{"id":150247,"date":"2020-06-18T16:52:20","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T16:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/?p=150247"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:34:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:34:41","slug":"first-things-to-do-microsoft-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/first-things-to-do-microsoft-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"The First 10 Things to do in Microsoft Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork in Microsoft 365<\/a> and a great way to keep your organization connected \u2013 especially when they need to be remote. Here are some basic tips for getting organized and making the most of Teams in your company.<\/p>\n

1. Start simple<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Chat functions can be an excellent way to get people communicating and active in Microsoft Teams. Show employees how to like comments, add emojis, gifs, and bookmark messages. It\u2019s also a good time to teach the functionalities of calling, video, and screen sharing.<\/p>\n

If you want your organization to get used to communicating within teams and channels, you may need to provide motivation. We found a creative way to do this by introducing \u201cThe Daily Thread\u201d channel as a part of our company team. Each day we present a question and ask everyone to respond with their answer. Here\u2019s one on \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite sandwich?\u201d that led to some interesting responses.<\/p>\n

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Be sure to add a subject title to your group post so it\u2019s easy to keep track of. Using Teams in a fun way first can become a quick way for people to learn to respond to the appropriate threads and get used to chatting and posting in Teams.<\/p>\n

2. Download the mobile app<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Encourage the download of the Microsoft Teams mobile app<\/a> to enable teamwork from anywhere on your phone while on the go. Don\u2019t worry \u2013 the app allows you to set boundaries on your work time by setting quiet hours.<\/p>\n

3. Think fewer teams and more channels<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Be careful about starting too many small teams. Creating large teams with dedicated channels to collaborate on specific topics, projects, disciplines, or whatever you like, is the way to go. Don\u2019t confuse teams with channels and the role they each play. It\u2019s best to have a few large teams with several channels than many small teams with few channels.<\/p>\n

4. Customize channels<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Channels are where the real action happens \u2013 it\u2019s the most efficient way to pull together all related content into one location. There is a learning curve here, but start by uploading files to a channel and pinning frequently used files to make it easy for everyone to find and start using for their resources.<\/p>\n

5. Add apps to channels<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You can integrate Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Power BI, Planner, SurveyMonkey<\/a>, Hootsuite<\/a>, and more with team chats and meetings. There are also fun ones, like Praise for recognizing accomplishments. It allows you to choose a badge and then add a personal note of thanks, congratulations, or whatever fits.<\/p>\n

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6. Manage \u2018need to know\u2019 content<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Conversations can get\u00a0messy\u00a0and confusing quickly\u00a0if users aren\u2019t careful, so use OneNote or Wiki features to\u00a0spotlight important content, meeting\u00a0notes, best practices, and goals without\u00a0cluttering conversations.<\/p>\n

7. Highlight key resources<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You can add essential websites used to track news, performance, live site monitoring or metric tracking. Simply add them as a tab at the top of a channel by highlighting the \u201c+\u201d and selecting \u201ctab.\u201d This keeps frequently used content easily accessible.<\/p>\n

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You can also pin your most frequently used channels or chats. To pin them, select the three dots next to the group, then select \u202fPin. This keeps your most important chats and channels at the top for easy access.<\/p>\n

8. Forward email conversations<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You can forward an email to a Teams channel for faster feedback within a threaded chat \u2013 attachments will upload automatically too. From Teams right-click on the ellipsis menu and select “Get Email\u202f Address.” Next, click “Copy” to add the\u202femail address to your clipboard. Open Outlook and paste the\u202femail address into the “To” field of any email you wish to\u202fforward\u202fto your Teams channel.<\/p>\n

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9. Keep channels active<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It will take some discipline but be sure you are using the appropriate channel for the related content. Stay active in channels and use @team to highlight posts for the whole group to help others keep content and conversations where they belong.<\/p>\n

10. Have fun!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Microsoft Teams provides everything you need to effectively collaborate with your co-workers and what we like best is the ability to also have some fun. We\u2019ve done virtual happy hours, enjoy communicating through emojis, YouTube and gifs, and add background images during calls \u2013 just to name a few.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an occasion where we congratulated our department employee of the month:<\/p>\n

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The possibilities are endless \u2013 both for getting work done and connecting in general. Onboarding<\/a> Microsoft Teams throughout your organization doesn’t have to be a challenge and CCB is here to help support you. Let us know how we can\u00a0make Teams happen for you.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork in Microsoft 365 and a great way to keep your organization connected \u2013 especially when they need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":160947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}