Successful business adoption would require a change in their placement strategy.
“Facebook at work” is typically about as productive as the title of this article. (unless your career is in a social media component of business) Facebook is looking to change that perception through a newly proposed service called, ironically, “Facebook at Work.” This service will offer a productivity suite for employees that provides file sharing and collaboration functionality similar to Google Drive or Microsoft Office, networking and communication similar to LinkedIn, and a professional newsfeed; one that axes all of the cat pictures. (Figuratively, not literally. Keep the cats alive.)
As initially reported by the Financial Times, Facebook has been using their site internally for business purposes for a while. Discussion groups, file sharing, and chat functionality are just a few of the features they have been using to boost their efficiency. The service will also allow users to have a completely separate user for their professional Facebook page enabling separation from work and play. This will be a critical component to driving business adoption, as it will hopefully filter out much of the “social fluff” that has caused many companies to block Facebook on their networks.
This service could be a great opportunity to drive an increase in daily engagement with Facebook. As Zuckerburg stated in July, users are only spending an average of 40 minutes a day on Facebook which is around 7% of the total average of 9 hours that users spend each day with digital media. With Facebook’s primary revenue strategy being advertising, they are hoping to get a bigger chunk/cut of that digital engagement.
Ad placement is something that will be critical to its adoption and success. Currently, Facebook is plastered with side-advertisements and pop-ups that appear when you click on posts in the newsfeed. Google Drive and Microsoft Office are both ad-free platforms. Linkedin does have advertising, though it is substantially less prominent and distracting compared to Facebook’s current site.
While the unification of these service offerings could offer a productivity boost, being plastered with distracting ads may have a severe impact on that boost. Successful business adoption would require a change in their placement strategy. Facebook at Work is currently being tested by a small group of undisclosed companies and does not have a solid release date.
What do you think of Facebook at Work? Do you think it would boost productivity? Do you think the network is secure enough for businesses to trust collaborating on sensitive content on their site? Let us know in the comments below