There has been a lot of talks lately about Facebook WorkPlace and how the commercialization of the entire project will really be.

Observing people’s questions, what stood apart was:

• Does WorkPlace substitute Yammer?
• Slack is already here, will there be room for WorkPlace?
• People are already using Facebook, would WorkPlace be too much?
• etc.

I would first start from the target group. If you look at smaller companies, and agencies, then Slack and similar platforms definitely take precedence not because they are better or worse, but because their function fits a company’s particular profile. Slack and similar chat programs are certainly more practical for ample communication among smaller groups of people.

Large global corporations, on the other hand, can be users of Slack, but it is more convenient for specific affiliate markets and smaller teams within those markets. In my experience, a larger number of people on this kind of platform always leads to a considerable amount of information and to not-so-structured communication.

Basically, a big problem for global corporations is precisely that the transfer of knowledge, and good cases among markets is difficult and almost impossible to perform via Slack and similar programs. For this kind of communication, it is much more practical to use Yammer, WorkPlace or similar platforms where real time information distribution between a large number of markets is much easier, and consequently, between people.

For a moment, picture yourself, when you want to finish quickly or to have a longer correspondence with one or several people, then the most common solution is Slack, Whatsapp… but when you start looking for information which you don’t receive via Slack or similar platforms, or search for people outside of your intimate circles, you use social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.

To sum up, in large corporations, there is enough space for combining, depending on needs, and in smaller companies, a specific tool which suits their needs is used, Slack and similar more project-based platforms will take precedence.

In addition, experience shows that in global companies, tools such as Yammer or those similar to it (WorkPlace is very similar in terms of function, and in some segments even more flexible and wider) additionally improve organization’s culture in the direction of digitalization. These tools are actually ideal for this because the whole ecosystem which we talk about constantly and want to create for the consumers can be moved and applied to the entire organization level.
Besides this, platforms such as WorkPlace or Yammer significantly contribute to internal buy-in with the employees while launching a new product, or a line of products, etc.

Internal engagement as such, will increasingly take important place in the future. We will speak about tools which aren’t an end mean but the ones for improving communication which also significantly affect the way companies communicate afterwards in B2B and B2C.