Speaker 1: When your video is easy to understand, it's also easy to share. In this video, I'll be talking to you about the huge number of potential subscribers you might be missing out on and how, with just minimal effort, you can tap into YouTube's algorithm to reach them. I'm Jessica Kellgren-Fozard and I'm a deaf YouTuber. I make videos about fashion, travel, gayness, and disability awareness, all with a very fun and positive vintage style. What is the number one thing that creators don't realize about captions? Well, stick around because in this video, I'm going to tell you. I started to go deaf when I was 15 and I know I don't sound deaf. I even made a video about it that went viral. Because I went deaf later in life, I used English as my first language, relying on lip-reading and captions with a smattering of sign language. Especially for work stuff, in order to understand the world. Having hearing aids doesn't actually mean I can hear what's going on in a video, so I always have to click that little CC button. Captioning is a process of displaying text on a screen, be that a video screen, a television, or some other kind of visual display, in order to provide additional or interpretive information. Open captions, like the ones you see in the cinema, cannot be turned on or off by the viewer, but closed captions, which is the ones you'll find in a YouTube video, can be. Quick note. Captions and subtitles are two distinct but overlapping things. Captions assume that the viewer cannot hear everything and so provide additional information, and subtitles assume the viewer can hear but speaks another language. This is different in the UK, where they're both called subtitles, but just run with it. Captions contain information about speaker changes and also background sounds that can enhance the story. While captions ensure accessibility for people who have hearing loss, they're also useful in a wide range of other situations. Say you're hearing but you're in a really noisy environment like a gym, but you still want to watch your YouTube. Or you're in a sound-sensitive environment like a hospital. The captions will ensure that you can still have the fullest experience. And, of course, if your viewer has English as a second language. In my personal experience, I've seen that videos with captions and subtitles have a great increase in views. Look, here are my top 10 videos in terms of views. Now, they all have captions in English and most of them have subtitle files in at least three other languages. Indeed, the majority of social media users now choose to keep their phones on silent and watch auto-playing videos with text on screen on many platforms. It's important that your videos don't get left behind. It's my handphone. Even though your ears are capable of picking up on many, many different words, your brain doesn't necessarily process them all. Most people only remember about 17 to 25% of the things that they hear. So, if you want to get your message across, it's captions that will make the difference. Reaching new audiences is the cornerstone of social media success. I mean, let's be honest here. Come on, sometimes it really is all about the numbers. But, exactly how large of an audience are you actually missing out on? Well, let's talk demographics. Straight in with the easy one, hearing loss. Hearing loss. Over 5% of the world's population has hearing loss. That is 466 million people. In the United States, the number is 38 million people with some degree of hearing loss. That's astounding. There are also a variety of disabilities that mean people might struggle to watch a video without captions, from attention disorders to processing difficulties. Moving on to the next and arguably largest group, people learning your language. Captions in English are easier to follow than just spoken English, and they can help those watching to pick up the language faster. 80% of the views on YouTube come from outside the US. Over 2 billion of the online population have a first language that is something other than English. 2 billion. I mean, you do not want to be missing out on those potential subscribers. Amazingly, YouTube has an inbuilt function which will allow the translation of English caption files into a variety of other languages, opening up your video content to audiences around the world. In terms of search discovery and engagement, captions are one of the most powerful pieces of data out there. The internet is text-based, so your video is going to stay hidden from search engines unless the text that is attached to it can be picked up. It can be hard to get across the essence of your video in just a title and description. Even tags have a character limit. But a closed caption file delivers a text-based transcript of your entire video and opens it up to search engines. More views will mean more likes, more comments, more people hitting the subscribe button. Plus, text on screen has proven to be so engaging that it increases the watch-to-completion rate. These two factors lead to a monumental gain in SEO ranking and engagement. I hope you now understand just how important captions are to you as a creator and to your viewers. Click through to video two where I'll be showing you exactly how to make those captions. And if you have more questions about captions and how to use them, check out the playlist on my channel.