Today we’re going to talk about what exactly is a watch party and how can you use it to grow your business.

How can you put it to work for you so you can get more followers, more engagement, more likes and, eventually, more sales – because that’s what it’s all about, right? 

For those of you who don’t know what a watch party is, you may have seen some pop up on your Facebook feed, where it says, “XYZ is hosting a watch party.” You’ve always been able to do it as a Group, but now you can do it as a Page as well.

What’s the big deal?

Well, basically, a watch party is, as the official definition says, “a new way for people to watch videos on Facebook together in real time.” Think about it like a slumber party where everyone is watching the same movie and commenting on it as it’s happening in real time. Once started, participants can watch the videos live or recorded and interact with one another in the same moments. So, a slumber party for business. 

Why does it matter?

People watch live videos three times longer than pre-recorded ones on Facebook. Live videos average ten times more comments than pre-recorded uploads and Facebook Live videos have 220% higher reach than simply sharing a video link. If that doesn’t tell you they love YouTube, nothing will. 

How can I apply a watch party to business?

You know, I love Ever After as much as the next guy, but why would I want to watch it on my business page? You have to shift your thinking a little bit. You’re not really going to be movie watching, you’re going to be watching videos that pertain to your business.

This is the cool part: It allows you to really seriously optimize anything you’ve already done that’s live. So, I can take a live video (say, one called, “What is a Watch Party and Why Should You Care?”) then do a watch party when I’m done recording and make it another live event. That’s your feature. You can take a pre-recorded video or a live video that’s been recorded, create a watch party and invite your watchers to come in, watch the video with you, and comment on it in real time. It gives you a lot more capability to reach further and to take different topics and different videos for business, because you don’t have to use your own stuff.

Now let’s talk about the 5 Whys:

First and foremost, Facebook loves it. It’s their new favorite shiny toy and you know how they feel about Facebook Live video – just multiply that by a few digits, and that’s how they feel about watch parties. They’re going to give it priority over everything else. They are particularly going to give it priority if you’re doing it from a Live video that you already recorded on your page. That’s like the ultimate holy grail of Facebook joy right there. 

The second why: it really allows you to interact with your followers and build your community. And those of you guys that have been hanging out with me for any length of time know that community is the new marketing tool for 2019. It’s all about your tribe. It’s all about making the people around you feel comfortable and making sure they’re educated, informed, and entertained. This can really help you move in that direction. 

The third reason is to optimize content. I go live several times a week and it allows me to do my own watch party and answer questions. It’s very engaging and it allows you to reuse content. Recycling content is one of the keys to having great content on Facebook in general. 

The fourth reason – you can leverage other people’s content. What does this mean? Well, there’s always going to be somebody in your industry that has talked about or had an opinion or done a video on something that you also have an opinion on. You can share their video and answer comments yourself; it doesn’t have to be your own video. Now, you don’t want to scalp someone else’s content. You don’t want to use it without permission. That’s just rude. But, yes, you can use other people’s content.

The fifth reason is, any comment made during a watch party, that’s all yours. So if I take a video from Social Media Examiner where they’re talking about watch parties, and I have my own watch party about it, any of those comments that are generated are mine. They go to my watch party and my page. So, basically, it allows me take other user-generated content and put my stamp on it and answer questions and put my two cents in. Like the Siskel and Ebert version of Facebook Live, which is the best way I can describe that. 

So now that you know what watch parties are, how can you put them to work for you? You can take your phone and go do a live video, then schedule a watch party as a follow-up, where you talk about what’s happening as it’s happening in the video. It allows you to give more background and insight on what your video is about. It really helps build those communities and build those tribes, which helps grow your business.