A platform once primarily seen as a haven for gamers, Discord has evolved into a powerful and versatile tool for businesses seeking to enhance communication, collaboration, and community engagement. Its unique features and customizability offer a cost-effective and dynamic environment for teams of all sizes.

From streamlined internal communication to vibrant customer communities, here are the most productive ways to leverage Discord for your business.

1. Centralized Communication Hub: Your Virtual Office

At its core, Discord excels as a centralized communication platform. By creating a dedicated server for your business, you can establish a virtual office where team members can seamlessly connect and collaborate.

• Organized Channels: Structure your server with clear and topic-specific text channels (e.g., #announcements, #project-alpha, #marketing-team, #water-cooler). This segmentation keeps conversations focused and easily searchable, eliminating the clutter of endless email chains.

• Persistent Voice Channels: Unlike scheduled meetings, Discord's "always-on" voice channels allow for spontaneous and informal discussions. Team members can hop in and out of channels dedicated to specific teams or projects, fostering a sense of presence and facilitating quick problem-solving, mirroring the ease of turning to a colleague in a physical office.

• High-Quality Voice and Video: Discord is renowned for its low-latency, high-quality audio and video calls. This makes it ideal for everything from one-on-one check-ins to full-team meetings and presentations. Screen sharing capabilities further enhance collaborative sessions.

2. Streamlined Project Management and Workflow

While not a dedicated project management tool, Discord can be effectively adapted to manage workflows and keep projects on track, especially when integrated with other services.

• Dedicated Project Channels: Create private channels for specific projects, inviting only relevant team members.

• Task and To-Do Lists: Utilize pinned messages within channels to keep important information, deadlines, and task lists visible to everyone. Simple formatting with checklists can provide a clear overview of project progress.

• Bot Integrations for Automation: The true power of Discord for project management is unlocked through bots. Integrate project management bots like Trello, Asana, or Jira to receive notifications and updates directly within your Discord channels. This eliminates the need to constantly switch between applications and keeps the entire team informed of progress in real-time. Other useful bots can automate reminders, schedule events, and create polls for quick decision-making.

3. Fostering a Thriving Company Culture

Discord's informal and engaging nature makes it an excellent tool for building camaraderie.

• Social and "Water-Cooler" Channels: Designate channels for non-work-related conversations, such as #random, #pets, or #hobbies.

• Voice Channels for Socializing: Encourage the use of voice channels for virtual coffee breaks, team lunches, or after-work "happy hours."

• Celebrating Success: Create a dedicated channel for celebrating wins, big or small. Recognizing achievements and milestones in a public forum boosts morale and reinforces a positive work environment.

4. Building and Engaging with Your Customer Community

Discord is an unparalleled platform for building a direct and interactive relationship with your customers.

• Direct Customer Support: Establish support channels where customers can ask questions and receive timely assistance from your team and knowledgeable community members.

• Valuable Feedback and Exclusive Content: Your Discord community is a goldmine of feedback. Create channels for suggestions, bug reports, and general discussion about your products or services. Then, reward your active community members with exclusive content, early access to new features, or special promotions.

• Events and Engagement: Host community events like Q&A sessions with the founders, workshops, or even fun game nights. These interactive events strengthen the bond between your brand and your customers.

Best Practices for a Productive Business Discord Server:

• Establish Clear Rules and Guidelines: Create a #rules channel that outlines expected behavior and community standards to maintain a professional and respectful environment.

• Define Roles and Permissions: Utilize Discord's robust role and permission system to manage access to different channels and functionalities. This is crucial for maintaining privacy and organization.

• Onboard New Members Effectively: Create a welcome channel that guides new team members or customers through the server's layout and rules.

• Leverage Bots for Moderation and Automation: Employ moderation bots to filter spam and inappropriate content, and use utility bots to automate repetitive tasks.

• Encourage Active Participation: Lead by example. Be active in discussions, ask questions, and encourage others to share their thoughts and ideas.

Are you on Discord? Have you used it for business? Hit reply and let us know.

This Week's Links of Note

• Is Gemini’s new “nano banana” good enough to replace Photoshop? Check out the deep dive into Google’s new upgraded image tool.

• Earbuds are great. Useful, practical… and can be quite dirty. Here’s why you should think about cleaning them, like, pronto. Read more.

That’s it for this week. We hope these insights offer some practical ways to put technology to work for you - and that’s the true focus of this newsletter.

If you know a colleague or friend who could benefit from these tips, please forward this newsletter to them. We also welcome your feedback. Simply reply to this email with your thoughts or to suggest a topic for our next edition.

Thank you for reading.

See you in the future,
THE DEPT OF NEXT