Microsoft’s getting into social networking. Yes, you read that right. But it’s not what you think.

This won’t be a simple MySpace or Facebook knockoff. Instead, Microsoft will be announcing a series of communities focused around worker roles, starting today with a curiously as-yet-unnamed (users will choose between three names in a vote) site for finance professionals. Later in the year, Microsoft plans to announce communities for sales and marketing professionals and operations workers, possibly followed by human resources and information technology.

“We’ve been thinking for a while about, is there a desire or a need for communities where businesspeople can connect, not on technology issues, but on business issues,” said Craig Dewar, director of community marketing for Microsoft.

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