With so much of our world online, it’s important to have the right digital communication tools to make it easy to control your online presence and get the most out of it. For any company, whether it be Apple or a one-person show, you need to have tools to manage tasks, documents, schedules, communication, and more. In this blog we will look at Colibri Digital Marketing’s top communication apps that help us keep on top of our work. 

Digital Communication Tools

Asana 

Asana is a product management app. You can have many different projects and individual tasks within each project. At Colibri we love Asana because it is easy to customize. When you create a task, you can add it to a project, or multiple projects, and even a category within that project. On top of that you can assign it to multiple people, create repeating due dates, attach files, and create subtasks. For each task, there is the option to add collaborators and also a chat box. When you post a chat, any collaborators on that task can view it and respond. 

Some might call me an unorganized person and they would be correct. Keeping track of what I have to do has never been my strong suit, but Asana has turned that around! It has two different options for organizing your tasks, calendar or list view. In list view, you can organize your tasks by due date or project. There is even an option to view all of your completed tasks. Lastly, you can attach Asana to your calendar for those who prefer to see everything in one place. 

Slack 

Slack is a very popular communication tool, which is especially great for remote teams. Have you ever sent a business question to your colleague over text about a deadline and then went on to talk about a different project, and can no longer find the deadline you were looking for? With Slack, every message is organized into different categories so you don’t lose important info. Plus, Slack can be integrated with Asana. 

As you can see in the image above, there are lots of ways to communicate with people. There is an option to have a direct message with someone and also different chats with groups of people, called channels. For Colibri, we have channels for each project as well as an internal chat. In each channel you can post questions or leave comments related to that project.

You can also @ mention someone in a channel to direct your message to them, but remember that everyone else in that channel will see. In channels you can also start threads. For example if someone @ mentions you in a channel with a question, you can start a thread to respond which will help keep the channel clear for the other team members. Using the left side controls in the image above, you can easily find different chats and threads. 

 Asan can also be connected to Slack, Integrating Asana is very helpful for project management because you can see if projects are completed or the due date is changed. In order to keep our channels less crowded, we created separate channels for Asana. Tis way one channel for a client can just be for questions and comments and another can be for Asana updates. 

Google Drive 

Google Drive is a necessity. It’s the easiest way to store, share, and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, slides, videos, and more.  Everything you create in other Google apps such as Slides or Docs, is automatically saved to Drive. In Drive, you can create folders for different projects and subfolders within. Maybe you have a folder for training materials and within it, you have different folders for different types of training. One could be for social media and another for audits. The great thing is that you can include a mix of materials in folders, such as a video, some photos, a document or spreadsheet. 

Lastly, Drive allows you to give people different access to folders, documents and more. If you are sending a folder to a client about pricing and a project brief, you don’t want them to edit it, so you can give them viewing access. Whereas if you are sending them an audit, they may ask questions so you can give them commenter access. Finally something they should edit, like a spreadsheet of tasks they need to perform, will require editor access. My favorite part about Drive is that everything is automatically saved to it, making it easy to organize and keep track of your work. 

WeTransfer

WeTransfer is an easy way to send large files, and you can do it without an account. For free you can send up to 2GB and the paid plan can send 20GB. All you need is the file, your email address, a note, and the person’s email address who you are sending it to. You can also attach WeTranfer to Slack! You can do it through their website or download the app on a Mac. 

Zoom

If you haven’t heard of Zoom, you might be sheltering in a cave instead of in place! Zoom is an online conferencing app. It has tons of great features that make it stand out from similar services. Based on what plan you have, you can manage all participants in different ways like turning thor audio off, create breakout rooms, have one on one or public chats, phone dial in and more. 

Because Colibri works remotely, we use Zoom everyday. We love using it because it’s a straightforward app. To join a meeting all you have to do is click on a link. To record the meeting you only need to click one button and Zoom will automatically save it for you. 

Copper

If your business or organization involves managing your clients or partnerships, Copper is a great app to stay on top of all your contacts. Copper is like an address book, sales tracker, and project manager all in one. Contacts in Copper help you organize all of your leads, current clients, potential clients, and even lost clients. With well built out profiles you have access to emails, websites, and other important information about the people who you’re trying to connect with. Tools including bulk-sending emails from Copper and email tracking help keep your head above your inbox and your finger on the pulse of your sales.

One of the most important functions of Copper is their reporting. From visualizing how many leads go through your custom  sales funnel to keeping track of your dollars earned in a sale, it’s incredibly easy to see your progress and track your KPIs. You’ll even know how your individual sales or client teams are doing. 

Takeaways

Each app can take your business up a notch, but integrating all of them into your work can help you get the most out of what you do. Because all of these apps have different plans, it’s easy to find exactly what you need for your company. These digital communication tools will help you be more timely and produce high quality work. 

Want to try out Zoom? Sign up for a complimentary 30-minute strategy session with Colibri, over Zoom, of course,  to see how you can improve your digital marketing. Just click the button below to get started. If you like us, maybe we can even share documents with you on Drive and add your project to Asana.