Whoever thought people would prefer silent movies again?

In the recent social media sphere, videos that can be understood while muted are the most valuable. Did you know that as much as 85% of video views on Facebook happen with the sound off?

Over the last few years, video player updates like autoplay and autoloop have pushed video to a higher level of convenience and helped to capture the attention of constantly scrolling consumers. With these updates, audiences don’t even need to commit themselves to hitting a play button to see content, but most won’t have the sound turned on as they go about their day. If your video relies on sound to tell its story, you’ll be out of luck. 

(Remember that time you watched a video in a meeting and didn’t realize you had the audio on? Or the time the guy in the coffee shop watched a video on full volume while you were trying to have a conversation nearby? Not ideal.)

Like I said, up to 85% of video views on Facebook happen with the sound off, according to several publishers. This statistic is a call for content creators to adapt. Video preview expectations have evolved greatly over the last few years, and importance of video content shouldn’t be ignored, especially on Facebook.

Video preview expectations have evolved greatly over the last few years, and importance of video content shouldn’t be ignored.

Check out this recent study from Buffer. Did you know videos are resonating with Facebook audiences so well? Are you adapting your content to follow that stat?

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Even if you’ve started creating and sharing videos, you may be wondering what to do with the 85% of views on silent stat from above. Try these tips to adapt your videos to the audience that doesn’t push “play:”

1. Use captions – they’re cool now.

We pay Rev.com $1 per minute of video to make our captions when needed, especially for CEO John’s “Answers to Questions” videos. If you have videos featuring voiceover or someone speaking on camera, captions make sure your subject matter is at least being read if not heard.

2. Create copy-heavy video that doesn’t rely on a vocal narrative or music to tell the story.

This tip speaks for itself. If you can rely more on B-roll type visuals with a text overlay, experiment with this technique.

3. Make custom captions.

If you have access to someone that can animate your captions in your video stylistically, this is a great alternative to paying for captions and it can look great, too.

4. Create video/animation that doesn’t rely on audio.

Just because you’re animating something, doesn’t mean that sound is always necessary. In the example below, we created an animated GIF that showcases a process. No sound required.


Take advantage of these tips and tricks to revamp your Facebook video game. Charlie Chaplin would be proud.

For more examples, see Lemonly’s videos on Facebook. If you need help creating videos and animations for your company, we can help with that, too. Talk to us about that here.