Facebook for Work -- a stripped-down version of the world's most popular social networking site -- will officially debut in the coming months, according to a number of different media reports.

Nathan Eddy, Freelance Writer

December 14, 2015

3 Min Read
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Facebook is looking to conquer the cubicle with the official release of Facebook at Work, a modified version of its popular website that has been in development for a year, according to various media sources.

Facebook at Work lets users create a work account that is separate from their personal Facebook account. With a Facebook at Work account, you can use Facebook tools to interact with coworkers. In addition, what you share using your work account will only be visible to other people at your company.

It has an alternate color scheme, white instead of blue. It requires users to have a separate work account. There are no ads, but it retains familiar services like Events, Groups, News Feed, Messenger, Notifications, and Search.

Its intent -- to promote information sharing among users -- remains the same.

"You cannot play Candy Crush on Facebook at Work," Julien Codorniou, director of global platform partnerships at Facebook, told Reuters. "I would say 95% of what we developed for Facebook is also adopted for Facebook at Work."

Designed as a tool for coworkers to communicate and collaborate in a professional environment on Facebook, the platform differs from Facebook's Business Manager, which is a tool for businesses to manage ads and Pages.

Since Facebook is targeting the enterprise with a collaboration tool, it's also developing a number of different tools to meet business needs, including security, Codorniou told Reuters during the Dec. 10 interview. After the rollout Facebook will charge companies for some extra services, such as analytics and customer support.

If your company is using Facebook at Work, you can set up your account by clicking the link in the email you've received or go to your company's Facebook profile page.

Facebook first rolled out the page in January as a pilot program through select invitation. The program currently has more than 300 companies -- from corporate giants, such as Heineken, to smaller startups.

[Find out how Facebook is open sourcing its AI server designs.]

In October, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said it had agreed to deploy Facebook at Work to facilitate online communication among the bank's 100,000 employees.

The company claims it is the first bank and the largest employer to date to do so. RBS said it will offer Facebook at Work to 30,000 employees by March, and to the remainder of its staff by the end of 2016.

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About the Author(s)

Nathan Eddy

Freelance Writer

Nathan Eddy is a freelance writer for InformationWeek. He has written for Popular Mechanics, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine, FierceMarkets, and CRN, among others. In 2012 he made his first documentary film, The Absent Column. He currently lives in Berlin.

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