How to Easily Add Captions to Your Facebook and TikTok Videos

Not everyone watches video with their sound on - in fact, about 85% of Facebook users watch on mute! By adding captions to your videos you ensure viewers can get interested in your video whether the sound is on or off. While many platforms offer auto-captioning capabilities, accuracy can be an issue with AI generated captions. To offer a better user experience it’s important to upload custom captions to each of your videos.

The following are step-by-step instructions for adding captions to two major platforms, Facebook and TikTok:

Facebook Video Captions

By adding captions to your Facebook videos, you have a better chance of stopping the scroll and holding the attention of the viewer without them needing to turn on the sound.

1. Upload a video and click on:

   1. The “ready to view” notification

   2. The timestamp at the top of the video post on your newsfeed

2. Click on the horizontal ellipsis at the top right and click on Edit video.

3. Upload a .srt file by clicking on Choose File button below Upload SRT files.

4. Hit Save

TikTok Video Captions

TikTok continues to increase their userbase as it remains the top downloaded app month after month! With over 62% of their users aged between 10 and 29 it is a great way to reach a younger demographic. While the platform has the ability to add captions, it is not always user-friendly therefore it’s important for the video creator to add the caption. Below are the steps to manually add captions for TikTok:

1. Open the app and click the “+” icon. 

2. Record or upload your video. 

3. Click the check button in the bottom right corner when you finish recording or uploading the video. 

4. Click the “text” button located at the bottom of the TikTok screen to add captions. Start with “CC:” to signal closed captions.

5. Choose a font style, text alignment, and color. 

6. Then, click on the caption to set the duration that aligns with the audio.

In short, captions allow you to potentially reach a bigger audience, achieve better engagement and make your content more accessible.

 Sources:

1. https://digiday.com/media/silent-world-facebook-video/

2. https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-statistics/