What is Slack and why use it for your internal communications?

This short video gives you an overview of a communication tool called Slack. Slack is different from Google Hangouts, or Facebook messenger, or WhatsApp, because it has the ability to have what is known as multi-threaded conversations. This means that you can have a conversation with only the people who the topic is relevant to.

Basic features of Slack…

Benefits

Many chat tools are not fit for purpose for group discussions unless they are focussed on ONE topic. This is because it can’t handle mutlple topics (or threads)… this is why we suggest Slack which is another tool but makes a HUGE difference to the efficiency of our communication. We use it in our business and it has meant a massive drop in internal emails.

I probably send 1 email every few months to the team. They would hardly ever email me and if they need to, they use Slack and put it in the right channel…

As your school or business grows, your need to have multiple conversations about multiple topics will change. The more people you have the greater this need. Hence the more important it is you have a flexible communications tool. It also integrates with Google and even your website beautifully… eg. when you post to the Online Community, we all know about it instantly!

Slack Overview Video

Understanding channels & private messages

Channels are a place for discussion/sharing about specific topics – this is a key concept to understand about Slack.

Dealing with notifications

This is an important aspect which is well worth putting energy in to. Key points:

learn how to set notifications for specific channels or people
teach people the difference between a direct message and using a channel
learn how to adjust notifications for channels
learn how snooze notifications or set a status

Slack for mobile

Most organisations nowdays need integration with mobile devices – watch this video to learn how:

Integrating Slack with Google Calendar

Sharing files in Slack

This is GREAT – you can integrate Slack with Google Drive, O365, Dropbox and others!

youtube.com/watch?v=duVAj8TqGRc

This 10 minute 48 second video gives a comprehensive overview of Slack:

1 Comment

[email protected] on August 22, 2019 at 12:11 pm

One Goal: The extraordinary turnaround – Noeline Taurua used Slack to communicate with the team and coach long distance –

“The players were required to do a Bronco test every week – a quick, but painful fitness test, in which athletes run shuttles of 20, 40, and 60m and repeat five times – along with longer yoyo tests at various points in the season. All the testing results, along with stats from each of their matches, were uploaded to the team’s Slack channel – an internal communications system. ”

https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/07/netball-world-champions-silver-ferns/

Slack for efficient communication