Salesforce announced the launch of the Salesforce1 Community Cloud, which it says propels the company into the fast-growing $3.5 billion enterprise collaboration market.

According to Salesforce, the offering enables companies to create their own trusted LinkedIn-like communities, which are connected to their own business processes. These, the company says, can be used to engage customers, partners, and employees in a new way.

“More than 2,000 active communities have gone live since we first offered a communities product just over a year ago,” said Nasi Jazayeri, executive vice president of Salesforce1 Community Cloud. “Based on the success we have seen with customers, tremendous market opportunity and support from our ecosystem, salesforce.com is doubling down on communities with our new Community Cloud.”

Elaborating on the LinkedIn concept, Salesforce says, “LinkedIn is an example of a company, that, among other things, in the consumer world, has created a community for recruiters and job seekers. Members can personalize their job search, connect with colleagues and discover and share information about job openings—all from any device. Today, companies want to create their own communities with the same personalization and mobile access of LinkedIn, that are also completely connected to their business processes.”

The offering costs $500 per month, and it should become generally available in October.

You can get an overview here.

Image via Salesforce