Need help to make captions for your videos on social media? We have got you covered! In this guide, you will learn how to use various tools to add subtitles to your video content and repurpose videos for better visibility on social media without spending too much time editing. In today’s world of short video content, this info will be more than handy to boost your content performance and to make your social media strategy and planning more effective.
Why Add Captions
Captions can be seen in almost every short video available on social platforms. It has definitely become a must for Reels, Shorts, TikToks, and similar short video formats to include captions or subtitles. No wonder, as duplicating content on the video in text format has distinct benefits:
- Engagement. Subtitles can keep viewers engaged longer by providing a visual text component. In addition, it is widespread for people to watch short videos with their phone muted, for example, on public transport. The captions allow them to stay with your video without scrolling further and skipping your content due to inconvenience.
- Accessibility. Captions make your content accessible to viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. It also helps non-native speakers and viewers in noisy environments better comprehend what is said.
- SEO benefits. Search engines can recognize the text in captions. This improves your video's search visibility and helps the right audience find your videos in their feed. In addition, by including targeted keywords and phrases in your captions, you can improve your video's relevance for those search terms, potentially boosting your search rankings.
Some platforms, such as TikTok, have already incorporated automatic captures in their interface. However, these are only sometimes correct, and the font used there is really small. Other platforms may not even have captions at all. This is why adding captions yourself is the best option. This way, you can control your text's size, font, and accuracy so that viewers have the most comfortable experience while watching your short videos.
How to Add Captions to Videos
Transcribing Tools
The first thing you may need to create your subtitles is a transcription. This can obviously be done manually, but this is a long, exhausting process that automatic tools, including AI-based ones, can easily replace. Here are some of them:
Transkriptor
With a straightforward interface, this AI tool can quickly turn your video or audio into a text document in the desired format. The captions can also be corrected right in the app. It can work with more than 100 languages, so no matter what language you have in your video, Transkriptor can handle it. In addition, Transkriptor gives you a free trial account to test its features and makes you quite a generous offer: 90 minutes of free transcription.
Trint
This tool is trusted by several media such as BBC, Reuters, Der Spiegel, Financial Times, and The Washington Post. It allows you to transcribe your audio and videos quickly. It can work with various formats, including .edl or .xml files that sequence clips in Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer, or Final Cut Pro. This way, you can work with your videos while they are still being edited without waiting extra time for your project to be finalized, just to be edited again to add your subtitles. Trint gives you a trial period of 7 days, so you can test their advanced plan version on 3 files for free. The good thing is that the size and length of your files are not limited, and the program will work even with significant recordings.
Waveroom
Waveroom is a multi-functional tool that includes transcription as one of its features. With the help of AI, it can also turn your recordings into written words using its speech-to-text technology. Waveroom gets the job done when it comes to transcribing your files and creating a text transcript that you can use later. You can also save your transcriptions in .SRT format. It also has a denoising function, which can be useful before transcription to make further captions more accurate.
Video Editing Tools
The next thing you do after extracting transcripts from your file is, of course, adding the captions to the actual video. This involves synchronizing the text with your video content's corresponding audio and visual elements. These tools typically include adding time and format captions to ensure they appear at the right time. This can be done via classical video editing tools. Here are some of the tools that you could utilize for that purpose.
Clideo
Clideo is an online platform that provides tools for editing and processing video clips. One of its features is explicitly dedicated to adding subtitles. You can either type in your subtitles manually or upload a subtitle file (like .SRT or .ASS formats). If you're typing them in, enter the text and set the timing for each subtitle. In the Clideo interface, you can preview the video and set each subtitle segment's start and end times. You can make your subtitles look how you want them to, with different fonts, sizes, colors, and positions on the screen. The process is simple, with a drag-and-drop interface that makes adding and syncing subtitles easy. Everything is done in the browser, so there’s no need to download or install software.
Happy Scribe
Happy Scribe is an excellent tool for adding captions to videos. Its main functionality is similar to Clideo, mentioned above. You can either type in your subtitles manually or upload a subtitle file in a format like .SRT or .ASS. If you're typing them in manually, you must enter the text and set the timing for each subtitle. This feature lets you set exact start and end times for each subtitle segment so that the text lines up perfectly with the spoken words and visual cues in the video.
Multi-Purpose Tools
There are tools made for several purposes that can make repurposing and adding captions much easier. These tools are excellent for creators of all levels, helping to make their content more accessible, reach more people, and get more engagement.
AI Video Cut
AI Video Cut is a new tool that makes creating short clips from existing videos easier. This app can quickly create short videos without spending hours planning, cutting, and compiling clips manually. It does all this automatically so that you can create professional-looking video snippets in no time. All you need to do is to insert a link to the video, set cutting parameters, and press Submit. The tool will then create a short clip (or several!) out of your long video. Ideal for making Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikToks!
AI Video Cut continues beyond creating clips. It goes even further by suggesting several versions of the clips, giving you multiple options to choose from. If unsatisfied with the initial results, you can easily restart the process and let the AI generate new versions until you find the perfect one.
Video editing is a time-consuming process, and AI Video Cut helps avoid extra editing by repurposing existing content. This saves time and helps expand your reach and engagement without the extra effort. Plus, this tool provides transcription for every video you can use to create captions for the video the program has made for you.
CapCut
CapCut is a well-known tool that has all the tools you need to transcribe videos and create captions. Even more, it provides the whole video-editing functionality with lots of additional tools and effects available. The process of adding captions is quite easy and intuitive. Once you've uploaded the video, use the transcription feature. CapCut's ASR technology will analyze the audio and generate a text transcription of the spoken words. You can then review the automatically generated transcription. You can edit the text directly within the app to correct errors or adjust the timing to match the audio perfectly. Once you've transcribed the video, CapCut gives you the tools to add and customize captions. This means the captions are accurate, look good,d and are easy to read. Here’s how you can add and customize captions.
Which way? You Choose!
As you can see, there are numerous tools for adding captions to the videos. The choice of tool to use depends on what you need, what you like, and what kind of content you are working with. Some people want to get things done quickly and use automation, while others want to have the option to make changes. Each tool has been designed with the user in mind, so there are many options to suit different workflows and creative processes. Adding captions to your videos is a great way to make them more engaging, accessible, and discoverable.
There are many tools to choose from, so every content creator can find one that suits them. You can use an automated transcription service, a manual editing tool, or an all-in-one solution. These tools are vital to creating inclusive, engaging, and high-quality content. Choose the best way to caption your videos and make the most of them in the world of social media and short formats.