The Impact of Closed Captioning Your Content

Last year, instagram launched a "closed captions" sticker in stories.

This automated feature makes it easy for creators and influencers to make their content more consumable

Why should you caption?

According to Instagram, 40% of stories are viewed without sound.

Research shows that captioning a video increases average video view time by 12%

Another study found that 80% of people said captions would make them more likely to watch the entire video

Think about your audience -

What are they likely doing when watching your stories?

• Rocking a sleeping baby?

• Cooking dinner with a lot of background noise?

• Sitting in a waiting room at the doctors office?

I've put up multiple polls over various months asking if people are watching my stories with or without sound.

My average result was that

40-60% of my followers watch without sound.

That's HUGE.

If someone is talking in stories and you don't know what they're saying, you're more likely to swipe by or tap through.

Closed captioning not only increases audience engagement, but is also allows the deaf or hard-of-hearing

to follow the dialogue and the action of a story simultaneously.