Better Business Countdown #1: Slack
Looking at the start of the new year we like to look back at what this year has brought us. Lists of great movies and finest albums appear everywhere, just like our favourite apps and games. But how about the preferred business tools we use everyday? Software that helps us to work better, as organisation — or human? The wonderful applications that improve the use of your smartphone or tablet? Because we at YipYip are great fans of simpel and efficient online platforms that enhance our daily routine, we count down to the new year with some fruity tips for business tools. One diamond every day. The motto: ‘discovering tools that make your business or mobile life more fun’. Go explore them in the new year!
Better Business Countdown #1: Slack
Hardly anyone would have missed it: 2015 was the year of Slack. The rapidly risen, now indispensable communication tool for teams. At the beginning of 2015 the US software company (founded in 2013) registered 10,000 new active users every day — not bad — and now it’s up to 1 million. The company has a value of almost $ 3 trillion. You can’t hold a grudge against them for this huge succes: with a sympathetic look, super useful features and cheerful-but-clean design, the Slackers have conquered our hearts worldwide. YipYip has used Slack from the start. Beware if you can’t take too much sweetness: this definitely is an ode to Slack.
In the Slack shop they sell Slack socks. Profits will go to charity. If you like Slack, you want those socks. And otherwise too.
If NASA uses it, it must be good. On the homepage Slack proudly presents which pioneers and adventurers are in the customer base. And do we not all want to be as progressive? Slack gives you the best of modern communication technology in your business. In short, it is a chat room for teams: the messages are clearly structured into different channels, one for every project or any other subject — what suits you best.
When a colleague addresses you in a channel, you get an extra notification. You can view all messages posted by others in the channel, tag someone for specific questions or remarks, or use a private message. I could have never predicted that I would barely use my e-mail account since Slack — something Basecamp tried, but never managed to do. Communication through Slack is fast, fun and effective.
Because you can browse through the archives, the Slack posts are a reliable base for confirmation of agreements. Either within your own company or in the process with clients: you can invite outside “guests” to your channel and add them to the team.
Slack makes team communication transparent, efficient and — quite simply — enjoyable.
Drag and drop your documents easily onto Slack. You can pin key posts to find them back later. Create custom emoji with every image you want. The people of Slack HQ are friendly on Twitter. The company donates an amount to a charity cause every month. Slack rewards developers who come up with useful integrations for their product. The company embraces other apps that you work with, to make sure they don’t get mixed up in the jungle of applications on your laptop, tablet or phone. They invent new functionalities all the time, such as the snooze function recently (‘do not disturb’) and the extended possibility to write longer articles (‘Slack posts’). Their blog is titled ‘Several People Are Typing’ — a witty reference to the tool itself, where you can see when someone is writing a response (‘Tim is typing …’).
Let me keep it short. ‘Made with ♥ by Slack’ is the tagline.
Slack: We love you back.
