Social Chatter Episode 91: Closed Captions for More Accessible Facebook Live Videos

Social Chatter: Episode 91 - Featured

Social Chatter Episode 91: Closed Captions for More Accessible Facebook Live Videos

Welcome to this week's episode of Social Chatter, your weekly social media marketing talk show where we cover the latest social media news from this past week.

Each episode of Social Chatter is available as a blog post or video.

Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Nick Rishwain.

We're also joined by this week's special guest, Dr. Chithra Durgam.
 
Photo of Dr. Chithra Durgam

 

Watch This Week's Social Media Updates

 

Closed Captions For Facebook Live Video Broadcasts

Closed captions running during a Facebook Live video broadcast
In Facebook news, they have added closed captions to Facebook Live videos.

Why Closed Captions For Facebook Live Video Broadcasts Matter For Your Business

According to Facebook, "making Facebook accessible to everyone is a key part of building global community. "

This also includes Facebook Live video broadcasts.

By adding closed captioning to Live video, this will help people who are deaf or hard of hearing to be able to experience Facebook Live video.

As a business owner, this opens the door for you to bring in additional viewers.

In addition, sometimes you may have people who want to watch your Facebook Live video broadcast, but can't because they're in a place where the sound might bother others.

Now, they'll be able to tune-in to your broadcast and turn on closed captioning.

In order to use closed captions for Facebook Live video broadcasts, you'll want to turn on your captioning settings.

Here is how to turn on closed captions.
 

Turning captions on for videos on Facebook

For desktop, go to Settings > Videos > Always show captions > On

For iOS devices, to turn on captioning for Facebook videos, tap on Settings > General > Accessibility > Subtitles and captionining and then Closed captions + SDH to turn captions on for videos when they are available.

If you have yours on, when you go to watch a Facebook Live video broadcast, you will automatically see closed captions when they're available.

You can read more about closed captions for Facebook Live video on the official Facebook blog.

 

Instagram Ads Can Link to Brands' Messenger Accounts and Bots

In Instagram news, Instagram Ads can now link to brands' Messenger accounts and bots.

Why Instagram Ads Linking to Messenger Accounts and Bots Matter For Your Business

Facebook now allows you to purchase Instagram ads that link to a brand's account in Facebook Messenger.

Over on Instagram, ads with a photo, video or even an Instagram carousel post, can now take users to a specific conversation using Messenger referral codes.

For example, if you sell a physical product, you could have a video on Instagram showcases a product.

When someone clicks on the link you include, it could take them to a specific Messenger thread that provides more information about the product, such as how to use the product, other recommended products and even include a way for someone to order the product through Messenger.

We're particularly excited about having the ability to run Instagram Ads targeting Messenger accounts and bots.

In the meantime, if you would like, you can read more about this feature here.
 

Snapchat Adds PayPal Support

In Snapchat news, they have added the PayPal SDK to their iOS and Android apps.

Why Snapchat Adding PayPal Support Matters For Your Business

While there aren't any indicators yet on what Snapchat will do with the PayPal SDK in their mobile apps, Shane Way, the CEO from MightSignal, has some interesting ideas.

Here are three of them.

First, Snapchat could be enabling purchasing from the Snapchat app using Snapchat Spectacles.

If Snapchat wants to encourage more businesses to use Snapchat, they have to make purchasing easier.

Spectacles would be a great way to do that, because typically, the people who own Spectacles are big Snapchat users.

Another idea Wey suggested was to improve Snapcash, Snapchat's way for Snapchatters to send money to their contacts.

A third idea that Way had was a new ad format that enabled instant purchasing.

Out of the three ideas, the third one seems the most plausible, seeing how more and more businesses are having to rely on ads to get the attention of their users.

Ideally, we would love to see an option to make purchases using Snapchat Spectacles at some point.

You can take a look at Wey's comments about Snapchat's use of the PayPal SDK in this post.
 

Snapchat Spectacles Launch In Europe

Christian Karasiewicz wearing a pair of Snapchat Spectacles
Also in Snapchat news, they have launched Snapchat Spectacles in Europe.

Why Launching Snapchat Spectacles in Europe Matters For Your Business

If you live in London, Venice, Paris, Barcelona or Berlin, you'll now have access to a Snapbot so that you can purchase your own pair of Snapchat Spectacles for $129.99.

For those of you who don't want to wait, you can also get a pair of Spectacles through other channels such as Amazon or the Spectacles website.

As a business owner, even if Snapchat isn't your primary social media channel that you use, your Spectacles can be a creative tool to use to create video content to share with your customers.

For example, you can record multiple videos and then stitch them together to share on your YouTube channel.

Another place you can use your Snapchat Spectacles is for Instagram.

Your Spectacles can be a useful tool for creating Instagram video content that stands out.

Here's a short video of a Snapbot in London.

You can read more about the launch of Snapchat Spectacles here.

 

Tools

In addition to sharing the latest news from this past week, we also highlighted some great social media tools and apps for you to check out.
 

Clippy

Create animated GIFs and short videos with Clippy
 
The first tool we have for you this week is called Clippy (iOS).

Would you like to create more engaging visuals to go along with your content or your social media posts?

As a business, we understand how precious your time is.

With Clippy, you can create great visuals to get your point across and save your business a significant amount of time in the process.

You can take any video from any source such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or any other website and turn it into an animated GIF or short clip, which can then be shared on your social media channels, your blog or anywhere else you can think of.

Another thing to think about on the types of videos to create GIFs or short clips from, if your business puts on events, this could be a great way to create content to give to your customers to encourage them to share it with their network.

Clippy is a free app.

You can download Clippy from the link below to begin creating animated GIFs and short videos to use in your content.

Create GIFs and clips from videos with Clippy  
 

Peep

Monetize live videos with Peep for iOS
 
The next tool we wanted to share with you is called Peep (iOS).

How would you like to monetize your live video shows?

While you can mention links during your show, they can be difficult to convert.

Peep is different.

You can schedule a pay-per-view Live video show.

In order for people to watch, they have to make a pledge.

This creates exclusivity for your business and helps identify which of your customers are serious about growing their business.

Another thing to consider about Live video is that with Peep, you can create exclusive Live video shows that are only available to people who make a pledge.

You can continue to use Facebook Live for more general video content that you want everyone to have access to.

You can download Peep and begin to monetize live video from the link below.

Start monetizing your live video with Peep  
 

Wrap-up

That's it for this week's show!

To watch next week's episode of Social Chatter, your weekly social media marketing talk show, tune-in to our Facebook Page to find out what's new in social media news!

If you have any questions about of the social media news or tools that were mentioned this week, please share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in the comments below.
 

About The Author
Christian Karasiewicz Founder, Social Chefs Founder and CEO of Social Chefs, a digital marketing agency. I host two shows, #SocialChatter, the industries longest running social media marketing talk show and Social Snacks, 5 minute or less social media marketing tutorials.