10 Apps that Every Content Creator Should Know

Whether you are a content creator or just a regular social media user, creating content and dealing with social media every day can be tiring. It also takes so much time and effort. And let’s admit that the content we see on social media has become a little too familiar.

Thankfully, there are a bunch of tools out there to make content creation easier for us all. So we are here to share 10 apps for you to stand out from the crowd and have the best content for your followers.

1. Evernote

Evernote for content creators

Evernote has everything you need to organize your life. Great notetaking, project planning, and an easy way to find what you need, when you need it. 

With Evernote, you can work anywhere, remember everything, find things fast and get things done easily. All of this allows you to create entirely new types of content, meaningful and informative.

 

2. Buffer

buffer for content creators

Buffer is a platform where you can manage different social media channels. For each social media account, you can manage post scheduling, view the direct messages you receive and generate reports.

With the Buffer App, you can regularly follow the posts you will make on social media, set the time of your posts with the timer feature and see how much interaction your posts get.

 

3. Subcap

Sunbcap for content creators

We all know that most people don’t watch videos with the sound on, therefore adding subtitles in videos is a must.

Subcap is an automatic subtitle app for your videos. It’s easy to use, simple but brilliant. Its speech-to-text engine is the best on the market which transcribes your words accurately in 125 languages. You can use it for all social media videos.

Putting subtitles on your videos increases your engagement and makes your content reach more people. It also makes your videos accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing.

 

4. Canva

Canva for designs

Canva helps you create professional designs and graphics. You can edit photos, add text, elements, stickers, frames and more. There are also more than hundreds of professional templates that you can customize to suit your needs.

 

5. Snapseed

Snapseed for content creators

Snapseed is one of the very useful photo editing apps, only available for mobile devices. Snapseed allows you to edit your photos to improve their aesthetic quality. You can then save, share, and export your final edited photo.

Snapseed’s photo editing tools come pretty close to some of the features found in the professional and often costly image editors.

 

6. Splice

Splice for videos

GoPro’s Splice is a free video editing application that works on iPhone and iPad. It’s a powerful video editor with a lot of features such as trimming, cropping, effects, transitions, titles, speed controls, animations, and more. It even has a library of free music and sound effects.

 

7. All Hashtag

All Hashtag for content creators

All Hashtag is a hashtag generator for Instagram, Twitter, and other social media networks. You must enter a term to get hashtag recommendations that are relevant to that word.

This program will produce and evaluate thousands of relevant hashtags for you to copy and paste into your social media posts. This can help you increase the reach of your content and the visibility of your business on social media.

 

8. LifeLapse

Life Lapse for content creators

LifeLapse is a stop motion app with all the tools you need to record and edit stop motion animations. You can import photos and use the app’s video editing tools to adjust frame rates, apply visual effects, and create soundtracks from royalty-free songs.

If you don’t know anything about stop motion videos, don’t worry. LifeLapse developers have created in-app academy to help you learn how to create stop motion videos.

 

9. Grammarly

Grammarly for content creators

Grammarly scans a text you’ve written and checks for any errors. The free version covers the basics (grammar, punctuation, and spelling) but the premium version goes a step further by providing stylistic and best writing practice recommendations.

It helps users write error-free content on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and almost anywhere else.

 

10. Typeform

Typeform for content creators

Doing surveys is a great way to prompt engagement on social media. Typeform is an easy-to-use quiz, form, and survey builder that allows you to ask your audience questions in a variety of formats, including image-based, multi-choice, short answers, yes or no.

Once your quiz is ready, you can share it on social media platforms or share the link.

7 Tips for Increasing Your Social Media Engagement

accessible social media

Brands, organizations and institutions use social media platforms every day to connect with their audiences, raise awareness and drive leads and business. Your social media accounts literally can make or break your business. Promoting your brand through social media is therefore vital to your business but getting your content on these platforms isn’t what gets you the sales. As a business, it’s quality, not just quantity, that you should be striving for. The key is to have followers who’ll actively engage with your content, share it, and ultimately, become paying customers.

Follow these top 7 tips for increasing social media engagement to achieve business growth.

1. Share more video

Video is the most engaging type of content on every social media platform, so if you can, it’s a good idea to create at least one type of video content to maximize engagement. You should upload your videos directly to your social media account, rather than sharing a link of a website so that your video will auto-play to grab your audiences’ attention.

Soc,al media videos

2. Add subtitles to your videos

Did you know that 85% of all social media videos are watched without sound?

It’s shocking, isn’t it? And 6% of the world’s population is affected by deafness or hearing loss. In fact, 80% of people who use captions aren’t deaf or hard of hearing. That means you could be missing out on connecting with millions of social media users. For that matter, adding subtitles to your videos will make you reach a broader audience.

And that’s not all. Video subtitles also provide an SEO boost. Search engine sites now can crawl videos for content.

You can add subtitles to your videos on all your social media platforms, even to your Instagram stories with useful apps such as Subcap. Subcap allows you to take a video simultaneously or upload a video from the gallery. It automatically transcribes the audio to text. With Subcap, you can easily and automatically add subtitles to your videos in 125 languages and variants.

3. Create polls and surveys

Another good practice for creating engaging social media posts is via the use of polls and surveys. Social media polls and surveys are super simple for obtaining that customer feedback you need quickly.

Voting on a poll allows you to instantly see real-time results. People sometimes just click to see what the results are. Keep this irresistibility factor in mind as you create poll questions and response options.

4. Get the timing right for your posts

Publishing posts at times when your target customers are most likely active is one of the best ways to ensure your followers will see your content giving you the best chance of generating engagement. The secret behind a successful social media post is to share the right post at the right time. No matter how strong your marketing campaign is, timing is a crucial factor. If you do not publish your posts at the right times, you may not get the results you want.

5. Be proactive in listening to and responding to your online community

Did you know that 83% of your Facebook fans, and 71% of your Twitter followers, now expect a response from you on the same day when they ask a question on each platform?

Listen to their needs and respond accordingly. When you make your online community feel heard and acknowledged, they’re more likely to become fans and your most loyal social media ambassadors.

6. Use analytics tools to monitor engagement

Analytics Tools are really helpful in monitoring the levels of engagement on social media, websites and more. Data from your analytics also ensure you get more out of the time you spend. For best results, make sure you use the right tools to track your analytics and only track metrics that matter most to your business.

With the help of social media analytics tools, you can understand your audience and your competitors, create better content and better strategy. Make sure to keep tracking regularly so that you catch jumps or dips in engagement that can give you valuable clues about what’s working.

7. Share customer or follower posts

It’s important you share your followers’ and customers’ posts. You should look to publicly recognize people who retweet, favorite, and mention your organization on Twitter, and thank users who comment on Instagram and YouTube. In addition to making the customer feel great about themselves for being worthy to go on your business feed, it can lead to them sharing your reply to them and that means more exposure.

 

 

How to Be More Accessible on Social Media

When the internet came into our lives, the Web have become a significant resource in many aspects of life. To provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with diverse abilities, it is important that the websites are accessible. While many organizations are taking the right steps towards a more accessible and inclusive website, the same isn’t necessarily true for their social media channels. While you cannot change the accessibility of the social media platforms, here’s what you can do to make your social media more accessible to provide equal access to your content.

Phone screen showing social media apps in a group of Social Networks

1. Use CamelCase hashtags.

Capitalize the first letter of each word. This is easier for everyone to read and helps automated screen readers to differentiate each word and read out loud. #WriteYourHashtagsThisWay #dontdoitthisway

2. Don’t use too many emojis.

Screen readers have a text description for every emoji. However, when you use too many of them, it might take a long time for a screen reader to read them and to be honest it might also get boring. You wouldn’t want to say “Face with Tongue” five times in a row. 😛😛😛😛😛

3. Avoid GIFs.

On social media platforms, it’s not possible to add alt text to GIFs. So if you insist on using GIFs, you should combine them with some explanation to make them comprehensible.
Moreover, flashing, blinking, flickering and other strong visual images can make it difficult for people with cognitive or learning disabilities to focus on your post.

4. Add subtitles to your videos.

Without subtitles, your videos would exclude the 466 million people worldwide living with some form of hearing loss. This is equivalent to 6% of the world’s population. That means your videos are not accessible to a lot of people.
You can add subtitles to your videos on all your social media platforms, even to your Instagram stories with useful apps such as Subcap. Subcap allows you to shoot a video simultaneously or upload a video from the gallery. It automatically transcribes the audio to text which you can edit or copy. With Subcap, you can easily and automatically add subtitles to your videos, not only in English but also in 125 languages and variants.

Subcap logo, yellow speech bubble
As a matter of fact, eight out of every ten people prefer to watch videos silently so it’s not just people with disabilities who benefit from accessible social media. Subtitles are helpful for people who are watching videos in a noisy environment, in a quiet place, or without headphones, as well as for children learning to read and those watching videos in a second language.

5. Add image descriptions.

You should add alternate (alt) texts in order to provide a context in place of an image, graphic, and other media. This way, screen readers can describe them for blind and low vision users. Text descriptions should be brief but descriptive.
And don’t forget to write image descriptions for your posts or tweets with screenshots. They might include writing, but screen readers can’t read it unless you add it as an alt text.