We won't make you read too far to get to it.
Make sure your viewers can understand your video without the sound on.
According to Facebook, 85% of Facebook video gets watched with the sound off.
Yikes. If a video plays in a newsfeed but no one can hear it, does it really play? Well, yes. Of course it does. But you get my point. Video is pricy content to take a chance that your target audience will play the audio.
OK, well. What can you do to make sure your message still gets across?
Transcribe your video and include closed captioning and add bold graphics to help tell the story.
What if you can’t do both, you ask?
According to their survey, 39% of consumers are more likely to finish videos with closed captioning. And yet, only 51% of marketers add closed captions to their video, most of the time or always.
Our point: If you want to see a boost in completion rates and get a leg up on your competition, add closed captions to your video.
What if your video strategy includes Facebook Live, you ask? Facebook Live will add automatic transcriptions eventually, but for now they do not.
We handle our Facebook Live shows by adding more graphics. And once the Facebook Live has ended we add closed captions.
How do you get your hands on closed captions? Well, there are a variety of platforms you can use to have your video transcribed. But first, ask your production partner if this is something they provide. We include a close caption file (.srt) with final delivery of our videos.
Not sure how to add closed captions for Facebook video? We've made a super short video that shows you how, below:
See? Easy. Now start captioning those Facebook videos!