1045 – Add these to get more views: Tom talks Subtitles

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

🎙️ Episode Summary
Topic: The importance of subtitles (closed captions) in videos and why every video creator should use them.
Main Points:
1. Background:
o Tom got the idea after seeing a Today Show segment about subtitles while waiting at the hospital early in the morning.
o He realized subtitles affect how many people watch and finish videos.
2. Who Uses Subtitles:
o Older viewers (60+) rarely use them unless they have hearing issues.
o Younger viewers (under 45) — about 4 in 10 regularly use subtitles, and the number is even higher among teens and young adults.
3. Reasons People Use Subtitles:
o Hearing difficulties
o Understanding accents or foreign languages
o Watching in noisy or quiet environments (work, airplanes, etc.)
o Multitasking (especially common among younger viewers)
4. Younger Generation Habits:
o Tom tells a story of a 16-year-old texting without looking — an example of multitasking and digital fluency.
o Younger viewers watch videos silently but still follow along via captions.
5. Marketing Implications for Video Creators:
o 80% of viewers are more likely to finish a video if it has subtitles.
o Higher watch time boosts performance in algorithms on YouTube and social platforms.
o Creators should always include clear, readable captions (adjust font, timing, etc.).
o Especially important for younger and mid-age audiences.
6. Practical Advice:
o Search online or use ChatGPT for recent studies on subtitle usage.
o Check and update your existing videos to ensure subtitles are available.
7. Closing Promotions:
o Free automation e-book: screwthecommute.com/automatefree (Version 3.0).
o Tom’s distance learning school: IMTCVA.org.
o His long-running mentor program in internet and digital marketing.
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💡 Key Takeaway
If you create videos, always include subtitles — they improve accessibility, engagement, and viewer retention, especially among younger audiences.

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Episode 1045 - Subtitles
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1045 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about subtitles. And no, I'm not talking about subtitles on your articles or your blog postings or your book chapters, and you're going to be surprised when you hear some of the things happen with subtitles on video. That's what we're talking about today. And sometimes it's called closed captioning. I'm not sure if that's a direct synonym for it, but anyway, it's the text that appears on the screen that goes over the dialogue that's been happening on the screen. So here I was half asleep the other day. It was 5:30 in the morning. All right. And well, maybe it was 630, I don't know, I can't remember. It was so early. I was taking my neighbor to Sentara Hospital for his colonoscopy. And I'm sitting there half asleep. I got my hand. You know, you can't lay down there. Of course, in the waiting room, I'm, like, half asleep. But they had a TV playing and the today show was on. And they did an entire segment. It must have been five, six, seven minutes on subtitles, on videos and television. And what it means.

[00:01:49] And who watches them, who doesn't, who uses them, and so forth. So I thought that's a pretty important topic for you. If you're making videos to make sure that you allow captioning and all that stuff. So but I'm going to tell you why in this episode. And there's multiple studies on this. All right. If you just Google usage of subtitles in video studies or put it in ChatGPT, you'll get 4 or 5 six studies exactly on this topic. They go way more depth than I'll go in here, but I just want, you know, all you need to know is you need to have it available. And in some cases, it's way more important than others. All right. So anyway, they said that most older people and that would be 60 and above. They report that they almost never use subtitles or closed captioning. Now this would be a little bit different if they were hard of hearing or something, if they totally honed in and and surveyed people that are hard of hearing, then that would be different. But overall, older people just don't use them. They're just watching the video or the TV show. The associated Press NORC poll. They surveyed people 45 and under and they they figured out that four out of ten people, 45 or under, used subtitles and closed captioning and on other studies, younger people or even way more, way higher than four out of ten that use them.

[00:03:31] Well, let's let's explore. Like why? Why do you think people do this? Well, there's various reasons. One I just mentioned is hearing problems. Other would be accents, others would be language differences. And many of them are because of the environment. Like if you were at work and you're supposed to be working, you can't have the volume on, all right, and you're watching a movie, it could be if you don't have any headphones on an airplane or something like that, you can still follow along with what's going on. Now, the younger generation, much younger, they do it because they multitask. I mean, my video producer a long time ago, the guy came from Hollywood. You probably maybe heard this story where he was retired from Hollywood, and I kept blowing him off because I thought his his real, you know, his demo reel was bullshit because it had all these celebrities on it. So I kept blowing him off. But eventually we hooked up and he, uh, he worked for me for several years, and he brought his daughter, his 16 year old daughter, over to meet me because she wanted to be an entrepreneur and all that. And she's sitting here making perfect eye contact with me, talking to me, telling me what she wants to do, and just beautiful young girl.

[00:04:56] But at the same time, I mean, I was blown away by this. I didn't say anything at the time, but it just blows me my mind. She's got her hand, like down at her waist or off to the side. Not in anywhere where it's obvious that. And she's texting her friend without looking at the phone. All right, so these kids, you know, grew up where they came out of the womb swiping, you know, screens. They can just do stuff that that us old farts will never be able to do or even understand. So the young people are using it for multitasking again, uh, in environments where they're not supposed to be doing it, they're doing it anyway with closed captioning and. And the only good thing about that to me is at least they can read. So many kids are coming out of the reading. Scores are terrible, so at least they can read. Now another study. Now this is what you have to think of as if you're putting videos out. And another study showed that 80% of the people that they surveyed are more likely to finish watching a video if it has subtitles. Wow. How important is that for us? And it means I got to go back and look at several thousand videos that I have out there.

[00:06:12] But how important is that? Because for your videos to be seen by more people, watch time and percentage of watch time is really critical so that the algorithm shows your videos to more people. If you have subtitles on and people make it all the way to the end, that's like 90 or 100% watch time and that makes your video look like it's really great. See, just because it had subtitles, at least 80% of the people said that. So you got to make sure your subtitles are always available, especially if you're doing videos directly on your website rather than just on YouTube and so forth. And pay attention to this, especially if you have a younger or a mid mid-range and lower audience. They're doing it. You know that. Four out of ten. I'm not sure what year that was taken, but it's probably more now. So if you want people to watch more of your videos, make sure the subtitles are available and sometimes you can edit them yourself to make sure they're clear. And you can set the font size and make sure they're easy to read. There's all kinds of studies about this on the readability and how long you leave them on the screen, and if people miss them, will they go back and stop the video and go back and look at them to to catch what they missed? So a lot of stuff going on here that those studies go into.

[00:07:42] So like I said, just Google or ChatGPT. What did I do? What I use the prompt, recent studies on video subtitles and I and it came up with 4 or 5, six of them and gave me all the details in the synopsis. And then you can click over to read the in depth if you want to. All right. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hey make sure you pick up a copy of my automation book. screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Get version 3.0. And of course, check out my school at IMTCVA.org. Save yourself a couple hundred thousand bucks and get usable skills that you or your loved ones don't have to go to a four year college and and get indoctrinated while you're there. And it's certified to operate by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But it's distance learning, so you don't have to be in Virginia. And of course, my mentor program, the longest running, most successful, most unique ever in the field of internet and digital marketing, one on one with you, with me and my entire staff. Okay. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you on the next episode. Have a great weekend.