Did you hear the news? It’s my four-year Slack-iversary. I began using the communications tool in 2016 and consider myself an early adopter, even though Slack was born a few years earlier in 2013.

If you know me even a little, you know I’m a techy marketer who loves her apps and tools — and Slack is near the top of my faves list. To honor my experienced-user milestone, I’m offering advice on how to get the most from Slack.

Tips and Best Practices for Using Slack

If you’re ready to start using Slack, you can set up a free account — for example, if someone invites you to join their Slack channel, you’ll need an account. (In this instance, you’re an invited guest.) If you want to start a Slack channel yourself, say, for a networking group you run, you’ll need an account to create the Slack workplace. (You’re the host and will invite others to it.)

It’s easy to get started, and you can find many helpful videos online — here’s Slack’s quick-start guide. In almost every best practice I share below, I link away to Slack so you can learn more about certain features. (Note: Without an account, some of these best practices may not make sense. So get that account, and then come back to finish reading!)

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  Here’s my user profile in the Marketing Mentor group’s Slack channel.

  Complete your user profile. Add your photo, describe what you do, and add your contact information so other users will know more about you. This is particularly important if you’re in a Slack group where it’s all about networking.

• Take time to like and comment. Slack is not just about communication, it’s about engagement, too. You were invited to a Slack group for a reason, so stay involved with the other members. You don’t have to acknowledge every post you see, but take time to stay connected and — just like on social media — acknowledge comments and answer questions when you can.
• Reply to a post via a thread. Keeping up to date on a busy Slack channel can be hard to do if you must scroll past dozens of comments. Use Slack’s thread feature to bundle a post with its replies to make the channel discussions more orderly.
• Remove the URL preview. Here’s another tip that should please your fellow Slack users. With one click, remove a link preview (the detail that pulls in from the website you shared) for a more compact post that doesn’t take up too much real estate.
• Use @channel sparingly. When you post a note in Slack, not everyone will be online to see your message. You can notify all members at once by using the “@” symbol before “channel,” like this: “Hi, @channel. I have a question …” Be thoughtful about using this feature, though, especially if your group includes members from time zones outside of yours.
• Chat one-to-one vs. one-to-many. To talk with or alert just one person, direct-message them instead of posting a note in a channel where multiple people will see the message.
• Download the mobile and desktop apps. If you find yourself loving Slack as I do, add the Slack app to your mobile device and desktop for the optimal user experience.
• Dial Slack up or dial it down. If you like Slack but occasionally want to turn down the noise, adjust your notification alerts or use Do Not Disturb or the “Set yourself …” feature to show you’re on vacation or otherwise unavailable.
• Check in on your Slack group periodically. Make it a habit to log into Slack at least once a week to see what people are talking about. If you’re in a channel, maintain some sort of visibility, posting a question or answering one or sharing an idea that’s appropriate for the group. If you don’t want to bother with Slack, you can always leave a workplace — a.k.a. the group you’re part of. (Sidenote: I left several Slack workspaces recently and found it rather hard to do, despite what the instructions say.)
• Be a Slack champion or look to one. Every Slack workplace was started by one person, and, often, that individual becomes the one members see using Slack regularly. For people to want to use and stay connected to Slack, it must be an active group. If you’re in a Slack group that’s grown too quiet, think of ways you can add some life to the online party by asking a question or DM-ing others in the group instead of resorting to email.

Did you know you can write a note to yourself in Slack? It’s a great place to practice some formatting or draft a message before posting it in a group or direct-messaging it to someone.

Lesser-Known Slack Features

If you’ve been using Slack for a while, you probably know a few fun or helpful workarounds; here are four of mine that I think are less well-known:

• You can write a note to yourself. I do this for a few reasons, but it’s usually because I want to draft a note to proof it before I post it. But there are other ways to use this nifty note-to-self feature that I haven’t tried yet.
• Find an emoji more quickly with a shortcut. When you’re typing a Slack message and want to add an emoji, type a : (colon) and the first couple of letters of the emoji — such as :cof to get the ☕—  and Slack will display the emoji for you to quickly add.
• Create a custom emoji when the standard ones won’t do. Did you know you can add a new emoji to Slack? I created one that said “THANK YOU” and added it to my client’s Slack account (after getting their OK), but the resulting image is so small — due to Slack’s size constraints — that it’s a little hard to read.
  
• Show yourself unavailable and in a meeting. If you link your Google calendar to Slack, people will see that you’re in a meeting and may (or may not) ping you since you’re busy. (I’ve seen this feature on others’ Slack profiles for years but never had it enabled until this month.) Of course, you don’t have to respond right away to any Slack message, and if you’re in a meeting the message can wait.

Czarina is the director of marketing at First San Francisco Partners, a data management consulting firm and one of my clients.

What My Long-Time Client Says About Slack

My first experience using Slack four years ago was with First San Francisco Partners (FSFP). Slack was getting a lot of buzz on the west coast, where they’re based, and the director of sales suggested the Marketing team check it out. The marketing director, Czarina Carden, invited me to FSFP’s new Slack workplace, and Czarina and I began using it immediately.

Czarina and FSFP still use Slack today, so I thought it would be fun to ask her a few questions about the tool we both enjoy; here’s what she had to say:

I was really excited to start using Slack because we used something similar (Hipchat) at the start-up where I worked previously. Emails, text and Zoom meetings are fine, but there’s an element of fun and casualness inherent in Slack. It’s great for managing and staying connected with our remote teams, too, especially for more time-sensitive communications.

Today at FSFP, we’re using Slack even more because we integrated it across our team and business by leveraging multiple channels, each with a different purpose.  DMs are super handy, too.

My favorite thing about Slack is the lighthearted side of it — emojis, memes, personal pictures, polls and how we share content and updates. We set up a channel called #watercooler that helps us get to know each other better and stay connected, even if we’ve never actually met in person (yet).

If you’re new to Slack, keep balance in mind. While Slack does invite communications that are more on the informal side, remember that it’s still a business communication tool, so have fun but keep it professional.

(Thanks, Czarina! It’s been great to learn and use Slack alongside you these last four years!)

What’s Your Favorite Slack hack or tip?

If you know a secret Slack feature or have a best practice to share, leave a comment below, email me or tweet me to let me know.

IMAGE CREDIT: SCOTT WEB ON UNSPLASH