Should Slack (yes, the internal messaging platform) be part of your digital strategy?
If community-building is part of your digital strategy, you should consider utilizing one of our favorite platforms, Slack. If you haven’t had the pleasure of using Slack in a work environment where it’s most commonly used, it’s an internal messaging platform for teams that allows for quicker conversation than email. Think group text, Reddit or Discord, but for your workplace team. You can have direct DM conversations or - the greater value add - large scale conversations in a digestible way.
What’s fascinating is that we’re seeing some brands creating Slack channels outside of the workplace for their communities. A standout example is the Old Girls Club [play on ‘old boys club’], a gathering space for women in tech and venture who are committed to giving or receiving support from each other. Their Slack community is described as “Reddit for senior women in tech and venture (but in Slack) + a bunch of other awesome resources.” In order to actually get the extremely busy women of this caliber to engage in a community, Slack could arguably be the best bet to effectively reach them.
And why is that? Why Slack over say… Instagram or Reddit or a LinkedIn group? A couple reasons, 1) the platform is conversation-first, aka jumping into the meat of substance without the distraction of photo or video, 2) MANY people are already on it all day during the workweek [including the women in the OGC], so it’s very easy to integrate into existing habits, and 3) there’s an exclusive, invite-only aspect to it that makes establishing high-quality conversation from a moderator standpoint more straightforward.
All of these aspects lead to one major point and that is it’s just easier. If your community - or the community you aspire to build - is made up of busy individuals, Slack could be your answer to actually engaging them. Dedicating time to social platforms is hard, hence why it’s the younger Gen Z crowd that tends to make platforms like TikTok take off versus the slower trickle of Millennials to the platform. It’s all about time, and Millennials at their current life stage with work and families have less of it. Slack is just less work - it’s text only, it’s a familiar platform, it plugs easily into every other platform out there you can think of [check out their blog for a whole list that includes Google docs, Sales Force, Twitter, etc]. Sliding into an existing habit / platform is more straightforward than getting people to open up a new or separate app. They just don’t have time.
If you think Slack could be a good fit for you and your community, here’s some considerations to run through:
Your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? Who are the superfans, converts, and aspirational members of your community? If these individuals are working professionals, leading busy lives, and are likely familiar with Slack, you should consider starting a Slack channel.
The conversation you want to drive. What is it that you want your community to engage around? Obviously you want them to interact with your content, but beyond likes on a TikTok, if you were to have a group of your diehards in a room, what would you talk about? Would they interact with each other? If you see value in a constructive group conversation, Slack gives you the opportunity to create that virtually.
Do YOU use and like Slack? This isn’t all about everyone else. If you, for example, happen to be an individual using Slack all week and your community is say, a side hustle, make this easier on yourself! Invite your target audience to where you are and where it’s easiest for you to put in the greatest amount of effort. The quality will inevitably be better than if you’re forcing yourself to use a platform you don’t love. Fans can sense and are deterred by discomfort.
And of course, if you’re intrigued, start small! Create a Slack channel [it’s free!], invite your besties, establish a purpose with some ground rules, and see how it goes. Establishing a high quality experience and then expanding from there with invite-only additions is an incredible way to snowball outward, while also allowing room to iterate and shift as you go.