Slack in One(ish) Sentence

Slack is a communication tool for groups, with plenty of third-party application integrations to power your workflow, where you can communicate within topical channels, private groups, direct messages, even video chats.

What Does Slack Do?

Slack is the ultimate communications tool that links your messaging with your everyday workflow. There are several ways to communicate with users within the workspace – public channels, private groups, and direct messages. Slack also supports message threads – meaning instead of posting a new message, you can reply under a message to develop a thread, keeping like content together.

Slack’s greatest superpower, IMO, is its integration with other applications. From Google Drive, to simple polling, to project management, you can use “slash commands” – an actual slash [/] that allows you to access app functionality like posting gifs, creating a new poll, or even updating tasks within Slack. In other words, it plays well with other applications you might use, even allowing you to access third-party app functionality while you’re in Slack.

Who is Slack For?

Anyone, really.

• Families – sync Google Calendar events, communicate about kid stuff, and huddle with family members for free
• LMA regions! Communicate with volunteers and automate your events (oh yes, you can do that!)
• Create a space for conferences chatter
• Marketing teams to manage projects and businesses
• People who want to use it for automation

Why Use Slack?

• It’s free, and the free version comes with a ton of functionality. I’m a heavy user and maybe only ONCE have I considered a paid version (and I decided against it).
• The integrations. Slack plays nice with SO MANY other applications; I’ll even say that Slack is one of the most friendly apps, integrating with any app that allows it. This means when you use Slack, it’s easy to pass information back and forth between applications.
• Even better, most app integrations work within Slack, so you don’t have to leave the platform to use them. And it happens without you having to automate it or know JavaScript. This is a pretty unique feature that most tools do not have.
• It’s accessible from your computer, browser, mobile phone, and tablet.

Involvement

Bare Minimum

• Download the Slack app on your phone and computer desktop
• Using #channels for communication
• Direct messaging individuals
• Tagging people
• Understanding notification settings

Leveling Up

• Creating and managing #channels, including privacy settings
• Saving and pinning messages
• Using threads for micro conversations
• Integrating third-party apps like Google Drive and GIPHY
• Using slash commands

You’re an Expert Now

• Leveraging integrations for a complete workflow solution
• Integrating Zapier or another automation tool
• Launching Slack workspaces for various projects