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Take Control of Slack Admin
The Slack group messaging system is hot stuff these days, whether you're hoping to reduce email overload and encourage more productive communication in a Fortune 500 company, Internet-based small business, volunteer-run non-profit organization, academic workgroup, or high school robotics club. Over 60,000 teams (free and paid) and nearly 3 million people use Slack every day, and with help from Slack expert Glenn Fleishman, you can too.
Based on hundreds of person-hours of testing, this book is designed to help both the novice admin and any IT staff tasked with managing Slack. Those getting started will learn how to plan and create a new team, configuring channels and administrative settings to shape how the team works. You'll also learn how integrations can radically extend Slack's capabilities, helping to make Slack into a centralized control center rather than just another communications stream.
Perhaps most important for the highly technical admin, Glenn offers advice about the human side of the Slack equation, making suggestions for how you can deal with prickly team members, poor behavior, and even discussions that could violate employment policies.
Finally, to aid in training your users, this book offers a free slide deck and handout you can use to train your Slack team.
Questions answered for you in this book include:
Will Slack work for my organization? (Very likely, unless you need HIPAA compliance or are required to host all services internally.)
Can I get away with using a free team instead of a paid team?
How can I bring outside consultants and freelancers into my Slack team?
What are good ways to keep my users from creating too many channels?
Are there integrations I can use to centralize communications in Slack?
What is Slack's message retention policy, and can I override it?
Is there any way to export all messages for compliance reasons?
Can I have messages automatically deleted after a period of time?
What techniques can I use to keep my users in line?
Based on hundreds of person-hours of testing, this book is designed to help both the novice admin and any IT staff tasked with managing Slack. Those getting started will learn how to plan and create a new team, configuring channels and administrative settings to shape how the team works. You'll also learn how integrations can radically extend Slack's capabilities, helping to make Slack into a centralized control center rather than just another communications stream.
Perhaps most important for the highly technical admin, Glenn offers advice about the human side of the Slack equation, making suggestions for how you can deal with prickly team members, poor behavior, and even discussions that could violate employment policies.
Finally, to aid in training your users, this book offers a free slide deck and handout you can use to train your Slack team.
Questions answered for you in this book include:
Will Slack work for my organization? (Very likely, unless you need HIPAA compliance or are required to host all services internally.)
Can I get away with using a free team instead of a paid team?
How can I bring outside consultants and freelancers into my Slack team?
What are good ways to keep my users from creating too many channels?
Are there integrations I can use to centralize communications in Slack?
What is Slack's message retention policy, and can I override it?
Is there any way to export all messages for compliance reasons?
Can I have messages automatically deleted after a period of time?
What techniques can I use to keep my users in line?
75 pages, ebook
Published May 29, 2016
About the author
Glenn Fleishman
82 books228 followersI started writing as a child and never stopped. I’ve always been interested in what makes things tick and how to explain that. That led to a career as a technology journalist and how-to article and book author. I’ve written dozens of books over my career in some combination of the two.
In the 2010s, I started publish a series of book that combined printing and type history and technology in a variety of ways. These titles include Not To Put Too Fine a Point on It, a collection of essays and reporting; London Kerning, a look at two magnificent London printing collections and the city’s typographical history; Six Centuries of Type & Printing; and How Comics Were Made, a heavily visual history of the production and reproduction of newspaper comics from the 1890s to the present.
I live in Seattle, Washington, with my family, and drink very little coffee.
In the 2010s, I started publish a series of book that combined printing and type history and technology in a variety of ways. These titles include Not To Put Too Fine a Point on It, a collection of essays and reporting; London Kerning, a look at two magnificent London printing collections and the city’s typographical history; Six Centuries of Type & Printing; and How Comics Were Made, a heavily visual history of the production and reproduction of newspaper comics from the 1890s to the present.
I live in Seattle, Washington, with my family, and drink very little coffee.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 23, 2017
Useful guide, but wanted more
Slack has a great online Help guide for users and Slack admins, but I wanted to read about admin features and recommendations in a single book. While I've done a lot of reading about using Slack, and I know my way around the program, this book provides some useful information I didn't know, and that is helpful for the two Slack teams I manage.
My few issues with the book though is that it doesn't include practical tips by experienced Slack users, and I would have liked the author to include some use cases for using Slack in a few different environments.
So basically this book is a short guide or manual for Slack admins for using the features of the application and service.
Slack has a great online Help guide for users and Slack admins, but I wanted to read about admin features and recommendations in a single book. While I've done a lot of reading about using Slack, and I know my way around the program, this book provides some useful information I didn't know, and that is helpful for the two Slack teams I manage.
My few issues with the book though is that it doesn't include practical tips by experienced Slack users, and I would have liked the author to include some use cases for using Slack in a few different environments.
So basically this book is a short guide or manual for Slack admins for using the features of the application and service.
November 18, 2018
Good overview for a new slack admin, but in need of a new edition since there’s been many new features and improvements since this was released (including a whole new tier aimed at large/complex businesses)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews