10 Productivity Slack Tips & Tricks for Users

Slack is now one of the most popular messaging platforms for businesses to use, with an estimated 20 million users worldwide. But with all the ‘noise’, how can you ensure that you stay productive?

In this article, I’ll go through the history of Slack and Salesforce, before diving into my top 10 Slack tips and tricks to increase your productivity.

What is Slack?

Slack is a messaging app for businesses that connects people to the information that they need. The key to Slack is allowing people to work together as one unified team, which in turn transforms the way that organizations communicate. Slack runs on the key principles of allowing users to work in a connected, flexible, and inclusive way.

Initially created as an internal tool for Stewart Butterfield’s company Tiny Speck during the development of the online game Glitch, Slack was made available to the public in August 2013. The name Slack stands for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge.”

On July 21st, 2021, Salesforce purchased Slack for approximately $27.7 billion. This acquisition is the largest in Salesforce’s history and ranks as the second-largest tech acquisition ever.

10 Productivity Slack Tips

1. Less is more

Multiple messages mean multiple notifications. Multiple notifications mean more distractions. If you have a long message you need to send, make sure to use paragraphs in your messages. This can be enabled by going into your advanced preferences.

2. @Channel và @Here

When using channels, you are able to mention other users directly in your messages by using @ followed by the user’s display name.

But Slack also gives you the ability to notify the entire channel, or even your whole workspace with two different commands; @channel and @here.

You should be very careful when using either of these commands, especially in channels with many users such as #general. The @channel command will notify everyone in that channel regardless of their status, whereas @here will only notify those who are online at that moment.

These commands are designed for sharing important announcements that require everyone’s attention such as an urgent matter with a project. They aren’t meant for sharing cat gifs (unless you are in a specific #catgif channel).

One thing to bear in mind is that owners and admins can choose to restrict permissions for users who can use these commands.

3. Consistent Naming Conventions for Channels

Creating naming conventions for your channels is an excellent method to ensure everyone can easily locate the channels and information they need. Since channels are organized alphabetically, be sure to add prefixes to your channel names to keep them grouped together.

For example, for channels to support projects you could set the channel name as #project- followed by the name of the project, for example #project-flowmigration or #project-leadgen.

You could also create Channels for your teams. The naming conventions here could be much simpler, and just include the team name. For example, for a Salesforce team you could set the channel name as #sfteam.

Be sure to have the channel naming conventions documented and shared with everyone in your organization.

4. Channel with a Purpose

There’s no point in having a channel if it doesn’t have a clear purpose. Make sure to add a topic and channel description so everyone can see what the purpose of this channel is.

5. Make Use of Emoji Reactions

For such a simple tool, emojis in Slack can be very powerful. They’re a simple way to quickly respond to a message with one click. 

You can also build these into your workflows, for example, people can put their 👀 on something to tell everyone they’re reviewing it and then a ✅ when they’ve completed their review. Practicing using emojis as a response can also help reduce the clutter and noise in Slack!

6. Use Threads

Threads are essentially ongoing conversations. They are ideal for collaborations involving discussions and projects within a team channel. You can request clarification on a topic or share ideas, knowing that everyone’s unread indicator in the channel won’t be overwhelmed.

If you’ve posted a message in a thread and later decide it should also be shared in the channel, you can select the “Also send to #channel” checkbox below your message.

7. Share Useful Files with Channel

Begin by uploading any essential files related to the topic or project and share a welcome message to get started. To upload files, click the paperclip icon in your message window, just as you would when attaching files to an email.

8. Do not Disturb

This feature is primarily for your benefit. Everyone needs time to disconnect from work, and Slack helps by allowing you to set your working hours, ensuring you only receive notifications during those times. 

For instance, if your hours are set from 8am to 6pm, any message received at 7am won't disturb your sleep with notifications. The same applies after 6pm, when you might be enjoying dinner. 

Do Not Disturb helps you maintain a healthy work-life balance!

To simplify this further, you can activate Do Not Disturb in Slack using some quick and handy slash commands:

9. Sync Your Status

If, like many people, you use Google or Outlook for your calendar, it is very simple to sync these with your Slack account. All you need to do is install the Google or Outlook apps into your Slack workspace, and link your accounts. 

You will then have the option to sync your status, so if you have a meeting scheduled in your calendar your Slack status will update to reflect this. This is the perfect way to quickly see who is available and who is busy at any given time.

10. Huddles

Slack huddles are a lightweight and audio-first way to communicate inside a Slack channel or direct message, including those with external partners. A typical conference call is scheduled for a specific time, normally has an agenda, and has a set list of attendees. Slack huddles are more casual, with no communicated agenda and open to anyone within your workspace.

Slack Huddles also now allow you to take notes in a huddle thread, share your screen, add reactions with emojis, and even turn on live captions (currently only available in English).

If you are on a free version of Slack, you can have a maximum of 2 people per huddle. On a paid version this increases to up to 50 people.

Salesforce Integrations

As Slack is now part of Salesforce, it won’t be long before all Salesforce clouds will be deeply integrated with Slack. Currently, in the Slack app directory you’ll find apps for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Quip, and Heroku. Customers can also use the Slack API to build custom integrations that connect Slack to other Salesforce services.

Summary

Businesses seem to slowly be moving away from the reliance of email, and instead focusing more on messaging applications such as Slack – and 20 million users worldwide can’t be wrong! 

We hope you’ve enjoyed these 10 Slack tips to become more productive. If you’re just getting started with Slack, or want to gain better control over your Slack implementation, be sure to check out the article below: