Inman

Facebook wants to power your company’s internal social network

Real estate brokerages that want to create their own internal social networks — enabling agents to publicize listings in-house, for example — will soon be able to use Facebook for that purpose.

Facebook is entering the “enterprise social network” space with a new app, “Work,” TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden reports.

The granddaddy of social networks will not only be competing with apps tailored for businesses like Yammer, Slack, Convo and Socialcast, but solutions geared specifically for real estate, such as RESAAS.

“Facebook’s own popularity could be Facebook at Work’s biggest advantage,” Lunden says. “A lot of efforts in offices to get employees to collaborate more with each other have been stymied because employees don’t want to use the software.”

Facebook employees have been using the app to communicate with each other for a decade, and now “Work” is in beta testing with companies of 100 or more employees.

Facebook hasn’t decided on pricing, or how Work will interface with third-party apps, Lunden says. For now, it’s free of advertising, but that could change.