Facebook at Work set to take on Yammer, Jive and Slack

Very much like the standard version of Facebook which has over a billion users, the enterprise version called Facebook at Work will also be a success and enjoy similar popularity, believe experts. Facebook at Work is meant to foster collaboration within a business. It serves as a means for co-workers to communicate with one another at the same company.

This is not Facebook's first attempt to reach out to professionals. In 2010, the company introduced Branchout, an app which was aimed at creating a professional network inside Facebook. In 2014, Hearst Corporation announced that it had acquired the Branchout team.

Apart from the yet to be launched Facebook at Work, there are a few platforms which offer similar service for collaboration on projects in the workplace. These are Yammer, Jive and Slack, which are quite popular.

Speaking to IBTimes UK, Sara Jane Jones, Senior Manager, Sourcing Operations at Seven Step RPO, a global recruitment process outsourcing company that works with large organisations, said: "Enterprise social networking has grown into an industry, so it would make sense to see the continued growth of these companies as well as new ones popping up in the not so distant future."

Facebook had said that the enterprise version would be available for all companies at launch, but it might charge a few dollars per month for using its premium services.

Sara observed that Facebook is smart enough to offer its service for free at launch. "However, if companies are able to access the site and easily integrate their employees for free, then it is a good hook to take on additional features for a cost," she added.

Sara also spoke about the benefits of introducing the feature that allows recruiters to connect with job-seekers, like what LinkedIn does. She said: "If Facebook were to develop the feature to allow for outside networking, then candidates would feel more comfortable networking with recruiters on the site and recruiters would expect to get more responses from candidates via the site."