Channels for Your Organization and How to Use Them

Well hello there, people!

Channels.

If you've signed into Cliq and set up your organization, you're bound to have come across this word on the left side panel.

You probably know that channels provide a space for you to carry out conversations with your fellow colleagues on any topic, but do you know that Cliq has separate channels for every type of work that you may have to take up? No, really!

Channels can be classified based on their levels:

1. Organization

As the name suggests, organization channels are for everyone in the organization. It is open to all users and anyone can search for and join these channels.

2. Team

Team channels are meant for collaborations within a team as only the team members will be able to view and join these channels.

3. Personal

Personal channels as the name suggests are for your personal use. Only the users added in the channel will be able to view and take part in the conversations.

Note: Organization and Team channels can further be classified into "Invite only" and "Open to all" channels.

Channels	Open to all	Invite only
Organization	✓	✓
Team	✓	✓
Personal	-	✓

How can they help? Let's find out!

To know about how to create a channel, head on over to our help guide.

1. Want to include the entire office in your conversation?

Say you’re part of the HR team. Wouldn't it be awesome if you can create a space that’s open to everyone from your organisation to view and join, making it easier to send any important announcements or circulars? The mentioned example, "#Announcements" is also a special type of organization channel where you can restrict the members of your organization from being able to post anything on there. This means you can send out announcements to everyone without worrying about your information getting lost in the chatter.

A channel that is open to everyone in the organization that they can join as and when they wish to is called an organization channel. For example, the channel #General, can be used to converse with everyone in the organization.

Learn more: How do I edit channel permissions?

Now, wait. It doesn't end here.

You might have seen while creating a channel, an option to set it as "Invite Only".

Now, say a marketing campaign is planned and it requires contribution from people from various teams and roles, say from content to design and even web developers. Wouldn't it be cool to have an exclusive workspace for these people alone to collaborate and brainstorm? This is when you turn your channels into an "Invite Only" channel. For example, "#Marketing Campaigns". Now, you have a space to collaborate and work, exclusively open to only the people involved.

Learn more about Invite Only channels here

2. Want to talk to just your team?

Let's say you're part of the Sales team of your organization and you would like to discuss with your team about deals and customer requirements. What do you do?

Create a team channel, of course! For example, "#deals-won".

Team channels make it so much easier to have a conversation with just your team and not worry about having other members of your organization being privy to the same.

Can I collaborate with multiple teams?

Also a valid question. Say, you're part of the HR team and you've just recruited a bunch of new people. You need help from the Administration team to onboard them. To make sure both teams are on the same page, you can simply create a multiteam channel "#onboarding" with the HR team and the Administration team. So, now you have people from both the teams collaborating in one space. Sounds neat, doesn't it?

Moreover, just like in organization channels, you have the option of changing the team channel settings to "Invite Only" here as well.

3. Looking for an informal space to converse with your colleagues casually?

Want to plan a team outing? Or simply looking for a space to talk about your favourite music?

Voila--personal channels are what you should go for. For example, "#weekend outing"

True to its name, a personal channel is for unofficial purposes where you can have just a casual conversation with your fellow colleagues.

But why can't I just create an Invite Only Channel?

You may wonder this because why not simply create an organization channel and mark it as “Invite Only”, right? However, it has to be noted that an Invite Only channel at any time can be converted back to an “Open to all” channel whereas a Personal channel will always remain as “Invite Only”. Imagine if your #weekend outing plans were to suddenly come to open and have everyone in your organization be able to view the same. Not cool, right? This is where personal channels come in handy.

So there you go! These are the list of channels you need to get your work flowing. Do let us know in the comments below how channels helped you with your team collaboration!

Cheers,

Divya V

Zoho Cliq

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