Facebook launches Facebook at Work

Though the relation between Facebook and efficiency at the workplace might not be exactly complementary with more companies adopting new work communication services like Slack, Yammer and IBM's Verse, a private Facebook service is often seen to be the perfect solution.

Facebook's new service, 'Work', is geared to  achieve that aim. With Work, businesses can create a private network, where only business employees could chat.

The social network had integrated News Feed, Facebook Messenger, Groups and Events and the manager of the online business would be able to add new events, updates and create group conversations, for faster communication between employees.

The icing on the cake was Facebook Work was currently free, and did not collect data on business users or show targeted ads. It was possible the social network might look to monetise through subscription at a, however for now this seemed to be an optimal solution.

Even though Facebook counted over 1 billion users on its regular service, having businesses use Facebook could add much value, as the company looked to connect every organisation onto its social platform.

Facebook might lack some of the communication tools other services offered, however, it was unlikely new staff would need to be trained on how to use Facebook, since the social network had retained most of the features on its Work platform.

The upcoming social network is currently being tested to see if Facebook at Work could actually make employees work more productively.

Facebook had been working on the office version of the site since last year and it encouraged employees to be more active in sharing their ideas with other colleagues using posts, messages and groups, just like they would do on their personal Facebook profile, but limited to only work-related issues.

For instance, if an employee posted something valuable, the other colleagues would see it in their newsfeed and if they found it relevant, they could share it, which could become viral throughout the company.

With Facebook at Work it was better to follow, rather than befriend a colleague so as to keep things professional. If a colleague liked what an executive was posting, he or she could follow that person without sending a friend request on the work Facebook profile.

According to Lars Rasmussen, one of the engineers who developed Facebook at Work, the concept behind the new social media platform was to help employees communicate more efficiently within a company.

He added that many people were using the regular Facebook to communicate with their work colleagues for work-related issues.