Useful YouTube Tools
Did you know that YouTube has a lot of very useful tools that you can use for free? One of these is the ability to add your own subtitles to your video. If you did not know this already YouTube creates a transcript of your video for you (i’ll deal with this in another blog) which it then uses to create subtitles on your behalf. All the viewer needs to do is click the subtitles icon on the bottom right-hand side of your video to turn them on. Google, however, makes the transcript out of listening to the audio of your video and may, of course, get it wrong. This could prove quite embarrassing with some turns of phrase but at the moment it does a fairly good job.
So let’s assume you are happy with the automated subtitles, why would you ever need to add your own?
Why add your own Subtitles to your videos
As we always recommend that you think about the viewer before you start planning a video. In these thoughts you should consider not just who will be watching but where they might be watching the video. Are they always going to have access to sound? Might your video be one with very little voice audio and instead lots of sexy product shots backed up by music. It may be played in a waiting room environment where the sound is turned down. So why not add in subtitles that explain what is going on in the video.
I have created a short video to show how to add subtitles to your own videos using YouTube’s video manager. It is a fairly simple process and might turn out to be invaluable if your video is going to be used in a public space. Always think how you can add value to help sweat the asset.
There are many other YouTube tips and tricks that I will share with you in the coming months so please if you want to know something then let me know. I hope you enjoy the video, please share if you think it is useful.