I know, I know. We’ve said it until we’re blue in the face and you’re probably tired of hearing it from us, but we still believe it to be important and completely true: If you’re looking for ways to better engage with your volunteers, donors or members, you can’t ignore the power of video.

A new infographic by breadnbeyond highlights the explosion of content being consumed via video. Here are just a few of their staggering findings:

  • 82% of consumers surveyed for one recent study said that they favor live video over other types of posts.
  • Video content earns 12 times more shares than text and images combined.
  • Viewers retain 95% of a message when they see it in a video and retain only 10% of it when they see it in text.

If you’re serious about engaging your audiences, then it’s likely that you’re also trying to find new ways to engage them with this video phenomenon. So what’s the new trend that we think you should consider?

It might come in the form of co-viewing videos from afar with your followers on Facebook.

Facebook is testing a new feature called Watch Party. Watch Party will essentially allow users in Facebook Groups to view videos together as well as react and comment in real-time. It’s designed to allow for some of the same interactions that come from watching a live moment simultaneously with other users, but the feature works with both live and pre-recorded videos. The Facebook Group admin simply chooses a video to show and a time for the video to commence. Pretty easy, huh?

Fidji Simo, Facebook’s vice president of product, says the tool is designed to recreate the same type of interactions on Live videos within a group.

“The Watch Party viewing experience is special because of the people you are watching with,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “We’re starting with Groups because 1 billion people use Facebook Groups every month to connect around their passions and hobbies — from foodies, to dog lovers, to sports enthusiasts, to fans of video creators — and video is a huge part of this interaction. While this is just a small test at the moment, we’ll be learning and hoping to expand Watch Party in the future.”

It makes sense that Facebook would extend in this direction, especially considering that Facebook Live videos already garnish six times higher rates of interaction than regular videos. And now we combine it with a sense of community? This could be huge.

 

Nonprofits: You could use this to host monthly updates for your loyal followers in your nonprofit’s Facebook Group.

Ministries: Why not use this feature to host a training for your volunteers?

The possibilities are endless. And at the end of the day, we want to focus on active interaction—not passive consumption. These “Watch Parties” seem to do just that.

We’re excited for Facebook to roll out this new feature! In the meantime, continue engaging your followers with video. Get in the groove, and by the time this is available to the public, you will be primed and ready to rumble.

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