Take advantage now
Transcription services are nothing new. People have been transcribing things since the 17th century. But today’s transcription services have evolved into an almost essential service if you’re in business. Especially if you produce a lot of audio and visual content for your customers, clients, or audience.
But before we go any further, a few fun facts so that you’ll appreciate just how demanding the task of transcribing can be before you see just how important it can be for your business:
- We speak, on average, at a rate of 150 to 170 words per minute! This equates to a staggering 10,000 words per hour (there are those that speak a lot more than that! But that’s another story).
- We speak 4 times faster than we type, and 7 times faster than we write!
- A professional transcriptionist should type between 80 to 100 words per minute (wpm). So a 1-hour recorded interview takes around 4 to 6 hours to fully transcribe. That’s equivalent to 2.35 minutes of transcription for every minute of speaking in the original interview.
- Each word in the English language has an average of 4.5 letters in it, so a slow speaker (150 words per minute) produces around 150×4.5 = 675 characters per minute, on average. This means that a transcriber’s ears are assaulted with a mind-blowing 675 characters per minute to transcribe, and let’s not forget the additional 170 characters of punctuation (approx.) the transcriber has to deal with – so now we’re looking at around 675+170 = 825 characters per minute – whew!
And what is it that transcriptionists transcribe exactly?
Well, almost anything is the easy answer. But some of the most commonly transcribed items include podcasts, videos, films, webinars, interviews, disciplinary hearings, and conference speeches.
And why do they transcribe these?
Often, a business or organisation will use the transcribed items for research projects, legal proceedings, data analyses, blog posts, website content, search engine optimisation (SEO), newsletters and social media strategies, and also downloadable content in the form of white papers, PDFs, and e-books.
And why are these things important?
- Audio and video content, once transcribed, can help as part of an integral SEO campaign to drive traffic to a business website and improve SERPS.
- Recordings of business, academic or scientific material can be more easily published and distributed to interested parties.
- Film, TV and video content with close captioning is far more accessible and user-friendly for many people, such as the hard of hearing and people whose first language is not English. Captioning (which has to be transcribed first) really helps language students as well.
Ever noticed the number of YouTube videos which have captioning?
Successful YouTubers produce content they know will attract followers and subscribers from around the world, and many of them from non-English speaking countries. Video captioning makes their channels more appealing, user-friendly, and makes connecting with their audience even easier for them.
Ever thought of how your business could benefit from transcription?
How about repurposing old online video and audio content as new downloadable PDFs, e-books or other publications to connect and share with your audience. Include the use of transcriptions wherever they are applicable to your business, whether that’s producing additional content for your clients and customers, or simply supporting your social media and website strategies.
Consider how your business could drive increased productivity, profitability and profits through professionally transcribed content, targeting your audience or customer base. We are here to help, so please contact us today on +44 (0) 1707 260027.
