If you keep up-to-date with productivity apps, you’ve probably heard of Slack. Many companies and organizations use Slack to communicate with their team. But there’s another way to use Slack that can help you learn, connect, and engage with your customers, your ambassadors, and your community.
Open Slack Communities
“Ok,” you might say, “but there are a lot of ways to digitally network. What makes Slack great?” That’s a good question. After all, we’re always hearing about how we’re spending too much time on social media. How does adding another forum help?
The People
Part of the reason that Slack communities are useful is that they’re full of engaged, knowledgeable users who want to share information. They haven’t gotten bogged down with ads or trolls—and hopefully, they never do. Its “newness” has created a safe environment to nurture ideas and share information. There’s plenty of room for growth, allowing you to cultivate your own community or easily join active communities you’re interested in.
The Platform
Slack conversations happen in real-time, though you can also send direct messages. This provides users with different ways to connect depending on their needs. Other social media platforms, including LinkedIn, limit who you can message directly, but with Slack, you can message anyone in your community. This is especially useful for networking or sharing information you think may be of help to someone.
Slack communities are free to start and many are free to join. While some groups charge a nominal fee to ensure engagement and to discourage people who aren’t going to participate, most don’t. In addition, because there aren’t that many groups on Slack yet, there’s less of a competition for attention. That means more actual discussion and less “Hey, everyone, look at my website!”
Currently, you must be invited to join a community. However, for “open” communities, you simply request access and are then generally added. If you’re considering starting your own community, this gives you the keys to the gate and allows you to decide who to invite and who can join. It’s a lot of power, but with the troll-heavy Twitter for comparison, having that safety net can be pretty nice.
Start Your Own Community
If you can’t find a community you want to join, why not start your own? While there are bustling communities for IT and entrepreneurs, there’s plenty of room for growth in other areas. Start a conversation and invite some professionals whose opinions you value. By creating an open space for dialogue and information sharing, you can craft a valuable tool for networking.
Part of the beauty of Slack, other than its relative ease of use, is that it’s all set up for you. You don’t need to add a forum to your website or hire a web developer to craft some super cool platform that may not garner traffic. Slack’s platform already has plenty of traffic and proven community building applications. It’s free to download and you can start using it immediately.
Ready to get started? Standuply has a listing of some of the communities already thriving on Slack. A quick glance shows there’s plenty of room for new, innovative groups, so go get ‘em, tiger! Create your group and start reaching out to people you think may be interested. You’ll also want to create a way for people to contact you to ask to join your group. You can easily create a submission form in Google Forms and request a bit of info about prospective members.
Once you’re set up, remember to add value to your group by sharing useful, relevant info. Create rules if necessary, and keep your members engaged with insight, news, good content.
Have you tried using Slack this way? How has it worked for you? Looking for more information? This article by Greg Digneo on How to Use Slack and Be A Productivity Hero for Your Remote Team is a great resource.
