Slack Channels are to start-ups what chain mail used to be to the standard office worker of 15 or 20 years ago. We know that although many start-ups claim to be software agnostic, they still retain certain preferences.

In fact, many popular start-ups have scaled up their businesses on Slack. However, Slack is not infallible. And it’s not always a straightforward tool to use. As with any collaboration tool, things can get muddled.

Therefore, the following article reveals eight tips on how to make your Slack channels more effective.

Include A Reason For Each Of Your Slack Channels

Start including a ‘reason’ for every one of your Slack channels. Not exclusively, this will be an extraordinary source of information for team members who might join the channel. More so, it will help enormously with keeping your workspace sorted out. In particular, during times when you have Slack channels with similar names or numerous channels for a similar project.

On the other hand, having just a reason is not enough. It is a good practice to welcome new team members to new channels. Since the purpose of Slack is to serve as the platform for team collaboration, it is just right that you welcome a colleague that joins a channel where a discussion is already ongoing.

Use The Right Tools In Your Slack Channels

Slack has a plethora of automations. Utilize the right tools for your team in order to make everyone’s use of Slack more effective. As a matter of fact, you can incorporate the entirety of your information from various sources into one main channel. Automations like Trello, Google Drive, or Statsbot could help you do just that!

By joining your CRM information, email information, internet-based analytics information, browsing information, and so on into a single Slack channel; you are ready to paint an all-encompassing perspective for your clients or for your team. This will assist you in seeing the full picture and in making information based on all of the right data.

Adjust and Update Real-Time Statuses

This one is more for a manager’s peace of mind than it is a genuine Slack hack. To ensure your group knows about your status, change it on a real-time basis. Then, encourage your whole team to do so.

When you need to step away from your PC, make it understood by changing your status. To rapidly flip between “away” and “dynamic,” utilize the/away command.

For even more in-depth knowledge of the comings and goings of a team, consider downloading the Vacation Tracker Slack integration. Read more about this integration in this article.

This application allows all active Slack users to make requests for days off directly in any Slack channel, through the /vacation command. It really is that simple. And right now, you can try this integration for free, for 14 days.

Know When To Send Private Messages

Slack is designed for group conversations. However, now and then it is important to deal with certain issues privately. Changing to a private message is an extraordinary Slack hack to abstain from irritating the whole gathering with an inquiry that worries only one channel participant. Additionally, it is common courtesy and generally a best practice to deal with certain matters one on one.

Henceforth when you are in a group channel and need to rapidly catch up on an inquiry in a private message, you can use the following command as a shortcut :/msg @user [your message].

Make and Update Your To-Do Lists

Slackbot can set reminders for you. It can as your personal assistant and monitor what you have to complete in a day. You can set personal reminders in any Slack channel. However, only you will have the option to see the reminder. You can consider this your personal to-do list.

Indeed, this can be an individual productivity-boosting tool. To activate reminders with the Slackbot, type /remind into any Slack channel.

At any point, to review your list of reminders, just type the following command: /remind list. From that point, you can check certain assignments as finished or erase the ones that are no longer relevant.

For more on Slack reminders, check out our recent blog post on the topic!

Sync Google Drive With Slack

This one may already be quite familiar to you, but Google Drive and Slack complement each other superbly. Groups from different industries and organizations use Google Drive daily to collaborate on documents on the web.

Google Drive offers a Slack integration, so that your group can check on imported files in seconds. Through any Slack channel, they can also perform a search of your Google Drive database. Organizing team files for different Slack channels is made way more effective with Google Drive.

Continuous Use Of Slack Channels

Whatever technologies you pick, if your team is not engaged, it is just not the right tool for them! If a Slack channel has been created for a specific project, but the team is circumventing the channel, it can lead to problems. Discussions on Slack need to flow. Team members need to adapt to the decisions individuals are making at this time, not 24 hours after the information has been brought up.

Therefore, it’s important to monitor the proper use of Slack channels. Communication delays should be short and effective.

In the same line of thought, if a certain Slack channel goes unused for a long time, it might mean that it’s time to delete it and move on. Indeed, team members may have already moved on to using other channels more relevant to their current tasks.

In short, make sure that you streamline your Slack channels and that real-time collaboration is occurring on the channels that you create.

Notifications For Keywords

Slack can send you notices about explicit keywords or expressions utilized in any channels you are involved in. This could be especially valuable to somebody dealing with or managing a particular task or group.

To modify warnings for particular keywords or expressions, select your name from the upper left corner. Then,  select “Inclinations” from the drop menu. Next, select “Notice Settings” and scroll down to “Feature Words.” Finally, in the content box, include words or key expressions that you would like to be informed about.

A Few Last Words

There might be changes you want to implement immediately to make your Slack channels more effective. However, keep in mind that the use of Slack is generally defined by the group and that group-based changes happen slowly. When implementing new ways of doing things, take your time and communicate your intentions.

Kristina Ousmanova

Kristina recently left behind fast-paced life of Human Resource Business Consulting to freelance as a Content Writer. A regular Vacation Tracker contributor, she can be found working remotely from her home in Montreal, usually while eating a variety of snacks.