Expert: How Facebook Workplace can work for business

Kristina: What do brands need to know about Facebook’s new ‘at work’ initiative?

Carrie Basham Young, Founder & Principal, Talk Social To Me: Facebook Workplace is designed exclusively for employees inside an organization so that they can collaborate together privately. We’re accustomed to our personal Facebook accounts giving us access to choose the friends, family and neighbors that we connect and share with. Facebook Workplace might look and feel like our favorite personal social network, but its greater purpose is to build collaborative relationships between colleagues that do business together.

Kristina: How might this program benefit brands?

Carrie: When employees that work for the same brand have a community of colleagues to collaborate with, we see significant benefits. Employees are happier, they cooperate more, they’re excited to share and learn, and they feel like their ideas are being heard. And, quite importantly, they create better customer service outcomes that make consumers happy. Brands that want to strengthen employee relationships and build more loyal customers should invest in Facebook Workplace in order to create a better working environment that drives better customer experiences as well.

Kristina: By the same token, what are the pitfalls?

Carrie: Asking employees to move their conversations away from emails or documents can be hard. People can be very attached to their old ways of working. Brands should understand that after the initial excitement of launching a new Facebook employee community, creating ongoing engagement can be hard. Investing in a Community Manager – someone who tends to the community on a daily basis – will help them keep Facebook Workplace thriving while moving employees out of less effective methods of communication.