Facebook signs “ground breaking” deal with RBS

It will be that kind of extra functionality – Office 365 support is one example cited by Codorniou – and the support around it that will be likely targets for how Facebook will eventually charge for Facebook at Work usage, rather than for the basic product itself.

Facebook at Work is the business-focused version of the social network: instead of sharing baby pictures with friends or “liking” trivial status updates, workers can use it to interact with co-workers.

As Facebook seeks to make its work programme a full-fledged online product for professionals, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has become the latest corporate to join the programme.

RBS said Facebook At Work will be completely separate from employees personal Facebook accounts, meaning information shared only accessible to other colleagues within the bank and information shared on the site “will be safe, secure and confidential”.

For Facebook, which largely bases its business model around advertising, if it can get Facebook at Work to fly, it could prove to be a way to diversify and expand the company’s business model to entirely new areas. Facebook At Work is Facebook’s attempt to show that its social network can also be used as a legitimate business tool.

Facebook At Work was launched to a limited number of companies at the start of the year and state-backed RBS said it has already run a pilot of the service with a few workers, who it said were able to answer customer queries more quickly and update colleagues on their work “in a much more engaging way”.

Many businesses and organizations use Facebook for promotional purposes but frown on employees accessing the social netwok while on the job.

RBS Chief Administrative Officer Simon McNamara, said: “I’ve already been using Facebook At Work while we test it and it’s been so useful – allowing me to exchange information and ideas quickly and securely with all my team on a wide range of projects”.

RBS said that it plans to have its entire workforce of 100,000 using FB@Work by the end of 2016. “There was a lot of excitement about it”.