What is Video Tagging?
Video tagging refers to the process of labeling or annotating video content on the internet with metadata. Videos can be tagged with various information like descriptive keywords detailing the content and purpose of the video, categories, timestamps, and so on.
The main purpose of video tagging is to make online videos more searchable and accessible to the relevant audience. Video tagging, as a process, is commonly used in various applications, including video search engines, video hosting platforms, and video analytics. It also allows search engines and crawlers to read and index videos efficiently.
How Does Video Tagging Work?
Video tagging can work in different ways, depending on whether the methods applied are manual or automatic. For instance, online videos can be categorized by tagging them with common parameters like date, time, size, and other technical video metadata.
On the other hand, video tagging can also be achieved through manual entry, where individuals tag various videos based on their opinion of the content within the video. For example, an individual tagging a video about pets can use descriptive keywords like ‘dogs’, ‘cats’, or ‘grooming tips’ to make the content more searchable.
Now, let’s discuss in detail the two main methods of video tagging.
Manual Video Tagging:
Manual Video Tagging refers to the process of adding tags manually. This process, although time-consuming, provides better control over the entire process to video creators and uploaders.
Here’s how you can tag videos manually:
- Watch the Video: First, an individual watches the entire video they wish to tag. They need to understand the entire context of the video and absorb all the relevant details and associated information.
- Identify Key Points: After watching, key points within the video must be noted. This may include important events within the video, topics discussed, or actions seen.
- Tag the Video: After this, the creator can add relevant information, such as descriptive keywords, timestamps, duration, and other metadata, to make the video more searchable and accessible.
Many powerful tools support manual video tagging, like YouTube Studio, Vimeo, Wistia, SproutVideo, Vidrovr, etc.
The only downside to manual tagging is that it takes a lot of time and effort, especially if you are tasked with the responsibility of tagging an entire video library.
Automatic Video Tagging:
Automatic video tagging annotates videos using smart algorithms and machine learning techniques. Video creators need not make any manual entries. Many software applications offer such solutions. The main aim of automatic video tagging is to reduce the labor associated with labeling videos manually.
Various techniques like computer vision, natural language processing, and deep learning are used in the process of automatic video tagging. The software can easily analyze key points within a video using advanced technologies, including visual, audio, and textual aspects. Doing so can help the software understand the context of the video and embed tags accordingly.
Applications like Clarifai, Google Cloud Video Intelligence, IBM Watson, and Microsoft Video Indexer are powerful tools that can analyze videos and tag them accordingly.
Here’s how you can use machine learning algorithms for automatic video tagging:
- Create a video library that requires tagging.
- Convert the videos to specific formats that can be read and recognized by machine learning algorithms.
- Extract all the relevant features and details from videos like color histograms, motion features, etc.
- Add labels and metadata manually to a portion of the videos in the library to train the algorithm.
- Choose an appropriate learning algorithm. Examples include Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM).
- Evaluate the performance of machine learning algorithms to identify weak links and areas of improvement.
- Deploy the trained algorithm to assign video tags automatically when new videos are added to the library.
Tips for Video Tagging
Given below is a list of tips you can implement to get the most out of your video tags:
- Ensure that your tags are descriptive to explain the content and purpose of the video fully.
- Use specific tags more often. For example, instead of using the tag “pets”, use specific keywords like “cats” or “dogs” to capture the relevant audience.
- Use relevant tags only to ensure maximum engagement.
- A combination of general and specific tags can yield greater results.
- Avoid including too many tags, which can backfire and make the video less searchable.
- Make sure that your descriptive keywords and phrases follow simple language.
- Update tags frequently as per the latest industry trends.
Benefits of Video Tagging
Video tagging can trigger a lot of benefits for your online content. Some of them are:
- Improved Searchability: Adding relevant tags makes your videos more accessible and visible to the relevant audience. Video tagging aids proper indexing of online videos.
- Enhanced User Experience: Users can quickly understand the context of the videos by reading the tags, preventing unsatisfactory experiences.
- Increased Engagement: Metadata such as timestamps allow users to skip to the relevant portions of the video, increasing engagement with the uploaded content.
- Data Analysis: Video tags can provide insightful information about user behavior by tracking the individual performances of each tag.
How Video Tagging Can Help Your Business
Video tagging is an instrument of growth in many industries. If you’re using video content to market your product or services, adding relevant tags can help you become more accessible.
Here’s how video tagging is impacting major industries:
Entertainment and OTT:
Video tagging can help businesses in the entertainment industry by making their digital content more accessible. By adding relevant information like genres, duration, and descriptive keywords, OTT and entertainment platforms can reach a wider audience who might be willing to engage and view their content.
This will result in longer watch time, improved engagement, and larger revenue.
Education:
A lot of ed-tech platforms use video content to impart quality education. With proper video tagging, their videos can be made accessible to a wider audience by adding transcriptions, subtitles, and captions, to reach out to individuals with impaired vision or hearing.
Similarly, timestamps can be included to mark important portions explaining different concepts within the video.
Marketing:
With video tagging, marketing agencies can increase the effectiveness of their campaigns by improving targeting and reaching the relevant audience only.
Moreover, with proper video tagging, these agencies can also track user behavior and use the information to develop more efficient strategies in the future.