Video content has increased over the years and it’s understandable that this has also increased the use of video ads. But Google thinks there’s an area which gets overlooked with video and that’s captions.
Video captions make your video content accessible to those with hearing disabilities, they allow users in quiet spaces without headphones to watch your content and it can help users whose first language isn’t the same as yours to consume your content.
Due to this, Google has been considering how they approach captions for content. First you need to consider how to unpack the experience you want people to have watching your video. Captions aren’t just about spoken content. But also music and audio transitions, this can help someone to understand the mood of your video. Sometimes you can’t fit all of this into your captions, so be guided by the context of your video instead. Think about the goal of your video and make sure to include the things which are essential for the viewer to understand.
Different platforms also require different types of captions. Facebook and Twitter will require an SRT file, this just lists each caption with a timestamp. YouTube has it’s own software to make it easier to create captions. But Instagram doesn’t allow close captions, so you would need to add these to your video file.
Make sure to allow plenty of time to test your caption process until you find a method that suits your content and platforms.