AdSkills Slack Tips

Most businesses use Slack as a tool of communication with the team. Slack is a messaging app for businesses that connects people to the information they need. By bringing people together to work as one unified team, Slack transforms the way organizations communicate.

Here are some guidelines in using the Slack app:

1. Update Your Profile

You can find your profile setting by clicking your Avatar at the top right corner of the dashboard and select profile. From there, you can put your real name, upload your real picture and add links to your website and/or other social media platforms. Uploading a clear profile photo and filling in your profile details will help your colleagues to find you. Please do take note that Slack is a messaging app for businesses to communicate with the person or to the team. So it is very important that the details you will be using are accurate and not a dummy account.   

2. How To Use @mentions

Work often involves waiting for reviews or approvals before you can move forwards. When matters are time-sensitive or you want to address a specific person in Slack, you can grab their attention in any channel by mentioning their username preceded by an @ symbol. They will then get a notification.

After meetings on any project, head into the project’s dedicated channel in Slack and post an update for the team. Make sure you format key information such as the following in a bullet-point list: 

• Decisions that have been made 
• Next steps with due dates. For each next step, make sure that you @mention the teammate(s) who agreed to take them on so that they receive the message and can confirm that they’re accountable 
• Any outstanding questions you want to discuss in the channel with the wider team

3. Say It With Emojis

We use emoji reactions all the time to speed up work. In the example below, you can see how:

• Seeking feedback, a designer has shared a mock-up of a design in the channel 
• Six teammates used the 👀 emoji to let the designer know that they’ve reviewed the artwork, so he knows that he doesn’t need to follow up (he can hover over the 👀 emoji to see who responded)
• The ✅ emoji is used by the approver to indicate that the work has been approved 

4. Threaded comments

Threads in Slack create organized discussions around specific messages. Need to give feedback on a file? Want to add context to someone else’s observation? Those moments are ideal for starting a thread—and represent a small sample of when threads can be helpful. Here’s a look at the many ways we use threads internally to keep our conversations on track.

When to use threads vs. when to post in a channel

When deciding whether to quickly answer someone with a new message in-channel or start a thread, consider these questions:

How busy is this channel currently? Is there an active discussion taking place?

How many people are in the channel, and is my response relevant to everyone or just a few people?

Is my response to the message highly detailed?

Our team uses threads most often in busy channels with hundreds of members, where it’s more courteous to contain extended discussions in threads instead of the main channel. We also tend to use them for deep discussions around a specific topic—you might call it “going down the rabbit hole”—without clogging up the channel with details.

Threads also help us rely less on direct messages to ask and answer follow-up questions. Instead, related questions get asked in threads in public channels, where the details remain transparent and can be found via search.

How it works: notifications for threads

If there’s a new response in a thread that you’re a part of, the Threads section at the top of your channel list will be highlighted.

If you’re responding directly to someone in a thread, you can always @mention that person and he or she will be pinged as well.

The channel name itself won’t light up to show unread activity, so those outside of the thread are not unduly distracted.

By the way, if you’re no longer interested in a continued threaded discussion, look for the “Turn off notifications for replies” option in the original message’s menu.

5. Setting up notifications to stay "on top of" important keywords

Slack aims to help you stay focused on your core projects and priorities by giving you strong control over what you’re notified about and when. Customize your notifications to:

Set working hours with your team. Outside these hours you’ll be on ‘do not disturb’ – messages sent during this period will arrive the next morning unless the sender decides that it’s urgent enough to notify you.

Set up keywords that you want to be alerted to when they’re mentioned anywhere (such as a customer name or ‘free pizza’).

Choose which conversations you want to receive notifications for and which you want to turn down or mute.

6. Join Channels

All members can browse and join public channels in their workspace. 

1. Click the Channel browser at the top of your left sidebar. If you don’t see this option, click  More to find it.
2. Browse the list of public channels in your workspace, or use the search bar to search by channel name or description.
3. Select a channel from the list to view it.
4. Click Join Channel.

Mobile:

1. Tap  Search at the bottom of your screen.
2. Tap  Browse channels. 
3. Search for a channel or select one from the list.
4.  Tap Join Channel.