Facebook Launches New Work-Friendly Network

Ever wish you could use Facebook while sitting in the office? Some companies block social media networks like Facebook, fearing it could hurt workers' productivity levels. But the social media giant announced earlier this month that it was releasing a special work-friendly version of its service.

Facebook has become the world's biggest social media network, boasting more than 1.4 billion monthly users. Statistics show that more than half of the U.S. population has a Facebook profile, attesting to its popularity. But Facebook is often viewed as a distraction in the workplace, steering employees away from their respective tasks. In an effort to change this, Facebook has released a special work-friendly version of its website. It's completely free and available to companies of all shapes and sizes.

Known as Workplace, the new work-friendly version of Facebook is designed specifically for businesses and organizations. Employees can send messages to one another, discuss projects, and converse amongst themselves all from this convenient platform.

So, how exactly does Workplace differ from the standard version of Facebook? Well, users of Workplace can only communicate with other members of their company. This means you cannot send a message to your friend, nor can you check messages from your personal account. Workplace is essentially a separate and independent service of Facebook, with certain restrictions that make it ideal for professionals.

Although the service is still new, Facebook says that some 1,000 plus organizations throughout the world use Workplace. And to further emphasize its popularity, there are roughly 100,000 groups on Workplace.

"Now, more than 1,000 organizations around the world use Workplace (formerly known as Facebook at Work). People have created nearly 100,000 groups and the top five countries using Workplace are India, the US, Norway, UK and France. We’re excited by the progress we’ve made and the level of adoption and engagement we’re seeing," wrote Facebook when announcing the news.

The good news is that Workplace still contains many of the same features as Facebook's standard interface. This includes News Feeds, groups, chatting, Reactions, search and Trending posts (among others).

And Facebook has also introduced new features into Workplace, such as the ability to view analytics within the dashboards from a single sign-on. There are also identity providers that allow organizations to integrate Workplace into their IT systems.

You can learn more about Facebook's new work-friendly service Workplace by visiting http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/10/introducing-workplace-by-facebook/.