the basics of using slack

Name: the basics of using slack
Rating: 4.0 (31 reviews)

learn how to wield slack web chat and some of the addons with ease like a total pro!

Created byPhilip Campbell

Last updated 4/2016

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

how to get around inside of slack
knowledge of intergrations and bots installation
explain the benefits of using an enterprise hosted chat
say what slack actually stands for!
suggest ways of connecting legacy chat to slack

Course content

4 sections • 21 lectures • 1h 4m total length

who is this course for?1:27
so your looking to optimize the communications with a bunch of people, team or group and you heard a few things about slack but your just not certain. this basics course should give you enough to go on to make an informed decisions about using slack.
brief history of comms and internet chat3:30
slack is very much like a modern day irc (internet relay chat) in that you have a channels that you join or visit and hold conversations in via text. in todays comms channels you can chat, link, watch videos together, hold video chats and a lot more.
we use it for a project called teamhumble4:58
wanted to give you a case study of a small size slack channel and how we intend to grow it over the coming years into a place for people with mental health issues to be able to come together and converse.
who would most benefit from using slack3:19
if your looking to reduce the amount of time that you spend inside of your email program and become more productive then something like slack will allow you be more productive with your work. having a one stop location for all your comms, social channels and a place to drag and drop files and share information means that you have a fully searchable location to find those things without trawling through email clients.
the value of slack is it's potential for open comms1:56
it's true it's possible to have your own private intergrations of apps (trello, etc) for maintaining groups within slack, even private channels with only a number of people that you want in them but the real power of co-working together is the ability to have the whole team exposed to different areas of the company that they might not have seen before, of course adding extra noise to the mix is unhealthy so micro managing a little is crucial.

why is it called slack1:13
Slack is a project management term, a synonym for float. It's loosely used to describe how much time a project can absorb delays in tasks or milestones without consequence. "We have a couple of weeks slack so spending a few more days on it won't be a problem" - It implies there's flexiblity in the schedule. It's a good thing to have. Slack is in part a project coordination tool, although it's more favourable to talk about communication and collaboration. The name fits.
i don’t want to be contactable at all times3:07
one of the features you need to know about as soon as possible is the fact that you can set a 'do not disturb' on your account between certain hours so you don't get notifications in the middle of the night if someone posts something and mentions your name in it. you only get a notification most of the time if your name is mentioned.
how does it make me more productive (reduction in email etc)2:14
having access to all your content in one place means i don't have to do the 'hunt' for bits of content and the digital digging through email to try and piece together things. the search alone in slack is the best and the ability to share and work on documents together makes it even better.
what are slash shortcuts2:50
these make slack awesome. you can do a variety of tasks/chores/bot actions using forward slash commands. if you know the command you can just type the command and a keyword to get some data and the results back.
what are integrations and how do they work3:03
intergrations are what bring the power of tools and websites from outside into your private and secure slack channel. intergrations can be from scheduling to video chat to just bringing social media information in for others to see. they really enhance your usage of slack.
slack seems expensive per user?5:40
when using enterprise grade web applications (like slack is) you can expect to pay a premium (not free) after a certain number of users. for a web application like chat to have near to little downtime (i.e it's online all the time) you have to pay something towards the upkeep of that product on the internet.
what are bots and why do i need them7:08
bots are a great way of automating things inside of slack. the bots often run on the web, made by companies normally that enable you to do tasks really speedy inside of slack - from checking out hotel prices, booking ubers and even ordering food. you can do so much with bots.
what is inline playback and why is it so useful?2:55
slack supports a number of websites where just posting the url to the media will load the content 'inline' which means you can see it straight away without leaving slack. for instance, copy and paste a url to a youtube video and it will allow you to play right there on desktop and mobile thus keeping you inside of chat.
why not use (x) instead as it’s free/same1:57
you can find a lot of copies of software that do the same thing as slack but it often means you have to run and maintain the server yourself. if you confident at doing that you'll be ok otherwise consider the time you will have to be productive compared to being a full time admin. does that have a value to you?
how can i get an update of everything that's going on?1:58
we got asked the question recently in a slack conversation about having a condensed view of what's going on but in slack it's hard to know what's going to be relevant to you unless you join or frequent channels. that's part of the attraction to being social in the chat.

using trello with slack3:40
trello is a fantastic system of keeping notes and tasks for different team members, once configured and people understand how to fly it seeing updates from your team members coming in just makes it all worth doing. slack and trello are a perfect combination of knowing when something has been assigned, worked on or finished. no more asking if something is done!
super easy video chat with appear.in3:11
ever wanted to jump into a video chat without having to worry about software installed or a login, just one click and your in a video chat with someone. sounds awesome right, well now you can do exactly that. and let's be honest that's kinda awesome!
searching hotels, ordering food, personal assistant6:54
how awesome would it be if you could search hotels direct in slack without having to leave your comfy slack home thus removing the internet distraction of firing up the browser (reducing the distraction economy) or how about even ordering food locally for the team or talking to a personal assistant to get something done. those are some of the amazing things that you can now do with slack!

request an update video0:52
we are super open to adding and making custom videos to this course. that's the whole point of making the course to engage with dialog from you guys. drop us a message and we can get that sorted for you.
check out my other courses (let’s barter?)0:51
i love bartering. swap this for that, have a course i'd like but can't afford any of my other courses then drop me a message and let's see if we can barter over it.
teamhumble membership for 20161:54
in 2016 i want to increase the membership user base of our slack channel to around 100 members by march 2016. this would be awesome. we are currently charging £20 for that per year because of the costs of being a full member on slack, upkeep of the website and the app. we rely on members and these fees to keep us going and a lovely safe enterprise class place for us to converse securely.

Requirements

ideally download slack on all of your devices
get the native apps for your device will enhance experience

Description

heard a lot about slack?

need to have a quick primer to get you up to speed in why people are raving about it so much then this is the basic slack primer for you. rapid talking head videos showing you around the slack platform and teaching you all you need to know about how powerful this communications platform is.

feel free to ask questions, request additional videos - i'm here to help you make a decision before jumping into a paid subscription with slack.

you should be able to get through the lectures rapidly as they are talking head videos with screencast style cutaways to me actually using slack in a real world situation.

Who this course is for:

do not take this if you have used irc (internet relay chat)
people that would like to learn slack
basic users that want to get more out of slack
people looking to improve the communications across a business

the basics of using slack

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

introductions5 lectures • 15min

the questions10 lectures • 32min

third party integrations3 lectures • 14min

thanks for dropping by3 lectures • 4min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: