This Ain’t No Disco
by Bill Nolan
Take a moment. Forget about the political, patriotic/unpatriotic and religious posts that seem to overwhelm your Facebook newsfeed these days. There is one other constant making its way into your headlines. It is business and business marketing. Facebook has become a powerhouse for businesses looking for this exposure and interaction. And, in a strong move forward to maintain growth and compete with companies like Google, Slack, Microsoft and many other up-and-comers, Facebook has continued to push the boundaries of its platform.
Here Comes Facebook Workplace.
Facebook already gives businesses generous abilities for promoting brand awareness and advertising all of their happenings going on. Now, if your business has multiple clients, numerous team members or all of the above working on accounts, communication levels need to remain fluid. Facebook also understands this and has decided to up the ante by rolling out Workplace. It is a project management and communication system developed to rival all others. And why not? In this online battle for supremacy – you either innovate or flat out steal other ideas to make them better.
Facebook Workplace
What are the benefits of Workplace?
Ease of Use : Out of the box it has a familiar feel to it. Workplace resembles your personal Facebook page, so it’s comfortable right from the start. There’s even a newsfeed that keeps you privy to the updates that are important to your specific business(es). Once your team members and clients are added, communications are a breeze. That’s obviously crucial for running a business of any size. Workplace is like having your own dedicated Facebook network space to communicate specifically for internal business matters. You are able to message and voice or video call instantly. And many featured tools allow you to quickly share, preview and organize files to keep everyone on the same page and working together.
Alerts : Are you forgetful? The alerts feature will remind you of looming deadlines and high priority tasks. Slacking off and missing something important is nearly impossible. Just don’t try and blame the system, with Workplace the buck stops with you.
Privacy & Security : Worried about privacy and security of your projects? Each of your clients have their own unique group within Workplace, and they will only see information assigned to that group – no others. Workplace even gives you the ability to assign your own team members to specific groups/clients. In other words, nobody will be wise to the top secret projects you are working on behind closed doors – unless you give them that access.
Cost : What about the cost? There is a standard free version with all of your basic needs. Additional premium monthly plans are available to let your business harness the full power of Workplace. Costs range from $1 – $3 monthly per user. Just think, it will probably cost your business more to stick with that pen and paper, Monday morning review kinda of thing that is as archaic as a typewriter. The price is definitely reasonable for this robust communications tool.
Where is this technology headed? Workplace and systems like it are the future of running successful businesses. Whether you need to easily interact with a few people or a few hundred, online tools like Workplace are becoming essential. Workplace also has an impressive list of service partners helping to continuously improve the platform. Along with these integrated capabilities and analytics features, it is no surprise that companies such as Starbucks, Virgin Atlantic, Walmart, Domino’s and many others are already on board with this project management and communications system.
Even though Workplace is very new, Facebook has made it work extremely well. They’ve taken the best features from existing project systems and created their own. No system is ever perfect, but Facebook is quickly making improvements. Only a year old, Workplace recently added a screen sharing feature – something that most other project management systems lack. I expect that Facebook will continue to tweak and upgrade Workplace regularly. They understand the value of businesses for their platform, and they will keep everyone reeled in.