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5 tips for improving your Slack experience
Hi Reader,
Many teams use Slack (including ConvertKit), but not everyone uses its features to the fullest extent.
Here are some tips for improving your Slack experience:
1. Use threads
Everyone in the ConvertKit Slack knows how much I love threads.
Instead of posting replies in the main feed of a Slack channel or DM, start a thread by hovering over a message and clicking Reply in thread.
Why use threads in Slack?
There are many benefits to using threads:
- Provides notifications for followup messages (easily opt out)
- Organizes all messages on a given topic in one place for context
- Prevents messages from different conversations from overlapping
- Makes it easy to catch anyone up to speed (just link to a thread)
- Eliminates guesswork as to where a conversation starts or ends
- Keeps others from being distracted by irrelevant messages
How do you know when to reply in a thread or post in the main feed?
- If it's a new topic, make a top-level post in the channel.
- If it’s related to something already posted, reply in the thread.
When new people join the team, they catch on pretty quick, because it’s already a part of our team culture. Everyone knows to use threads. Whenever someone doesn’t use threads, others (gently) remind them.
It can be a challenge to get your team to start using threads if you haven’t communicated this way from the beginning, but once everyone’s on board, the benefits are well worth the effort.
2. Organize channels into sections
Instead of leaving an unruly list of channels in your sidebar that may or may not be relevant to you, group the ones you use into sections.
- On desktop, hover over Channels in the left sidebar and click the three dots icon
- Select Create new section
- Label your section and select an emoji
Repeat for however many sections you need.
3. Learn to use search
Whether you’re looking for something said before, or just seeing if a question has already been answered, search is your friend.
You can go beyond just typing keywords into the search bar:
- Use “quotation marks” to search a specific phrase
- Use in:#channel to find messages in a particular #channel
- Use from:@name to find information shared by someone specific
- Use has:✅ to find all messages with ✅ as reactions
- Use hasmy:👀 to find all messages you reacted to with 👀
- Use is:thread to find results within threads
By the way, you can also quickly switch to different channels using Command + K.
Have a hard time remembering shortcuts? Use Command + / to show a handy reference of all keyboard shortcuts so you don’t have to memorize them.
4. Make custom emojis
Custom emojis are a great way to personalize your Slack experience and have some fun with your team.
We have a number of custom emojis with different team members' faces reacting in different ways. Those get a lot of use.
:skepitcal_nathan: is always a good one to use when someone forgets to use threads.
5. Use dedicated emoji reactions
Aside from being fun, emoji reactions can be a good way to communicate efficiently.
People often send messages like:
- “Thanks!”
- “Understood!”
- “This is done.”
- “Working on it.”
While these are fine, to save time and cut down on unnecessary notifications, you could establish certain emoji reactions that your team knows mean specific things. For example:
- 🙏 = “Thanks!”
- 👍 = “Understood!”
- ✅ = “This is done.”
- ⚙️ = “Working on it.”
Pin a message with your emoji legend so people who join later can reference it.
Bonus Tip: Add social channels
It may seem counterintuitive to encourage non-work conversation, but it’s actually a great idea to give your team places to share other interests and get to know each other better.
Helping your team connect on non-work topics will help build a sense of camaraderie.
Here are some social channels we have:
- #side-hustles
- #book-club
- #wellness
- #random
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I've recommended the book Red Notice to so many people. It's a thriller about Bill Browder who started investing in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. If you haven't read it yet, buy it now.
A few months ago Bill released the sequel, Freezing Order. I started reading it over the weekend and haven't been able to put it down. Politics, intrigue, assassinations, and more. All true, and it all happened in the last 10 years.
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7 reasons your next job should be remote first
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—Nathan
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
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