Facebook To Launch “Work”, The Social Solution For Company Communication

On the heels of the ‘well-timed’ news that LinkedIn is releasing tools for companies, TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook’s “Work” is coming today for iOS and Android. A version of the Work product will also be available on the main site according to the report.

We first learned about this project this back in November with the nickname “Facebook@Work” and the goal of creating a work-friendly platform for businesses. This would act like the normal Facebook experience, but be limited to specific companies and employee sets. This new service would allow Facebook to compete with Slack or Yammer and help them get a foot in the door for usage in the workplace.

According to TechCrunch, the apps will be launched today and that the product has already been tested on “a very small set’ of external businesses around the world.” Additionally, Facebook has been using an internal communication service that is similar for the past 10 years. According to  Lars Rasmussen, the engineering director at Facebook, it is the main form of communication internally . Rasmussen told TechCrunch “When Mark (Zuckerberg) makes an announcement he just posts it on Facebook at Work.”

The initial goal of this Work launch? To bring for companies with 100 or more employees and gain knowledge into the usage of the product. Employers will have the ability to construct Work with various accounts, create new accounts and even tie together personal and work accounts. However, there will be no bleed through between personal and corporate accounts, they will be divided like church and state.

Work will of course allow groups of employees to chat, but also share documents and files. No pricing exists yet, but advertising wasn’t ruled out of the mix according to TechCrunch. This could hint that an Ad-Free option could exist as a paid option. Current competitors like Slack offer the ‘freemium’ version of the service, but require payment for full history of communication which could may make sense in this case.

For the full story, head to TechCrunch.

Image courtesy of TechCrunch.

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Greg Finn

Greg Finn is the Director of Marketing for Cypress North, a company that provides world-class social media and search marketing services and web & application development. He has been in the Internet marketing industry for 10+ years and specializes in Digital Marketing. You can also find Greg on Twitter (@gregfinn) or LinkedIn.