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These features can help make Slack more useful for you and your colleagues.
Slack revolutionized the way businesses communicate. By creating multiple channels for different projects, teams and individuals, Slack puts all internal business communications in one effective place. Since its inception as a rocket-fast communication tool, Slack has improved its platform with features like program integrations, video huddles and clips, and enhanced security. If you’re considering using Slack for your small business, this guide can help you understand what Slack is, how it can benefit your team, and how to make the most of its features.
Slack is a communication platform for small businesses that allows for team and individual communication. Its designated channels feature is a succinct, efficient way to organize multiple conversations at one time. This means small businesses can create individual chats for projects, teams and even one-on-one communication.
This communication style means that workers can manage several different projects, topics and conversations all in one place, which centralizes workplace information. This is especially useful for small businesses, who are among Slack’s most frequent users.
Communication efficiency is the overarching benefit of using Slack. However, it’s worth highlighting a few more benefits for your small business.
The following tips can help you and your team use Slack efficiently for tasks like connecting one-on-one and organizing conversations for searchability later on.
Did you know you can tag multiple people when you post a message? Many new Slack users don’t realize you can tag as many people as you want. Just use the @ symbol and the username for each person you want to get a notification about the message.
Slack Huddles is a great way to communicate quickly with your team. Instead of having to discuss everything via text chat, you can hop on a quick video call and talk about the issue at hand. This is a great feature for businesses who need apps for collaborating with remote workers. Slack has excelled by integrating this feature seamlessly into its platform. Gone are the days of switching to another video program for a quick meeting or discussion. You can do it all in Slack.
Another feature that’s easy to miss in Slack is the fact that you can Direct Message people in a group. That’s because, unlike Twitter, Slack defines a Direct Message as any chat that takes place outside of a channel. To create a group DM, click the plus sign next to Direct Messages and add the people you want to participate. They’ll always see a notification for that chat.
In the past, Slack was used only for intracompany communication. Now, with Slack Connect, your business can communicate with other companies in a secure, efficient manner. That means you can close deals, communicate with vendors and develop new business on Slack’s platform, instead of via email. Centralizing all your business communication and information will save your business time and money.
If you use the free version of Slack, you might start seeing messages about storage problems with a tip to upgrade to the paid version. The truth? You can keep uploading images and files, and you won’t run out of storage. Instead, older messages, files and images will “roll off” in the archive and you won’t be able to see them anymore.
Slack has a built-in poll function. You use it by typing “/poll” and naming the poll. This gives everyone a chance to weigh in on a topic without forcing you to wade through countless messages. It’s a more direct method of making decisions as a team.
Another major timesaver lets you quickly edit your most recent message in a channel. Just press the up arrow, and you’ll see the message in an editing window.
Another overlooked feature is the ability to save items. In any channel or with any message, you can click the small bookmark icon. Then, you can quickly see everything you’ve saved by clicking on the star icon on the upper right of the screen. This lets you group all important conversations and channels and allows you to see all related messages with one click.
Searches help you find messages, but they can be daunting if the results include every instance of the word or phrase you type. To help, try adding search criteria like “in:channel” to limit the search to a specific channel, or “before:november” to only search for messages from before a specific month. You can also add a date or year.
Tagging people makes sense because the person you tag sees a notification (or the channel pops up as bold if they turn off notifications). Another handy tip is to tag channels, because when someone sees that tag, they can click the tag to go to that channel.
Slack can become confusing for teams over time as you try to keep track of your messages. That’s why one of the coolest features is reminders. To use it, just type “/remind” and follow the instructions to tag the person, type the reminder, and pick the date. Your message won’t appear for that user until the date you specify, which means you don’t have to remember when to send it. Reminders are brilliant because you can queue up a series of them.
The first goal of any small business should be to build workplace efficiency so your company can accomplish its goals succinctly and quickly. That means researching and partnering with the right technology companies that can help you improve your business’s existing workflow. Slack is an intuitive program that can fit seamlessly into your business’s operation.