Slack: The Beginner’s Guide: Why you should use slack, how it is used and why businesses have found it to be a valuable tool.
Trying to figure out how to use Slack? Excellent! It’s totally worth it. Boasting 10+ million daily active users, the popularity of Slack speaks for itself. In fact, like the Internet in its early days, Slack is where businesses are moving towards and all-in-one communications hub. While Slack at first might seem like just a chat app on the surface, however there are plenty of time-saving features which will help keep teams productive and engaged. Throughout this guide, we’ll cover how to use Slack for business in order to get more from your team.
WHAT IS SLACK?
Slack is a team collaboration and project management tool with one of the best communities on its platform out there! What makes Slack different from other collaboration tools is its customization features and sheer number of integrations that make it the most seamless experience. With that in mind, we will be taking you through some of Slack’s best features, starting with how you can use the app to create custom channel groups for your projects or company departments.
Everyone using Slack will be able to see where a discussion is located in real time. Slack becomes an online board room, where the public is welcome to join.
Within each channel, channels can be grouped together by tag. For example, users are able to make a specific channel public so that any interested parties can join and watch the conversation unfold as it happens.
When a user wants to set their status they can make it known while not wanting to disturb others by changing their “Do Not Disturb” settings. In this way, slack is unique because it addresses the issue of users being more accessible in a more timely fashion than before as well as enabling employees who want to get out of the office alert everyone.
REMOTE TEAMS WITH SLACK
Slack might not seem like a must-have at first glance, but there are many reasons why Slack has experienced such a surge in popularity. It’s multiple integrations with third-party apps, strong support for both 1:1 and group chats, and how easy it is to keep conversations organized all make for what we believe is a great experience overall.
The biggest selling point of Slack is its third-party integrations. If you’re a business that depends on how many apps and tools at your fingertips, there’s a good chance that Slack already integrates with it.
It’s well-documented that so many people waste hours per day in their inboxes. The platform cuts down on needless back-and-forth, consolidating email notifications into a real-time inbox alongside your team chat. For example, you can schedule and share a Zoom meeting ID directly in Slack without bouncing between inbox links and invites.
WHY DO MOST REMOTE TEAMS USE SLACK?
No two teams use Slack the same way, but they all use it to bring team members closer together without having to worry about being distracted by emails or juggling a bunch of apps.
The platform is a prime place for brainstorming and keeping a pulse on the status of any given project. For example, a remote team of designers may ask for feedback on an edit or finalize a piece of content.
While setting out to manage a remote team can be incredibly difficult, one of the biggest challenges is keeping members engaged and on-task. Slack can help quite a lot when it comes to this thanks to the multitude of tools it comes equipped with for communicating better with your team. You can set customized alerts, have direct conversations with people who need your assistance, and even conduct surveys via polls among other things!
CONCLUSION
While the concept of learning any new platform, especially social media platforms like the newer alternatives to Twitter and Facebook, can be a headache, learning how to use Slack is easier than you might think. No matter what sort of business you’re running – whether you’re someone who just wants to make a difference on the Internet or someone who is diving into deep waters with an enterprise level project – Slack can bring your work closer to home while also supporting your bigger business goals.
And no matter what kind of person you are, if you’re looking to get more done in less time period (and improve your professional relationships at the same time), then we would recommend using Slack as one of your main tools!
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
