Slack vs Announcements

We've all been there. You just had a major win, you're excited, and you want to share it with the rest of your team.

🤔 How do you do that?

You decide you'll post a message to Slack. After all, that's where your team lives.

You want to write a longer message, with context, and maybe even pictures! But it just feels rude to write something so long in Slack. You feel like you're intruding in your teammates' Slack real-estate.

So, you settle for something short. Maybe you include a 📣 emoji to note it's an announcement and even a few 🎉's to show your excitement.

But let's face it, it doesn't have the umph you were hoping for. You can't really share what you wanted.

And does it even reach the right people?

A person or two might see it. They might even like it.

But soon, like a piece of driftwood in a river, your post will be lost in the current of Slack posts.

Why is that?

That's because Slack is a great place for quick, informal communication. But it's not the right place for announcements.

Don't get me wrong. It's a good place to post a link to an announcement so that those who are currently present online can see it. But it's just one method of distribution. It shouldn't be your sole distribution channel or your whole distribution strategy.

The medium itself limits you

And that feeling you had that you were intruding in your teammates' Slack real-estate? That feeling comes because Slack is not the right medium for long-form communication. The medium itself curtails your message.

So, you settle for less.

You write a pale imitation of what your announcement would have been. And all that work you put into that major win — well, it's not visible to the rest of your team.

That's sad. Too often we put the 90% into creating that great win, but we fail in the last 10% communicating that win.

But that last 10% is so important for your team!

There are others in your company who probably need that information. They could use the knowledge that you uncovered. It could help prevent future mistakes. They would be able to close that sale, or the would be able to better serve your customers.

But Slack made you write a short message that didn't even reach the right people.

Why Harkn is different

That's why I created Harkn—to help you with that last 10%. To help you share knowledge with your team.

Announcements need their own medium, a medium that makes it easy to write a longer message. A place that is undisturbed by the tumultuos stream of Slack messages.

Your message doesn't always have to be a 10-pager, but you need more than a 2-line message input.

Once you've written your announcement, the tool should help you distribute it to the right people through many channels.

Yes, Slack is a good place to distribute your announcement. In fact, in Harkn you can connect a topic to a Slack channel so that Harkn automatically posts the announcement to that Slack channel.

But it does more!

When you add topics to your announcement, every team member subscribed to that topic will receive the announcement directly to their email inbox.

(Here's a one that I wrote myself earlier this month 👇)

Your teammates can read the announcement at their leisure directly in their inbox (I like to think, with a warm cup of coffee in hand ☕).

And of course, the announcement is always available in Harkn itself. You can see all your team's announcements in one place.

And if you want to share your post in other ways, you can just grab a link to share the announcement. Imagine that! You don't have to rely on Slack's search to find an important announcement you just made yesterday. Just share that link.