GO AHEAD, AUTO-GENERATE YOUR FACEBOOK CAPTIONS. THEN EDIT THEM.

A hammer is a great tool when used properly. But stand six feet from a nail and throw a hammer at it and, well, you’re going to make a mess of things.

Which brings us to the captions function for Facebook videos.

The vast majority of videos posted on Facebook are watched with the sound off, so adding captions can be a great way to grab someone’s attention or get your message across even if the viewer has your video muted. But it’s not as simple as uploading a video, clicking on the “subtitles and captions” tool and hitting “auto-generate.” Not even close.

The captioning tool is pretty amazing, but it’s far from flawless. It often misinterprets words, melds two words together or makes multiple words out of one. It punctuates sentences horribly. It includes every “uh” and “um” that slips out of  someone’s mouth. The captions need to be edited very carefully.

More than once in recent weeks, an organization right here in Jackson, Michigan that is near and dear to our hearts posted a video with captions that were riddled with errors. The information was not conveyed accurately. The errors were distracting. At times, there were so many blatant errors that the videos became unwatchable. In both cases, the video would have been better had the captions never been turned on.

So remember, if you plan to use the captioning tool, you really need to edit the captions — frame by frame, word by word — before posting your video to Facebook.

If you need assistance in any of these areas — Facebook, captioning or editing — Social Sound is here to help. We work hard to hit the nail on the head every time.