on captions on YouTube and their importance, in celebration of International Week of the Deaf

And yes, I’m filming this at YouTube Space so it looks fancy.

If you’ve never watched me before you probably won’t have guessed that I’m deaf- I know,

I don’t sound it… I went deaf in my teens and subtitles or ‘captions’ are a huge

part of my life, without them I couldn’t access many forms of entertainment- including

YouTube! It’s not just viewers with hearing loss who benefit from captions but a wide

range of people AND they can be really helpful to creators as well. In this video I’ll

be talking about what captions actually are and why they’re useful.

The other videos in this series will be linked below as soon as they’re released.

They are: How to caption your videos on YouTube

What to include in captions What the different caption symbols mean

How to use captions as a viewer

Let’s start with a taste of what YouTube is like for me without captions…

Yeeeeah, difficult to understand, right? Let’s hit the CC button and try again:

There we go! Now it makes sense.

When your video is easy to understand it’s also easy to share. The internet has made

the world smaller and brought us together but it can’t overcome all language barriers.

Having captions means your Turkish viewer can share your video with their French friend

or… their 80-year-old aunt!

There are 80 year olds watching YouTube, don’t tell me there aren’t!

In addition: the YouTube algorithm, that strange and majestic beast, picks up on words and

phrases in your captions, just as it does with titles, descriptions and tags. Having

captions means you’re going to shoot up those search results.

But what are captions and how are they different from subtitles...

Well, if you’re American (Which, let’s be honest, is the language of the internet)

then: Subtitles and captions are two distinct but

overlapping things. While both display text on the screen, the purpose for using each

is different.

Standard subtitles assume the viewer hears the audio whilst captions were developed to aid individuals

with hearing impairments. This means that captions contain information about speaker

changes and background sounds that enhance the story.

While captions ensure accessibility, they are useful for a variety of other reasons

allowing viewers to follow a story when sound can’t be heard because of a noisy environment

like a gym

or a sound-sensitive environment like a hospital.

If you’re British, then ‘captions’ are what we know as ‘subtitles’. We just say

subtitles for both because we like to make our language confusing. I’m going to continue

saying captions because that’s the word the majority of people watching will use...

but Brits, I’m with you, just substitute subtitles in your brain, you’ll get it,

I know it, it'll be fine.

Why are captions important though?

Well, we might not think of listening as something that requires a huge physical effort,

but that doesn't mean it's any less exhausting.

Consider how much information we listen to every day: working conversations, chatting

to friends, talking to your family, watching TV or YouTube videos… [bla, bla]

it can be a mental workout!

But… how much of what we hear is actually absorbed? Even though your ears are capable

of picking up on many words, your brain doesn't necessarily process all of them.

Most people only remember about 17 to 25% of the things they listen to.

So is what you can hear important?

Alright, this is probably an incredibly boring question now and we’ve all seen it but what do you

hear when I play this clip: Yanny or Laurel?

[Audio recording]

The Yanny/Laurel debate is an example of a perceptually ambiguous stimulus, meaning it’s

difficult for the brain to decide on a definitive interpretation. It highlights that the external

world is less objective than we like to believe, although you might feel 100% certain about

which name you hear. This is down to two reasons: the first, you’re primed to hear one of

the two- so even if the sound that moves through your ears isn’t either of these, your brain

will choose the closest- and secondly your ability to hear high frequency or low frequency notes

It’s a great example of how captions can help you get the true meaning of your words across

But!

Along with this, captions and subtitles boost viewer engagement.

Videos with captions receive a 40% spike in viewing and videos with both captions and

subtitles in other languages experience an 80% increase in viewing. Internal tests at

Facebook found that captioned video ads saw a 12% increase in engagement.

Reaching new audiences is the cornerstone of social media success. Let’s be honest,

sometimes it really is all about the numbers. But exactly how large an audience are you

actually missing out on?

Let’s talk demographics:

Straight in with the easy one: hearing loss. Over 5% of the world’s population has disabling

hearing loss- that’s 466 million people. In the United States, 38 million people have

some degree of hearing loss.

Now, please, don’t think that only old people have hearing loss- hello, nearly everyone

born after 1985 has grown up with headphones constantly blaring in their ears!

Oh deafness is coming for you I'm sorry about that

There are also a variety of disabilities that mean people might struggle to watch a video

without subtitles: from attention disorders to processing difficulties, those captions

mean a lot.

Like, a lot a lot. Seriously if you make your videos accessible and I’ll stan you hard. Hearts around your

I will draw hearts around your face and everything!

I mean maybe not cause that's a bit weird... but I might.

Moving on to the next group: people learning your language.

Subtitles open video content up to audiences around the world. 80% of the views on YouTube

come from outside the US. If your video is understandable by the segment of the online

the population who speak a language other than English, you’ll reach over two billion

people!

I’m sure you remember this from every school language class ever: you think you know what’s

going on, you’ve got the key words down, you can maybe, just maybe, write a sentence.

And then your teacher talks and it’s just bluh bluh bluh bluh!

Oh, Well then…

Captions. Problem solved.

Maybe you’re exhausted or hungover and you just want to watch your fave but also you’re

too tired to actually pay attention to words- slash your ears are still ringing from the

night before-

Captions. Problem solved.

You’re in the car with your parents, watching YouTube videos with your siblings in the back

and a video about awkward kisses comes comes up. and wow do you wanna watch it...

Captions. Problem solved.

Maybe the person in the video speaks your language but they come from the other end

of the country and their accent is… thick.

Captions. Problem solved.

You’re on a hugely busy, noisy train and even though you’ve turned your headphones

up to max you still can’t hear properly…

Captions. Problem solved.

That’s how captions help you as a viewer but how do they help you as a creator?

In terms of search, discovery and engagement, captions are one of the most powerful pieces

of data out there.

Together captions and subtitles can boost eyes on your content, leading to an uptick

in engagement. More views will mean more likes, more comments and more people hitting the

‘subscribe’ button.

But even more important is the role closed caption and translated subtitle files play

in SEO. The internet is text based so your video content is going to stay hidden from

search engines unless the text attached to it is picked up. It can be hard to get across

the essence of a video in just a title and the description- even video tags have a character

limit- but a closed caption file delivers a text-based transcript, opening up all of

the video’s content to search.

(bear that in mind if you keep getting demonetised. Watch video 3 for more!)

This makes your video more easily discoverable which sets the cycle of increased reach and

engagement back into motion.

I mentioned earlier the Yanny/Laurel debate and how captions can help you get the true

meaning of your words across.

Well, new research has found that when adverts are subtitled

the awareness of the product rapidly increases. It’s the same for a YouTube video: you’re

bringing the audience in. They’re engaging with the content through actively reading

rather than just sitting and passively listening. They will come away having internalised the message.

Some advertising campaigns wanting to boost the intent to purchase enjoyed as much as

a 26 percentage point boost when they used captions.

The same is true for whatever message you’re sending with your videos. Whether you’re

teaching people how to apply the perfect cat’s eye, or how to do that tricky one-two combo move,

or how to put a motorbike together from scratch.

More and more videos are being viewed on computers and mobile devices without sound. Even auto

play audio doesn’t overcome the issues around devices being on silent. Your content needs

to be engaging with or without the element of sound.

This also disproves a very common complaint about captions; that they’re intrusive.

Because clearly it isn’t an issue for the viewer.

Make sure you move on to Video 2, where I’ll be showing you how to create captions

on the YouTube platform. In Video 3 I’ll talk through some common questions with what

you should and shouldn’t include. And in Video 4 I’ll explain these weird little

symbols and how you can better use captions for your viewer.

Remember to subscribe if you haven’t already and do come take a look around my channel!

And see if you like it! It would be lovely to have you!