Since launching our MVP in December 2019, the AirSend team has been working hard to polish AirSend to make it better for our users. Here are some of the improvements we’ve made to AirSend so far.

Channel View Sidebar

To help you stay even more on top of your game, we’ve added a channel view sidebar so you can see all of your channels and notifications in one place.

File Preview Support

You can now preview images, videos (mp4, webm, ogv), audio (mp3, ogg, wav), pdfs, pptx, docx, and xlsx files right in the AirSend interface. There’s even a convenient download button in the upper right hand corner so you don’t have to exit the preview screen to download the file to your computer.

Ability to Send File Attachments from Email

Want you or your clients to be able to email a file attachment and have it show up in an AirSend channel? That can now happen! Any files that you email in response to an AirSend channel notification email or to your unique channel email address will show up in your channel for easy sharing, download, and organization.

Push Notification Support

Push notifications are now available across all platforms so that you don’t miss out on any activities happening in your channels. Originally, push notifications were only available on your web browser, but we recently added this capability to our Android and iOS mobile apps based on user feedback.

We do listen, so keep the feedback coming! Go to survey here >>>

Google Sign-in Support

If you hate typing in usernames and passwords, this one is for you. You can now sign-in to your AirSend account using the Google sign-in button available on web, iOS and Android.

What’s next?

While we are proud of the progress we’ve made, our journey is far from over. Stay tuned for our next update where we will reveal more improvements that will continue to improve your AirSend experience.

Also, if you have anything you’d like to share about your AirSend experience so far, please fill out this quick survey to help us make AirSend even better for you.

Some days it’s hard to find the motivation to climb out of bed in the morning and get to work. While choosing the right digital workspace won’t make that any easier, it can make your life easier in other ways. Having the right technology to help you with your business or job can increase productivity, boost profits, and reduce frustration. Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts comparing different software options that can help you succeed.

Slack vs AirSend: Cost

Both Slack and AirSend offer a free version, but Slack’s free version contains restrictions like limited storage (only 5 GB per team). As of now, AirSend is offering free lifetime access to all of its features and up to 100 GB of storage for every account.

The paid version of Slack is $6.67 per month and $12.50 per month for the Standard and Premium versions, respectively.

Slack vs AirSend: UX and Interface

It may take you some time to learn how to use Slack effectively because a lot of its features hide behind buttons and dropdown menus. The company does offer a Slack bot inside the interface to help you with any questions you may have, though.

With AirSend, the interface is much easier to understand because of its simplicity. All of the features are immediately visible once you enter the application. In place of a chat bot, AirSend has a quick tutorial video that shows you how to use the software.

A place where AirSend clearly beats Slack in the category of UX is that the main page of the AirSend interface offers a clear view of all notifications and channels. With Slack, if you have more than one employer or client, you have to switch workspaces in order to see what is going on with each one. While this makes sense because Slack was built for teams within companies while AirSend was built for professionals who work with clients, the way Slack’s workspaces are structured can be time consuming and annoying.

Slack vs AirSend: Features

Documents and Storage

One of the places where AirSend shines is that it is a fully functional file storage and management system on top of its other features. That means that it can replace Dropbox or G-drive for your cloud-based file storage and organization needs. Slack was created as more of a communication-centered tool and does not have these capabilities.

In terms of storage, AirSend is currently offering up to 100 GB of free storage per user. With Slack, you get 5 GB of storage per team on the free plan and up to 20 GB per user on the paid plans.

Communication

Slack was built as a communication tool, so it offers a variety of options when it comes to conversations. Conversations happen in public or private channels and can further be separated into threads. Slack also allows audio and video calling.

In AirSend, conversations also happen in public or private channels that can be organized using threads. And while it does not currently support audio and video calls from the app, AirSend does offer a space to keep notes (called a Wiki) in each channel where a Zoom link can be placed for easy in-app audio and video conferencing.

Task Tracking

AirSend offers the ability to create actions with specifications, due dates, and members that the action is assigned to. Once completed, action statuses can be changed from pending to completed. It’s like a built in to-do list.

Slack doesn’t have task tracking. In order to have that in Slack, you have to add an external task management tool like Trello or Asana.

Search

Both tools provide powerful search capabilities, allowing you to easily find conversation histories and files. With Slack, though, the free version limits that search to 10,000 messages.

Integrations

Slack’s greatest strength is its integrations. The app can integrate with over 1,500 other apps and platforms. AirSend doesn’t support integrations at this time.

Customization

AirSend channels are highly customizable. You can change the title, background, and logo of each channel. The only place for customization is Slack is the color bar.

Slack vs AirSend: Summary

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both Slack and AirSend. The answer to the question of which digital workspace is right for you depends on your individual needs.

In terms of pricing and storage capacity, AirSend wins hands-down. But if you want a lot of integrations with other apps, then Slack is the obvious choice, and if you’re someone who has multiple clients, employers, or projects, then AirSend might be a better fit because of its all-in-one main page view.

Which would you choose?

Building a small business can be tough. There are so many decisions to make and things to do on a daily basis, and one of those things is marketing. But how can a small business owner get the word out about their business with very little money or time? It’s challenging, but not impossible. Here are five free ways to market your small business.

Talk to People

We have conversations with people every day. We talk to our friends, family, even random people we meet at the bus stop or grocery store. Casual conversations are the perfect time to mention your business.

We’re not suggesting you try to sell someone your product or service while discussing your kids’ extracirricular activities. Just mention it in passing. For example, “By the way, you might not know that I own a bakery and am always happy to bake cakes or cookies for parties. So if you know someone who’s looking for a custom cake or catering, please feel free to give them my number!”

This kind of marketing is great because it’s personal. There’s preexisiting trust and rapport that can easily translate to sales.

Leverage Social Media

There are many ways to market your small business on the internet, and social media marketing is one of the most common and cost effective ways to do so. Regularly updating your social media pages can help you attract new customers and keep in touch with existing ones. Using social media can also help you reach a wider audience that you may not have access to otherwise.

Create a solid online presence by posting regularly and offering quality content that provides value to potential customers.

Partner with Others

Partnering with businesses that offer complementary products or services is an easy way to put your small business in the spotlight for a targeted audience and build a customer base to generate revenue.

To start, look for one or two small businesses that offer products or services that go well with yours and reach out to the owners with a friendly message or phone call asking if they would be interested in doing some cross-promotion.

Such partnerships give you exposure quickly and more easily than if you were working alone.

Pay Attention to SEO

Learning the rules of internet search engines and using these rules to boost the visibility of your web presence is “Search Engine Optimisation” or SEO.

In-depth SEO can be difficult to implement for someone who isn’t a marketing expert, but simple things like paying attention to keywords and using the right ones throughout your website and blog, if you have one can make a big impact.

Have Fun

While you might not be able to run a large, multi-million dollar campaign because of the size of your business and budget, there are a lot of ways to promote your business even beyond what we’ve already discussed. Promotions and contests, for example. The key is to have fun with it and keep experimenting with your marketing strategy until you get the results that you want.

Conclusion

There you have it! Five free ways to market your small business. When used correctly, these strategies will widen your reach and increase revenue without you having to spend money on marketing. And since they’re free, there is no harm in trying them out and seeing what kind of results you get.

Happy marketing!

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace for professionals to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. See how AirSend can help you as your business grows here.

As the modern workplace continues to evolve to meet the demands and desires of our industries and workforce, we see ourselves taking on a variety of different roles. The average worker’s breadth of knowledge continues to grow and, because of this, the divisions within a company begin to blur. 

For example, while your official title may be one thing, you may also take on secondary roles in a different field. 

This is particularly true in smaller companies, and the juggling of different tasks requires a wide array of different apps and mentalities in order to do work.  Additionally, our connection to computers and technology has increased to a point where it sometimes feels like we are just completing a circuit.  This presents challenges that can stagnate an individual or team’s efficiency.

Context Switching: The Hidden Killer of Productivity

One of the largest threats to efficiency in the modern workplace is context switching.  As mentioned before, we’ve become used to filling a number of roles in our day-to-day work. Because of this, we are more used to switching from task to task and app to app on the fly. 

Context Switching refers to the act of changing gears, or going from one context to another. 

This also applies to stopping work to look at your phone and check what pictures your friends posted in the last half hour. 

While our breadth of knowledge may have increased, the same cannot be said about our attention span.  We tend to invite distraction to remain constantly stimulated.  It’s just the way that we are.

Why is context switching a problem?

There is nothing inherently wrong with context switching. In fact, some amount of context switching is necessary in our daily lives. However, it does have the potential to have a large negative impact on worker productivity. 

Research says context switching can cost up to 40% of your time (one to three hours of an eight-hour work day).

To put this into perspective for the number savvy, just 15 minutes of productivity per day for 10 million people (0.14% of the world’s population) equals 625 million productive hours per year, or $10.6 billion of additional productivity based on a median hourly wage of $17.00 per hour.

That’s over a trillion dollars lost per year due to context switching.

How does that happen?

Every time you switch tasks, you create a gap in productivity.  This is caused by the simple act of switching from one context to another. Your brain needs time to adjust.  

Things get even more complicated after adding the human element into the equation. Before switching tasks, we have already started to think about what we are about to next do rather than what we are currently working on.  Also, after moving on to the new task, our mind isn’t all there, either.  This causes a period of distraction within both of the jobs at hand. 

Add other factors like social media or normal bodily functions into the mix, and the drag on productivity increases.  The momentary lull in activity presents a perfect window for you to pick up your phone, or wander down to the break room to get coffee, or have a fun conversation with coworkers. 

Long story short, context switching not only costs us productivity on a neurological level, it is also just never as quick as moving from one task to another.  Additional complications come with the simple act of switching from one window to another on our laptops.  And if we introduce a third or fourth task into the mix, the level of inefficiency goes up exponentially. 

This leads to a point where the time spent context switching is greater than the time spent actually doing work. 

Ways to Reduce Context Switching

Now that we’ve established what a big problem context switching is, what are some solutions?

Schedule Smart

Scheduling yourself or your team in a way that focuses on one task at a time is another obvious way to cut down on context switching. The work done in a business is like working out at the gym.  In order to get the full effects of an exercise, you have to repeat it for a certain period of time.  There is no benefit to absent-mindedly switching machines, moving from pectorals to quads to abs.  Real work gets done only when your focus is directed at a specific task. 

So how do you schedule smart?

One way is to have certain tasks and responsibilities assigned to specific days, or periods of the day.  For example, if an employee has both project management and customer relations responsibilities, make sure these jobs have time specifically carved out so that they will receive the attention and focus that they deserve.  This can be tracked on a calendar to communicate it to the team and remove any confusion.

Engage With Specificity

One way we can increase efficiency through less context switching is by engaging with people with more specificity. 

For instance, most workday communication doesn’t need everyone’s response. If you’re in a group chat, use the “@” function to single out individual users.  They will receive a notification that their username has been used and a response is required.  This will vastly cut back on the amount of time a team spends looking at non-related information. 

A private message accomplishes the same goal. If the topic at hand does not require all hands on deck, reach out directly to save everyone else the disturbance. 

Use Technology

Technology is a double-edged sword. When used incorrectly, it causes context switching. When used intentionally, technology reduces the friction caused by switching from app to app and improves workflow. This results in a better performing team and higher productivity.

There are variety of new productivity apps being launched that help users work in context. But we’re going to talk about AirSend because it’s something that we know inside-out.

With AirSend, we built a new way to have conversations, organize and share files, and complete your to-do lists. Since your entire business (clients, files, conversations) is all in one place, there is much less context switching. We use it to run our marketing team, and find that it makes work easier. It does so through several features.

Private Channels

Each client or team has a private channel where you can send messages, share files, keep notes, and assign and complete actions. That means that you don’t have to switch from app to app since everything is right there.

File Management

The problem with apps like Slack or Dropbox is that they’re either lacking the conversation side of things or advanced file management capabilities. AirSend combines easy messaging with a powerful file management system – further reducing context friction.

Built-in Wiki

A Wiki built-in to each channel lets clients or team members have access to important information so you don’t have to expend extra effort keeping everyone on the same page.

AirSend was built specifically to solve the problem of context switching, its features reduce work context switching in a way that no other application does at the moment. You can find out more about AirSend here.

People Are Not Computers

As we move towards a more immersive work environment where all our tasks are done using a laptop or our phones, we must learn how to better organize ourselves to prevent getting bogged down by data and distraction. 

Working closely with computers highlights some key differences in our cognitive abilities.  While a computer can work tirelessly at multiple tasks simultaneously, we humans thrive when our attention is spent on one task at a time.  Because of this, we need to structure our workplace and habits to limit context switching.  We can do this by upping our communication game, scheduling with strategy, and implementing technology built for the purpose of reducing context friction.

If we implement these tactics in our battle against context switching, we can increase productivity beyond what we previously imagined possible.