No matter how laid back your company might be, there’s a good chance that you can’t log into your Facebook account while you are at work.

But since this means that the social network is losing a large part of its audience during the workday, Facebook has been trying to do something about this issue by building a ‘Facebook at Work’ segment of the social network.

Facebook at Work: What It’s All About

The model that Facebook is currently working on is a lot like the Facebook that you may already use for personal reasons. Only, this version of Facebook will include a profile that is strictly about work. So, you’ll still have friends, be able to chat, and see a news feed, but you won’t be listing all of your personal details on your work account.

Since many of us don’t like the idea of combining work colleagues and work-related stuff with what we are doing at home or in our personal lives, the Facebook at work initiative is a good step in the right direction for the social network. It will also give some of us a reason to log into Facebook when we are at work - provided, of course, that company policy allows the new work-related account to be accessible during work hours.

Beta Testing

Last January, Facebook began testing its new work version. The beta tests were by invite only, and so far Facebook is happy with what they are seeing. So happy, in fact, that the company does plan on rolling out the feature to all Facebook users (and future users) relatively soon. Facebook does plan to charge companies a small fee for things like analytics and other details, so that fact might provide some further insight into what Facebook is doing with the new setup.

At present, more than 300 companies are part of the beta testing, and those companies are liking the new Facebook at work thus far. Since Facebook has made the beta testing so large with such a large sampling, it’s fair to assume that most kinks will be worked out when the company does finally release the option to the general public. It’s too late to get in on the beta testing now, but you can use the new Facebook when it is available widely.

The Biggest Changes

Since Facebook for work is work oriented, you can’t do things like play games on the new social network. You can chat though, and you can keep up with your colleagues or just allow people to add you to Facebook that might not be a part of your personal life. This may also mean that you won’t have to set up a separate page for a business profile in the near future. You may just be able to set up a Facebook at work profile and that will suffice.

It will be interesting to see whether or not companies pay anything for those additional features that Facebook is offering. Further, it will be interesting to see whether or not many people ditch a personal account for a business one, since so many of us spend most of our time with colleagues.