Regular, timely communication is what keeps Jellyfish projects running smoothly. Our creators are based all around the world, so it’s crucial that teams keep in touch to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Slack is a messaging app we use to talk, share files and work together. It helps us to be more productive and efficient, as well as making it easier to get to know each other. It connects with other tools we use at Jellyfish, like Google Docs/Sheets and Microsoft Office

If you receive an email or message from a member of the in-house team, please respond within 12 hours so that we know whether or not we need to make alternative arrangements. If you foresee a problem – for example, if you know you'll be very busy next week and might struggle with your allocations – please let us know as soon as possible. It’s far easier to raise potential issues before they happen than try to fix them afterwards

Slack is the main way you’ll receive updates from your Project Manager, Content Manager and teammates when working on a project, so it’s important that you keep the program open. It’s also a great way to chat more informally and have fun with your colleagues

You will only be invited to join Slack when you begin work on your first Jellyfish project. It is then your responsibility to set up an account so that you can start communicating with the rest of the project team. Until then, you don’t need to do anything. If you’re working on a project and haven’t been added to Slack, contact the Project Manager and they’ll look into it

If you've never used Slack before, you can find their video guides here and watch 'What is Slack?'

Join your project team at myteam.slack.com and log in

Download the desktop and mobile apps at www.slack.com/downloads

Fill out your profile - be sure to include your full name, your role and what projects you work on. Please do not turn off your email notifications for Slack, as you may miss important messages. If you’re finding the pop-up notifications to be distracting, you can snooze them temporarily or set up a do-not-disturb schedule by clicking the bell shape in the left column. A mobile app is available for both iOS and Android – many creators find this useful for keeping track of their projects while they are on the go

Use @mentions to get someone's attention in a channel. Type @ followed by their username, e.g. @jdoe. They'll see a red badge on the channel, a pop-up in the corner of their screen and be notified via email or their mobile device if they're not active in Slack

You can also notify everyone in a channel by typing @channel. Only the internal Jellyfish team and Content Quality Leads can use this function, for everyone else it's disabled as it can be very distracting for other members of the channel if it's overused

You can mute channels or tailor notifications to your needs by going into the specific channel and clicking on the cog icon along the top

Most conversations in Slack are organised into public channels which anyone on your team can join. You can also send messages privately, but the true power of Slack comes from having conversations everyone on the team can see. This transparency means you can quickly get up to date with what's going on

Besides public channels and direct messages you can also create a group message of up to eight other people if you have a few teammates that you collaborate closely with. Private channels and group messages will only be visible to those in the channel or group

Click on the button on the left hand side of the message box

Drag and drop your file into a channel

Take a screen grab then use Ctrl/Cmd + V to paste it in

Pin important documents to the channel or conversation if it's likely they'll be referred to regularly. Hover over your message and choose show message options then pin to this conversation. You can find pinned items on the right hand side of the screen.

You can mark a message as unread by clicking on the 'show message actions' ellipses that pops up when you hover over a message

You can also set a reminder using the same 'show message options' ellipses to prompt yourself to re-read or action a message at a later time or date

You can add a reaction to a message (useful for asking people to show you they've read something and for voting) or share it by hovering over it and clicking the emoji/share icon

Writing _word_ makes text italic, *word* makes it bold and ~word~ strikes it through

You can have a direct conversation with yourself where you can leave notes