In the last year, millions of people experienced the transition from office work to remote work. There are many upsides to working from home, but it takes some getting used to, especially where communication is concerned. If you\u2019re used to chatting with your colleagues, remote work can leave you feeling disconnected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, there are tools to help solve that problem. We\u2019ve all heard about Zoom\u2019s meteoric rise, but it isn\u2019t the only voice and video communication platform that surged in popularity in 2021. Discord also saw a huge influx of users, and in this article, we\u2019re going to explore some of the ways organizations are using Discord for business communications and community building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discord is an instant messaging and voice chat service. It is a web-based platform that provides a wide variety of communication options, including group and direct text chat channels, voice and video chat, and screen sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discord\u2019s instant messaging features are similar to Slack\u2019s, but its unique spin on voice and video is the main attraction. In contrast to Zoom meetings or Skype calls, Discord voice channels are persistent; they behave like instant chat channels, but for voice rather than text. Users can drop in and out at will, providing a more relaxed and spontaneous experience than standard online meetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, the members of a remote team might join a Discord voice channel and leave it running in the background while they work, participating in conversations and responding to co-workers\u2019 questions. The combination of text, voice, and video chat with screen sharing makes Discord a powerful tool for business communication and collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discord was launched in 2015 as a Voice over IP (VoIP) platform for gamers, who would join audio chat channels to socialize and coordinate strategies while playing multiplayer games. It soon became popular beyond the gaming and esports world as software projects, businesses, and communities embraced the platform as a free alternative to Slack and a more modern alternative to the venerable Internet Relay Chat (IRC). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019d like to see Discord in action, feel free to join the cPanel Discord server<\/a>, where you can chat with members of the cPanel team and our community of partners and users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The server is Discord\u2019s top level of organization. Discord servers are similar to Slack workspaces. They are not servers in the traditional sense, but collections of channels administrators can independently configure with topics, integrations, privacy settings, and moderation preferences. Servers can be public or private, and users can launch multiple servers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Discord started as a gamer-focused platform\u2014much like Twitch<\/a>\u2014it has since focused on general-purpose communication and collaboration. Businesses who want to keep their newly remote teams talking were happy to find a platform that encourages the informal interactions that fuel office-based productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discord\u2019s private servers are ideal for a range of internal communications, especially for remote teams. The platform\u2019s persistent audio channels and video streaming features work well for casual chats, formal and informal meetings, webinars, and mentoring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the many benefits of public and private instant chat messaging, Discord removes much of the friction and organizational overhead of other voice and video platforms. Workers don\u2019t have to coordinate schedules or add meetings to their calendar; they can just drop into a channel and start talking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Discord channels are also flexible; while they can be long-lasting, it\u2019s just as easy to create temporary channels to bring together a specific group of people to discuss a topic or project. The platform incorporates privacy and moderation tools that allow organizations to limit channel membership, so it\u2019s easy for managers and employees to create working groups that include only relevant team members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the idea of an always-on microphone and the ever-present risk of interruption doesn\u2019t appeal to you, you\u2019ll be happy to hear that you have complete control over your audio and video. It\u2019s straightforward to join and leave conversations, mute your microphone, and mute incoming audio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Discord was originally created as a platform for building communities around games and common interests, so it has many features that make it effective at bringing customers, clients, and users together to talk to team members and each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve already talked about Discord\u2019s text, voice, and video messaging features, so in this section, we\u2019ll focus on features that are useful to businesses that want to build a community on Discord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the built-in community-building features, you can augment servers with Discord bots. Bots are third-party programs added to channels to provide features such as automatic moderation, announcements, and custom commands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discord is an incredibly popular platform with over 250 million registered<\/a> users and nearly 7 million active servers. But, depending on the needs of your business, you might prefer one of these alternatives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As more people work remotely, the number of organizations using Discord for business increases. In the first four months of 2020, the platform experienced a 50 percent growth<\/a> in voice chat users. Discord isn\u2019t right for every business, but it might be right for yours if its laid-back approach to voice chat fits how your team likes to work.\u00a0As always, if you have any feedback or comments, please let us know. We are here to help in the best ways we can. You\u2019ll find us on Discord<\/a>, the cPanel forums<\/a>, and Reddit<\/a>. Be sure to also follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the last year, millions of people experienced the transition from office work to remote work. There are many upsides to working from home, but it takes some getting used to, especially where communication is concerned. If you\u2019re used to chatting with your colleagues, remote work can leave you feeling disconnected. Fortunately, there are tools […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":65677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[285,289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-knowledge","category-general-knowledge"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is a Discord Server?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How Companies Use Discord for Business<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Discord for Teamwork<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Discord for Building a Community<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Discord Alternatives<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n