Communication Tips: Microsoft Teams
When you think about Microsoft Teams, the first thing that comes to mind is?probably?something?along the lines of?hosting meetings or chatting with co-workers – but?there's?so much more to it.?Microsoft Teams promotes efficiency and productivity within your workspace through a variety of features?– no meetings required!??Let’s?take a look?at some not-so-common?communication?features that can take?your business to the next level.??
Tip #1: Send emails to an entire Microsoft Teams channel?
Sending emails to?an entire?channel in Microsoft Teams is?efficient,?and it can help push conversations.?It’s?also a great tool?if?you’re?looking to send an?email to?several?people, but?don’t?want to waste type typing out every single email address.?It can also replace distribution lists?which allow?users to?maintain?a list of email addresses or send messages to everyone in their address book all at once. Emailing a channel is easier, simpler, and?doesn’t?require set up.?
The first step in sending an email to an entire channel is obtaining the channel email address.?The address is created automatically?by Teams.?To?find it, open Microsoft?Teams?and?select?the team you want?to message, and then pick the?channel within that team.?Click?the?“more options”?button beside the channel (better known as?the three gray dots) and select ‘get email address’.?You can then copy that email address and paste it into Outlook in the recipient section of a new email. Write out your email?and send it off!?All recipients will receive the email and?will?be able to reply?to it?as they would to any other email.??
?Another?great feature?of sending channel emails is that the entire email thread will?be visible in Microsoft Teams through the specified channel.?All members of the channel will be able to see both the original email and any replies.?Now, that’s collaboration!??
Tip #2: Transcribing meetings in Microsoft Teams?
Transcribing a video is the process of taking spoken words and converting them into written text?where people can easily search keywords.?It happens?live, and?appears as?text?so you can read what is being said.??
A meeting?transcription?can be?a useful tool?if?people are hard to hear due to poor?microphones, if?you have hearing aids or if?you missed a meeting.??With the transcript, you can know?what was said during the meeting?even if you?couldn’t?make it.?By?accessing the meeting transcript, you?have the opportunity to?read through?or search for certain parts that are most important for you.???
With Microsoft Teams you can have?a live?written transcript that is available?to you?even?after the meeting has ended.?The live transcript?happens in real time during the?meeting. As participants are speaking text will appear on the screen. To?turn transcript on,?click the ‘more options’ button and select ‘turn on live captions’ from the?drop-down?menu.??
To access the transcript after the meeting has ended,?navigate to the channel that the meeting took place in. In this channel you will see a record of the meeting?and the transcript from the meeting.?Click the more options button on the meeting?transcript?and?select?download?to gain access to it.??
Once downloaded, you can open up the transcript in a?document. This document will display the?timestamps?of each sentence from the meeting. Similar to any other document, you can also edit the transcript to fix any errors that may be present.?
Tip #3:?Bookmark?Messages??
In Microsoft Teams,?it can be easy to lose track of messages?within your chats,?channels?and Teams.?Believe me,?we get lost too!?An easy solution to this problem is to bookmark?important?messages. Instead of wasting time scrolling through your chats,?you can?simply?navigate?to?your?saved?messages?to find exactly what?you’re?looking for.?Kind of like?bookmarks for chat messages!?
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To save a message, first open a chat and find the message?you want to bookmark. Hover over this?message?and click?‘save this message’ from the dropdown menu.?It’s?as easy?as?that – your message is now?bookmarked!??
There are two ways to see your saved messages. The first option is to click on your profile in the top right corner of Microsoft Teams. From the?drop-down?menu?click the ‘saved’ button, this will take you directly to all your bookmarked messages. The second?way to access?your saved messages is to type ‘/saved’ into the search?bar at the top of your Microsoft Teams application.?Don’t?forget to?unsave?messages when you no longer need them to avoid clutter!?If you just learned you can type commands in the Teams search bar,?you should look at?our Teams command video?to learn more!??
Tip #4:?Send Messages with?Priority?
Last week, I was working and had a chat from?a?potential customer on?our website. The question was?very specific, something?about online security best practices.?I’m?a marketer,?so I had to?contact our?security practice lead to learn more about the answer.?I need the answer stat! Working?digitally,?we?can’t?just walk over to?our?coworker’s desk and find?our?answers. So of course, I sent?them a message on Teams.?However, I?couldn’t?take the risk he brushes it off?as small talk, so I used?the urgent.?In a digital world, where both business conversation and small talk happen on the same platform,?I’m?sure?you’ve?been faced with?similar problems,?maybe without?getting your answer back quick enough!??
When chatting with coworkers on?Microsoft?Teams, the urgency of a message can sometimes be overlooked.?To help?help?this issue,?Microsoft Teams?provides the?option?to send messages with varying priorities to help get your message across?in?a timely?fashion.?The three?different types?of priority options are??
‘Standard’?sends?your message?as usual.??
If you send your message?with the priority as?‘important’?the?message will be marked as important to the?recipient.??
If your message is sent with the priority?‘urgent’,?the recipient will be notified of the message every two minutes for?the next?twenty minutes?–?a?great?option?for time sensitive situations, like my online chat.???
Check out our video?here?to see?how to?bookmark?messages and send?messages with priority in action!?
As promised, there's so much more to Microsoft Teams than what originally comes to mind. These few communication tips are just scratching the surface of all the possibilities that are available to you when you implement Microsoft Teams. Book a consultation today to learn more about Microsoft Teams and Office 365 offerings: ?