Online communication has always been an essential part of business operations. However, it became far more crucial during the last couple of months. Given the world’s current situation, many companies had to send their employees home to work remotely.
With the growth of the remote work trend came the growing demand for better online communication platforms. As one of the best platforms of this kind, Slack proved that its features are more than enough to maintain meaningful and productive communication within remote teams.
Why Choose Slack
Before getting into details with Slack etiquette and how to best leverage the platform, let’s cover the basics. Most simply put, Slack is a team messaging app that provides a variety of tools and features designed to manage projects, track milestones, and assign and organize tasks. The name Slack stands for Searchable Log of All Communications and Knowledge, which nicely describes the purpose of this platform.
As one of the fastest-growing workplace apps, Slack has earned the trust of millions of daily users across the world. It allows you to stay in touch with your team members and upload files from any and every location.
However, keep in mind that remote communication can bring forth the risk of cybersecurity threats. To prevent unwanted incidents, you should mask your IP address. Probably, you would be asking, “what is my IP address”? It depends on many factors, but keep in mind that it is better to mask your IP address with a reliable VPN service and implement relevant online safety measures.
How to Use Slack Like a Pro
Thanks to its adaptable interface and powerful features, Slack is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Whether you only have a small team of up to 5 members or a large group of 50+ people working on-board, Slack will keep the communication neat and organized. Here are four tips to use Slack like a pro!
1. The Initial Setup
Using this online communications tool is simpler than you think. Once you download the Slack app, sign up, and confirm your email to get started. Then proceed with creating and naming the first team on the platform. Simple directions follow the entire setup process, and each step is quite self-explanatory.
2. Inviting Team Members
Once the team is set in place, head over to the invitations page to invite members by typing in their names and email addresses. Any Slack pro would know that the app allows you to invite multiple people at once, so you don’t have to go through the same process repeatedly. Each invited member will get a sign-up email with a link that allows them to create an account that will automatically be linked to your team.
3. Creating Channels
One of Slack’s best features are the so-called channels that allow you to create multiple conversations within a single team. This feature makes task sharing and communication easier to organize and keep track of. To create a channel, head over to the desktop sidebar and click on the + icon next to “channels.” That way, you can create specific channels for different topics and conversations. All Slack conversations are done within the public channel unless you choose to create a private one and invite particular members.
4. Communicating with Ease
Slack is designed to make online communication as easy as it can get. Users can easily send and receive messages, upload and share files and documents, and customize the experience in many ways. All shared documents must be within 1 GB of size, although you can share large PDFs without limitations. Real Slack professionals use all the platform’s features, including the ability to customize files while sending them. This allows you to change the title of the file, add comments, etc.
Get the Whole Team on Board
Keeping a remote team working in sync is one of the greatest challenges businesses are facing these days. With the team members scattered across different cities and even countries, it has become challenging to keep up with tasks and maintain high motivation levels.
However, with a convenient communication tool such as Slack, you can easily stay on top of project management tasks and lengthy team discussions. Lastly, make sure to keep security in mind when using remote work tools. Online communication can easily be intercepted through unprotected networks, and complex hacking methods and no messaging app is worth that risk.