- Published: Dec 6, 2023
- 7 min. read
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Matthew GibbonsSenior Data & Tech Writer
- Matthew is a marketing expert focusing on the SEO & martech spaces. He has written over 500 marketing guides and video scripts for the WebFX YouTube channel. When he’s not striving to put out some fresh blog posts and articles, he’s usually fueling his Tolkien obsession or working on miscellaneous creative projects.
If there’s one thing you should definitely be doing at work, it’s slacking. And not just you, but your coworkers, too. There’s no question that slacking at work will benefit your business.
Oh, sorry. Not that kind of slacking. I mean you should be using Slack, the workplace communication tool that many businesses use today. Slack allows you to chat with your coworkers as individuals and as a group without relying on complex email chains or in-person meetings for everything.
If you’re not already using Slack at your company, you should definitely look into it. And if you are, you might still be looking for pointers on how to make the most of the platform. That’s why on this page, we’ll cover 10 Slack tips for businesses like yours, including:
- Create different channels for different groups or topics
- Direct message your coworkers
- Use Slack Huddles
- Connect other tools to Slack
- Pause notifications as needed
- Pin important messages
- Set your status when relevant
- Edit mistakes in sent messages
- Create and use polls
- Take advantage of the search feature
Keep reading to learn more. Then subscribe to Revenue Weekly — our email newsletter — to get plenty of helpful tips about digital marketing!
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1. Create different channels for different groups or topics
First on our list of Slack business tips is that you shouldn’t limit yourself to just one channel. You can create multiple channels for your team to use, each of which can serve a different purpose.
For example, you might have a channel for the whole team but then some additional channels for smaller subsets of that team. Or, you might have one channel for team updates, another for casual conversation, another for tech requests, and so on.
However you handle it, having multiple channels can be very helpful for keeping things organized so that you aren’t using one channel for everything.
2. Direct message your coworkers
Slack is super useful for communicating with your coworkers as a group. But you can also use it to direct message specific individuals.
This is a lot quicker and easier than sending them an email. Of course, that’s not to say you should never send anyone an email again — it just depends on the nature of the conversation. For more trivial topics, at least, Slack might be better, like if you just need to ask a quick question. It’s also good when you need to reach a coworker about something urgent, and you don’t know how often they check their email.
A quick way to direct message someone is to start typing out a message in any channel, but begin by typing “/msg.”
Then, you can send a message to a coworker (or coworkers) of your choice.
3. Use Slack Huddles
When using Slack, you don’t have to rely solely on text chat. You can also use Slack Huddles to start a quick video call with a coworker. Of course, you may already have a separate platform (like Google Meet or Zoom) for video calls. The good news is that many of these tools integrate with Slack.
Whether you use Huddles or an external platform, Slack is a quick and easy way to hop on a call with the other team members.
4. Connect other tools to Slack
Did you know that Slack offers over 2000 integrations? These integrations allow you to connect Slack to different tools in your tech stack. For example, integrating Slack with Google Drive gives it access to all your Google Drive files, letting you link to those files more easily and search for them in Slack.
You can do the same with other tools. This can be extremely convenient for streamlining your different business tools and making it easier to keep everything connected.
5. Pause notifications as needed
Slack is great for staying connected with your team members, but if you’re trying to get into a deep flow of work, it can be distracting to keep getting notifications from the website or app. The good news is that you can easily turn that off by simply pausing your notifications for a set amount of time.
That means you can work without distractions until you’re ready to check Slack, and then you can see all the notifications you got during that time.
6. Pin important messages
Another of the most useful Slack business tips is to pin important messages in certain channels. At the top of the Slack page, you’ll see a button that looks like a thumbtack. When you pin a message, you make it easy to find by clicking on that button.
This is convenient for making important posts easy to access even once they’ve been pushed way up in the feed. It saves people the trouble of having to scroll way up the page every time they need to access the message again.
7. Set your status when relevant
One of the most interesting tips for Slack is the fact that it lets you set your status. That means you can indicate what you’re currently doing, which might be helpful for your coworkers. For example, you could set your status to say “In a meeting,” “Deep work flow,” or “Out of office until tomorrow.”
This is great for communicating with your coworkers when it’s a good or bad time to try contacting you, as well as how soon they might be able to expect a response from you.
8. Edit mistakes in sent messages
Yet another of the top Slack tips for businesses is to take advantage of the message editing feature. Once you’ve posted a message, you may notice a mistake somewhere in it, be it a typo or an inaccurate piece of information. Whatever it is, it may seem too late to fix it.
Fortunately, it’s not — Slack lets you go back and edit the message to fix your mistake. That way, you don’t have to delete it and start over, or post a follow-up message to try and clarify. You can simply fix the original and move on.
9. Create and use polls
One of the most helpful ways of using Slack is to create polls in it. If there’s something you want your team’s feedback on — be it serious or silly — you can set up a poll to get everyone’s opinion in Slack.
There are multiple ways to do this. One of the simplest is to post your question and have people indicate their answers by responding with specific emojis. Another route, though, is to get the Simple Poll integration and set up more professional-looking polls that way.
10. Take advantage of the search feature
Last on our list of Slack tips for businesses is to take full advantage of the platform’s search feature. Earlier, we talked about pinning messages, but sometimes you’ll need to find a message that wasn’t pinned. Alternatively, you might search for something else, like a specific team member’s profile.
In that case, don’t fail to use the search bar at the top of the page, which can quickly and easily help you find any profile or message you need. It’s much better than doing a ton of scrolling to find what you need.
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Now that you’ve learned all these tips for Slack, you might be interested in learning about other ways you can streamline your internal (and external) business processes. In particular, you might be interested in finding out how to improve your digital marketing. If so, you’re already in the right place.
At WebFX, we have plenty of useful content aimed at helping you be a better marketer. If you want to get that content delivered straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to Revenue Weekly — our email newsletter — today!
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Matthew is a marketing expert focusing on the SEO & martech spaces. He has written over 500 marketing guides and video scripts for the WebFX YouTube channel. When he’s not striving to put out some fresh blog posts and articles, he’s usually fueling his Tolkien obsession or working on miscellaneous creative projects.
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Plan Your Marketing BudgetTable of Contents
- 1. Create Different Channels for Different Groups or Topics
- 2. Direct Message Your Coworkers
- 3. Use Slack Huddles
- 4. Connect Other Tools to Slack
- 5. Pause Notifications As Needed
- 6. Pin Important Messages
- 7. Set Your Status when Relevant
- 8. Edit Mistakes in Sent Messages
- 9. Create and Use Polls
- 10. Take Advantage of the Search Feature
- Learn About Digital Marketing with Revenue Weekly
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