This week, Facebook announced that it will be unveiling Facebook At Work, the office version of the social media goliath that transformed the way our digital interactions take place. Now, Facebook is taking it a step further by reimagining its capabilities in the workplace, which after a year of testing, have been deemed functional enough to release to the public. So why should you care, and what could this mean for your business? The answer is increased collaboration and a more efficient work force! The real question, then, is how…
Fewer Distractions
As it currently stands, Facebook has a few tools in place that allow group sharing and open forums for company dialogue. Facebook groups are the most obvious of these, yet they have their limitations. For instance, you can’t separate your groups from your personal profile, so even if your company uses business manager, you are forced to return to your own newsfeed to toggle to between your groups on the left hand side. Within Facebook At Work, your entire network consists of your company’s employee roster, effectively eliminating outside distractions.
Increased Collaboration
From a collaborative standpoint, your newsfeed will now be the place to get real-time updates on everything from the latest finished project to your office manager’s newborn . Often, projects or initiatives could be improved with better interdepartmental communication. With Facebook At Work’s completely transparent means of communication, collaboration is likely to occur on a greater scale.
Increased Efficiency
Have you ever opened a group-addressed e-mail and an hour later you realize the simple message that began the stream has evolved into a full-blown brainstorming session you can now hardly follow? Facebook At Work aims to simplify this chaotic form of communication. The ultimate effect will be a dramatic increase in efficiency, as it eliminates the confusion that results from “too many cooks in the kitchen.”
Why Your Business Should Adopt
Over the past few years, many large corporations that rely heavily on inter-employee communication have developed their own internal social networking sites to solve the issues previously described. If Facebook were the only business developing this software, we might pause to ponder whether this is a worthwhile tool, or just another way to capture market share. However, with so many other early-adopters, we foresee the use of Facebook At Work and other programs like it to become the primary form of communication for collaborative business.
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