14 Must-Join Slack Communities for Writers, Creators, and Media

Collaboration hub Slack has grown by leaps and bounds in nearly every direction.

Business-wise, it’s all the pieces and the people to help workers do their work. Financially — just a year ago — it was valued at $5.1 billion after raising a monster $250 million funding round, according to Business Insider.

Slack was launched in 2013 and has more than “nine million weekly active users, up from 6.8 million in January,” Business Insider reported.

Even before it grew in value, it was collecting staff: Slack grew from 80 employees to 385 employees in 14 months.

So why use Slack? The company explains that you can use it to collaborate online with others much like you would in person. Also, it brings the “right people and information together in one place.”

Communication is done through channels, offering one place for messaging and to allow for the swap of tools and files. And, Slack can be organized by project, around offices, office locations, or departments.

It’s why Slack is so valuable for professional communities, namely, of the writing, blogging, and journalism sort.

1. For growth-minded freelancers: #freelance

Join this growing community of more than 1,500 independent business owners who are sharing experiences, while making connections. #Freelance is a “global network of freelancers going through the same successes and challenges you’re facing.”

2. Because Digital Journalism Rocks

This community was created by Lina Timm, program manager with Media Lab Bayern in München. Timm was searching for a place where digital journalism enthusiasts could talk about new projects, collaborate on ideas, and share successes and failures. The global group now covers topics like data journalism, messaging bots, monetization, and more.

3. You’re a team leader, and you need more #people

Learn from peers and industry leaders. Here’s where you’ll find leaders and rebels from many industries to work and grow. “Find advice, inspiration, events, get feedback on ideas, take part in Q&As and AMAs and get involved in discussions that are important to you with other smart, engaged people,” the site says.

4. Working from home? You’re not alone. Meet #workfrom

Workfrom is a community aimed at opening up the home community. Consider it a modern-day watercooler for remote workers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and professionals with the ability to take their office anywhere.

5. Because you want to build community: #CreativeTribes

#CreativeTribes is a group that’s serious about growing businesses, profits, and community. More than 1,000 high-powered entrepreneurs, including strategists, marketers, developers, designers, writers, and other creatives, connect here to share work experience and business strategies.

6. Designer? Good. This one’s for you: Dear Designers

Dear Designers is a community to help you figure out next steps toward “becoming a better designer from folks a few steps ahead of you.” This is a private Slack group where new and prospective designers can anonymously ask questions and get answers from experienced designers who come from the startup, agency, and big software company worlds.

7. Maybe you’re looking for a FreelanceLead

This Slack community generates feeds tailored to specific requests and automatically updates them so you can find what’s available without searching hundreds of sites. Examples: Maybe your work is in 3D, A/V & Animation, Graphic Design, Web Development, or Writing and Content. You can find it here. There are a variety of memberships to this one, from free to premium (which start with a seven-day free trial).

News Nerdery is an international group with more than 40 Slack channels. The group aims to keep channels pruned to active and generally applicable topics. Core channels include: #career, #docs, #helpme, #jobs, #podcasting, to name several. Then there’s geographic and community channels, and story- and technology-specific channels.

10. Or maybe you’re a Modern Journalist

Modern Journalist allows you to join writers, designers, programmers, photographers, broadcasters and editors to “talk shop, share successes and failures, find people to help test an app you’re building, look for collaborators, or get help with something Google couldn’t answer.” You have to request an invitation to join this conversation.

11. Because you’re looking for more writers: The Writing Cooperative

Want to communicate with other writers? This is a space where you can share work, collaborate on drafts, and help each other with edits.

12. But you’d like to hang out first: Writer Hangout

This is another global community of writers on Slack. It says: “Join writers from around the world to discuss, review, critique, inspire, learn, grow and connect.”

13. For Online Geniuses

Looking for more direction in the SEO and digital marketing world? Online Geniuses is among the largest Slack communities for marketers, boasting a membership in the thousands. “We’re talking advice from real experts,” the site says. “These are VCs, CEOs, marketing managers and experts from every niche. With thousands of posts a day you can ask and answer questions around SEO, PPC, email marketing, Affiliate marketers and much more.”

14. … And #photographers

Share and meet others who enjoy photography.

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Christine Cube is a senior audience relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. Follow her at @cpcube.