Slack is a channel-based commercial communication platform created by Slack Technologies, an American software firm that Salesforce now owns. Slack has numerous IRC-like capabilities, such as topic-based persistent chat rooms, private groups, and direct messaging. Slack is an acronym for “Search Log of All Conversation & Knowledge,” and the company has altered the way businesses communicate by bringing individuals together to collaborate as a single team.

In this guide, we will learn how to set up Slack and the top features to boost your efficiency on the platform.

Getting Started with Slack

Users can start by signing up for an account and installing Slack’s desktop and mobile app for the best user experience. Next, you’d want to invite your teammates. There are two approaches to this – teammates can either be invited one by one, or the user can approve certain email domains so that teammates can quickly join the Slack team as long as they sign up with the authorized email address.

Finally, you need to set up your Slack channels to complete the installation. Slack team conversations are grouped by channels that the user creates. It is possible to create channels for different topics, functional teams, and projects. Slack allows users to set up default channels that new members can automatically join. This can be time-efficient as the teammates can be welcomed to the right channels and access important information right away.

Default channels can be set up by going to Settings & administration > Workspace Settings and then clicking on Menu > Settings & permissions followed by “Expand” for Default Channels.

While you can start using Slack for free, the free version supports only ten integrations and does not include group calls. You can upgrade to a full-featured version of Slack for $2.67 per user per month.

Top Slack Features to Boost Efficiency

 Once you have installed Slack, try these features to boost your efficiency:

1.   Channel prefixes

 Preset channel prefixes can help users stay organized. Many teams utilize prefixes to group similar channels so that their Slack team remains tidy and easily searchable. Prefix guidelines can be put in place and will appear as a dropdown to aid teammates in following the naming conventions.

 By default, Slack already mentions three prefix guidelines:

  • help – For questions, assistance, and resources on a topic
  • proj – For collaboration on and discussion about a project
  • team – For updates and work from a department or team

These guidelines can, however, be modified and removed. Moreover, new ones can be added by going to Settings & administration > Workspace Settings and clicking on Menu > Customize > Channel Prefixes. 

2. Compact theme

Users who wish to see more Slack messages on a screen with less scrolling can switch to a “compact theme” that uses less space between messages and hides the member profile pictures, presenting a more compact display.

To turn on this feature, users need to click on their workspace name on the top left to reveal a dropdown, then go to Preferences > Messages & media and choose “Clean” or “Compact” under “Theme“.

3. Custom notifications 

Users are also able to set up custom notifications based on keywords. This feature triggers alerts whenever a keyword is used in a conversation. It is a handy feature to help users stay on top of topics. To receive notifications, users must click on their workspace name on the top left to reveal a dropdown, then go to Preferences > Notifications and add the keywords under “My Keywords.”

4. Email forwarding

To help users consolidate their communication in one place, Slack allows them to set up a forwarding address to automatically forward emails to their direct messages with the Slackbot. Standard and Plus plan users can also choose to forward emails to a specific Slack channel or directly into the recipient’s message inbox.

A forwarding email address can be set up by clicking on the workspace name on the top left of the Slack window to reveal a dropdown, going to Preferences > Messages & media, then clicking “Get a Forwarding Address” under “Bring Emails into Slack“. 

5. Custom responses

To save up on time, automatic customized responses can be set up. When a teammate uses preset keywords and phrases, Slackbot provides them with an automated response. To set this up, one can go to the “Customize your Workspace” page and set up custom responses under Slackbot. One can add as many responses as they’d like, and a random response will be chosen if there are multiple preset responses.

6. Recurring reminders

Reminders can be set by using the /remind command. Using this command, users can set reminders for themselves, someone else, or even a channel. This feature also enables users to set recurring reminders, which can help keep teammates updated on their tasks. For example, one can set a biweekly reminder sent to the team to remind everyone to clean up the Trello board. 

7. Message reminders 

Amidst a busy schedule, people can often forget to respond to their messages. This command is specifically tailored to remind users to respond to messages at a specifically chosen time. They need to hover over the message and click on the “…” or the more button, and then select “Remind me about this” to set a time. This will trigger an alert at the given time, reminding users of the messages that they need to address.

Top Slack Tips, Tricks, and Hacks for 2022

Now that you know how to use Slack, try the following tips:

●    Assign colors to users – With the profile pictures hidden in the compact view, it can take longer to distinguish between users. It is possible to assign colors to users in a compact theme to overcome this. This can be achieved by simply using the slash command /color @username 3EB890 — or any 6-digit hex codes.  

●    Toggle inline previews – Aside from switching to the compact theme, another way to make the chat window cleaner is by collapsing all inline previews for shared files and links. This can be done by simply using the slash commands – /collapse and /expand or going to Preferences > Messages & media. 

●    Create your custom emojis – To add more fun to the Slack team, users can create customized emojis out of any images. One can do so by clicking on the smiley face icon in the message box and clicking “Add Emoji“, then going to Custom Emoji. 

●    Monitor engagement with Team Analytics – To observe how their team uses Slack, a user can view the team statistics by going to Tools > Analytics.

Knowing how to use Slack is an essential part of team productivity. The platform was the original in the chat-based collaboration segment and continues to be relevant today.

 



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