Earlier this month, it was revealed that Microsoft is working on a competitor for work messenger app Slack. There are now reports that Facebook At Work, a subscription-based social media platform for businesses that combines collaboration and communication tools, will officially launch next month. Here’s what we know so far.
It’s no secret that Facebook has been working on a social media solution for the enterprise. It’s been in development for a few years and the company has been testing it with large organisations. There are now reports that the Facebook is gearing up for the commercial launch of the product next month.
The idea for Facebook At Work is to facilitate the exchange of news and ideas within a team or an organisation as a whole. Of course, Messenger will play a key role for text, audio and video-based communication.
Facebook At Work is a cross between Gmail, Slack and Asana, allowing a company’s employees and teams interact with each other on a platform that most of them are probably already familiar with. Rumour has it that the platform will launch with third-party integration with other software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool providers. All these functionalities will make it a rival to the likes of Slack, Microsoft’s Yammer and Skype as well as Salesforce’s Chatter. (We have a more detailed run-through on Facebook At Work here)
While there are no details on the pricing for Facebook At Work, TechCrunch“>TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook will be charging per user per month. The advantage of this model, instead of charging per organisation, is to minimise wastage; companies won’t have to pay for an unused license if a worker leaves. It’s also potentially more lucrative for Facebook to charge per user.
We’ll keep an eye out for more information on the launch. Stay tuned!
[Via TechCrunch/The Information]
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5 responses to “Facebook At Work Is Coming Next Month”
We’ve been using it at my work for a few months now and love it! Being a medium-to-large sized (approx 250+ staff nationwide) company it gives us insights in to all aspects of the business as well as work social groups.
Is it hosted on a different domain, or still Facebook.com? Do you sign on with your person account? I’m interested in how it delineates the personal/business and therefore how much blend there is info sharing.
https://work.facebook.com/
Different login too AFAIK.
Yep so it’s linked with our company domain (eg. acme.facebook.com) but not sure if its hosted by us or Facebook. We do log in with our company account emails and its not linked in any way to our personal accounts.
It also has dedicated apps for it, including its own Messenger app so u can do pretty much do everything in FB messenger but with work peeps instead.
A few things we’ve done with it:
– Have dedicated groups for particular projects where we posts updates and share docs. These groups can be private to only specific members.
– Post updates for company-wide announcements
– Record/View live video of certain events (The CEO does a monthly team update via it)
– Create social groups for fun stuff (We have a gamer group, pet appreciation, motorcycle enthusiast.. etc).
– Organise events like you would events in Facebook.
We used Slack for a bit, but noticed people didn’t use it as much or knew how to use it properly. With FB at work, everyone knows how to use it lol, and it will eventually replace our company intranet.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I’m guessing Facebook would host it, given security and also their want for the data.