“A picture is worth a thousand words”. By now, you must have been bombarded with this run-of-the-mill adage a plethora of times. When it comes to videos however, how do they measure up? According to Forrester research, a one-minute video amounts to a whopping 1.8 million words! Videos are such a powerful tool that even if there is no sound on Facebook videos, they can still serve to convey your message and etch a lasting impression on the minds of your audience.

In fact, you will be amazed to know that most of the videos are watched without any supporting audio. According to multiple publishers, more than 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound. Let us put stats aside for a moment and look at a real world example which will help you understand the concept. Charlie Chaplin, one of the best silent comedians in the world,stuck to his notorious vows of silence, yet still managed to spread laughter and joy through his gestures, body language and facial expressions. This is the power of silence.

Believe it or not, you can be as effective with Facebook videos without any audio as with videos backed with audio. All you need to know is how to optimize and play Facebook videos without sound and you are on your way to creating engaging silent Facebook videos that are bound to keep your target audience hooked.

How To Optimize Your Silent Facebook Videos?

Before we get down to the process of optimizing silent Facebook videos, it is important to analyze top performing silent Facebook videos and identify what all these silent videos have in common. Here are two common factors that made these silent videos such a hit.

1. Eye catching visuals
2. Text-intensive descriptions

Now that we know what makes silent videos great, let us look into how we can optimize these videos for maximum engagement:

1.    Have a Plan and Tinker with Your Script

Instead of jumping right into video shooting, it is better to have a plan. Think about the story you want to tell through the video. Once you have decided on that, convert the most important messages of the story into visuals. Write or tweak your video script accordingly and it will help you leave a much better impact. You need to put yourself into the shoes of the potential visitors who will be watching your silent Facebook video. This will make your life much easier and target the pinpoints of your target audience in a much better way, even via a video with no sound.

2.    Add Text to Video

In order to compensate for the lack of audio, you will have to go big on text. Be it captions, subtitles, text overlays or anything else, you need to make sure that you use text wisely to get your point across without having to use any sound. According to Facebook data, captioned videos and ads tend to perform much better when compared to videos that don’t contain any caption. In fact, captioned video ads are watched 12% longer than uncaptioned ads. Facebook advertisers, take notes!

3.    Make Visuals More Engaging

When you are creating a video, the first and most important goal of that video is to grab the attention of the viewer immediately. With our attention spans plummeting ever deeper, it might not be easy for a video with sound to make a lasting first impression, let alone a video without sound. However, in retrospect, videos with sound have a much better chance of engaging your viewers than videos without. This is where you can use the power of visuals to fill in the gaps with your silent Facebook videos.

Instead of working with an insipid face with subtitles in tow, it is better to think out of the box and get creative with colors, movements, and powerful visuals to attract the attention of your viewers instantly.  This is important, especially in preventing users from bouncing off without watching your video till the end. With 65% of Facebook videos being watched on mobile devices, you also need to take different screen sizes and screen resolutions into account when creating a social video.

Few Notable Mentions

In order to provide a clear picture about what a great soundless Facebook video looks like, here are some of the best examples of mute Facebook videos that you must check out before creating one of your own:

1.    Netflix

Who says that you cannot create a riveting movie trailer without any audio? Not only has Netflix proved time and again that it is possible,it demonstrates how to do it effectively with this video. Netflix has achieved this magical feat by combining captions and on screen texts, with fast moving visuals to create attention grabbing trailer videos.

2.    Hotels.com

Hotels.com has harnessed the power of silent videos and created a winning formula. They launched a special campaign designed specifically to be watched without audio. The results speak for themselves. Their campaign received more than five million views in less than a month and five times more engagement for their brand. Check out their video.

3.    Huggies

Huggies “Hug the mess” campaign was a major success. It put a face to the most common problems parents’ face; mess created by kids! Huggies demonstrated how their products can help parents clear up this mess without uttering a single word. Amazing, is not it! Check out this intriguing video.

These are only a few examples, and you can easily find many more if you search for them on the web. Use these examples as a source of inspiration for creating your own silent Facebook videos. Keep all the finer points and characteristics in mind and you will surely be able to create a silent Facebook video that has a propensity to go viral.

Over To You

After reading this article, you will be able to optimize silent Facebook videos for better engagement. Have you ever thought about experimenting with silent Facebook videos? If not, then why? What is stopping you from creating silent Facebook videos? If yes, then share your experiences about how the experiment went along in the comments section below.