A few weeks ago, I got a text from a front-end developer friend:

"Does Viget use Slack? I keep reading these things about companies with sophisticated uses of Slack - channels and integrations, etc. But haven’t found a solid write-up of what a sophisticated use looks like.”

He was right — about our Slack usage, and about the appreciable lack of articles out there from companies who use Slack as extensively as we do. So, I took it upon myself to dig into our Slack setup (learning a lot along the way!) and report back. Hopefully, this article will inspire other agencies to get the most out of everyone’s our favorite messaging app.

A quick caveat: Companies who already use Slack and are familiar with some of its basic functionality will get the most out of this post. Or, if you read something recently about Slack break-ups and are looking for a different perspective, this article is for you! If you’re curious if Slack would be a good fit for your company, a Slack 101 post might be a better place to start.

Although we may not get it right all the time, here’s a breakdown of how Viget uses Slack to 🆙 our communication, efficiency and fun.

Channels and DMs: Streamline and Centralize Communication

Slack’s out-of-the-box configuration can be drilled down to Channels and Direct Messages. We use channels to organize company-wide communication blasts, and to facilitate conversations around a specific team, project or topic. Direct Messages are, as you can imagine, a private chat between two (or more) co-workers.

Channels

The default Slack setup includes a #General channel, and everyone in the team is a member. At Viget, this evolved into our #important channel. We use this strictly for company-wide, need-to-know announcements, and only admins can post to the channel. That way, people can opt-out of almost every other channel.

Our #announcements and #random channels are home to the ‘water cooler’ conversations. Topics range from non-work banter to industry-relevant article links. We also have office-specific channels for each of our Boulder, Durham and HQ offices. You can use @here to ping everyone in the room (for example, to let everyone know lunch has arrived!) but there’s no expectation to keep up with these conversations.