Part of the reason teams jump on the Slack bandwagon is that it offers a convenient way to stay connected. After all, if 80% of Fortune 100 companies are using it, there must be something to it, right?
A quick look at Slack's features will tell you that it can do more than just back-and-forth messaging. From marketing and project management to connecting with external teams, Slack does quite a lot.
But just because it inherently has these features doesn't mean every team is using them efficiently. So, how do you enhance your Slack productivity? We've got a few tips to help amp up your Slack game.
The short answer is everyone. Any team or business can benefit from using Slack, whether it's just two people or an entire organization.
A few use cases include:
We can go on and on. But you get the point about Slack's versatility.
Best practices for Slack productivity
Whether you're just getting started with Slack or have been using it for a while, here are some best practices to enhance your productivity on the platform.
A common reason for teams not being able to benefit as much from Slack is the haphazard organization of conversations. There's often too much going on in each channel. As a result, nothing gets done properly.
You can avoid this by creating channels for individual conversations. Suppose you're a marketing team. Instead of creating a single channel called #marketing, create separate channels for different projects or campaigns.
Or opt for separate channels for each stage in the pipeline or every marketing medium. For example, content marketing has its own channel, while email marketing has another.
Also, train your team on using Slack Threads. These are mini-conversations within a channel, which help keep discussions organized and focused.
Let's say two of your marketing experts need to discuss whether the color scheme on the landing page fits the brand's vision. Instead of discussing this in the main channel, they can start a thread within the #design channel.
Threads prevent clutter and make it easier for team members to follow conversations. If the Thread has come to a conclusion, the team member can route the Thread to the main channel for approval or further discussion.
What better way to improve Slack productivity than by taking advantage of its reminder feature? It's easy to miss important tasks when you're bombarded with work. You might forget to attend a meeting or send in a report.
The /remind command comes to the rescue. Slack lets you set reminders for your channel and yourself.
For example, you can set a reminder to post the weekly report every Friday at 5 pm. Or remind yourself to follow up on a client's email in two days. Slack also has recurring reminders for tasks you need to do repeatedly every week or month.
We'll get into Slack integrations later on. For now, let's focus on Slack's innate features that help boost productivity.
Sometimes, you and a co-worker are discussing something. A minute later, they're over at your desk because they want to talk about the matter face-to-face.
Slack Huddles are similar, minus the actual walking over to each other's desks. Instead of going back and forth on a channel or Thread, you can start an audio or video call in seconds. It's a quick way to discuss urgent matters or have a spontaneous brainstorming session.
Uncertainty causes many delays in workplace operations. You're not sure if a certain decision is the best one, or you can't decide which design to go with. Don't waste hours on indecisiveness. Use Slack Polls to gather opinions and make quick decisions.
Slack logs can tell you a lot about their team. How many members are actively participating in discussions, how many messages are exchanged per day, which channels are frequently used, and so on.
You can use Slack logs to evaluate the team's communication and collaboration dynamics. These insights will tell you the status of productivity in your team. If there's a need for improvement, you know where to start.
Slack supports over 2,600 integrations with popular project management, marketing, scheduling, cloud storage, and other productivity applications.
These integrations serve as a bridge between Slack and your frequently used apps. One such integration is JustReply, a customer support tool that brings ticket management right into Slack.
Being Slack-enabled, it allows you to see all your customer queries in the dedicated Slack channel and resolve them directly from there.
As you would have understood by now, the key to Slack productivity is the complete and efficient use of Slack's features. The more you use it, the more productive your team will become.
Don't limit yourself to just the inbox. Explore features like channels, direct messaging, voice and video calls, file sharing, polls, logs, and integrations. Put them to work, and you'll notice a rise in team productivity.
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
