For the last several years, browsing through Facebook while on the job meant perusing the latest cat photos from your sister, an update that your friend just woke up and a message from your mother telling you that she’s having fun using this social network.
According to a new report, the social media juggernaut is attempting to insert itself into workplaces everywhere with Facebook at Work, a new service that would operate just like LinkedIn. Essentially, it would allow users to separate their professional and personal lives.
It is being reported that Facebook is developing this new website that consists of a similar newsfeed and groups, but permits individuals to collaborate with colleagues and maintain contact with other industry workers. This would be a trans-formative use for Facebook while sitting in a cubicle because it has been often viewed as a service for personal use.
Could this potentially take down LinkedIn? Considering that Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has one billion users and LinkedIn contains 300 million, though only 90 million are active, the move could be an interesting one.
Furthermore, Facebook at Work enables users to give several others access to documents so they can add, edit and share. This would also put Facebook in direct competition with Google Drive and Microsoft Office.
“Facebook at Work is likely to bring some benefits to companies – but not the ones they think,” said Professor Andre Spicer of Cass Business School in an interview with BBC News. “It is unlikely to make employees more productive, but it will help them to be more connected and aware. Social media sites like Facebook help employees to build ‘weak ties.’ These are people we would talk to infrequently and don’t know intimately. These weak ties are often a source of important background information.”
Facebook’s latest addition to its suite of services may add an array of problems to the office as users could accidentally leak sensitive information, face-to-face communication would diminish and there would be potential clashes between management and workers. Of course, employees may also work more on their profiles than the duties they have been assigned.
Does Facebook at Work get a Like? Charlie Osborne of ZDNet won’t click it just yet.”
“Facebook — with its news feeds full of cats, oblique airing-the-laundry status updates, baby pictures and political tirades — just doesn’t have the professional edge that LinkedIn does, even if the company does set up a stand-alone ecosystem. Neither service is perfect, but when you’re in the office, you’re less likely to be suspected of procrastinating when you have a professional service on tab rather than open conversations with friends or the Facebook icon in evidence.”
