Bidhelm in Slack

What Bidhelm does in Slack

• Updates. Three short posts a day: what it did, what it found, and what's next.
• Decisions. A question that needs a person lands in the channel with buttons, the same one that waits in Needs you.
• Questions. Mention @Bidhelm in the channel, or send it a direct message, and ask anything you'd ask in chat.
• Unanswered questions. When someone asks the channel about your marketing and nobody replies, Bidhelm can answer without being tagged. See Questions nobody tagged Bidhelm in.

Connect Slack

Owners and admins can connect Slack. Everyone else sees "An admin can connect Slack."

1. Open Settings › Connections and find Slack.
2. Select Connect Slack. Slack asks you to approve Bidhelm and pick the channel it posts to.
3. You land back on Connections, where the row reads "Posts to #your-channel" and Working.

Under Connect Slack, the page says: "Everyone in this channel can ask Bidhelm about this workspace. Only members can make changes." Read it before you pick a channel, because the channel decides who can ask.

A workspace connects to one channel. To move it, open the row's menu and select Change channel.

Private channels

Bidhelm can't post to a private channel until it's added. If the row shows "Type /invite @Bidhelm in #your-channel", type that in the channel. The row changes to Working once Bidhelm can post. The row also tells you when the channel is archived or deleted.

Shared channels

If the channel is shared with people outside your company, the row says so: "This channel is shared with people outside your company. They can ask Bidhelm questions too."

Who can ask, and who can make changes

Asking covers reading numbers, history and reports. Making changes covers anything that changes your accounts: budgets, pauses, approving a plan, answering a decision. Bidhelm applies the same Permissions and roles it applies in the dashboard.

Someone who isn't a member can ask about results, campaigns and what Bidhelm changed. They can't ask about leads, inbox messages, decisions waiting on you, the monthly plan or your instructions to Bidhelm, and Bidhelm doesn't bring them up.

Link your Slack account

Linking tells Bidhelm which Bidhelm login a Slack person is. You start from Bidhelm's private note in Slack, which links to /link/slack.

1. Open the link in the note and select Continue with Slack.
2. Approve the sign-in in Slack.
3. The page says "Slack account linked", with your workspace's name.

Linking doesn't make you a member. If you aren't a member of the workspace, the page says so: "Your Slack account is linked, but you're not a member of Orbit in Bidhelm. Ask an admin to invite you." An admin can invite you from Settings › Members. See Members and roles.

To remove a link, open Settings › Profile, find Slack and select Unlink. That person can't make changes from Slack until they link again.

When updates go out

Updates go out around 9:00, 13:00 and 17:00 in the connection's time zone, on weekdays by default.

• Days. Under the Slack row, the day chips (Mon to Sun) turn each day on or off. At least one day stays on.
• Time zone. The row reads "Updates go out around 9:00, 13:00 and 17:00 in America/New_York". Select Change beside it to pick another zone.
• A quiet noon. When there's nothing worth saying at 13:00, Bidhelm skips it. After three quiet noons in a row, the next one is a short check-in instead.
• Decisions at night. A decision that comes up between 20:00 and 08:00 waits and posts at 08:00.

The daily chat in the dashboard

Each day's updates share one chat in the dashboard, called "Daily updates · Nov 9", with the day's date. Replies in any update's Slack thread appear in it, and replies you type there appear in Slack as "Your name (via Bidhelm)".

In that chat:

• Every person's message sits on the right. A teammate's carries their name above it.
• Under each message are the time and, for a message that came from Slack, "· Slack".
• A line like "Dana approved in Slack" marks something that happened outside the chat.
• The box you type in says "Also posts to #your-channel in Slack".

What stays in Slack, and what shows up in History

Questions you ask with @Bidhelm, direct messages, and questions Bidhelm answers without being tagged are answered in Slack only. They don't appear in your dashboard chats.

A change made from Slack shows in History like any other. Its row reads "Asked by Dana in Slack" and opens with Open in Slack, which goes to the message that asked for it.

Reactions

A reaction on a message in a daily update shows in the dashboard chat, and the other way around. When you've linked your Slack account, your reactions in the dashboard show in Slack as you, and your Slack row under Settings › Profile says "Reactions show as you in Slack".

When Bidhelm answers in a thread

Bidhelm reacts to your message while it works, so you can see it was picked up.

• The first message, a mention or a direct message: an eyes emoji while Bidhelm works, then a check mark when it answers.
• Follow-ups in a thread: an eyes emoji while it works, removed when the answer posts.

Whether a follow-up gets an answer depends on who is in the thread.

• A thread only you and Bidhelm are in: Bidhelm answers your follow-ups without an @mention. A plain thanks or ok gets a thumbs-up and no reply.
• Once a teammate writes in the thread, or when Bidhelm was tagged inside an existing conversation: it answers only when it's mentioned or the message is clearly for it, and stays out of people talking to each other.
• A thread under a daily update works the same way: replies go through the same check of whether the message is for Bidhelm, and a mention always gets an answer.

Now and then Bidhelm reacts to a message with a fitting emoji, or adds a short friendly line when people are being playful. That's rare, and it's never about results or money.

Questions nobody tagged Bidhelm in

When someone asks the channel a question about your marketing and nobody answers it, Bidhelm can step in without being tagged, the way a teammate who read it would. It looks only at new messages in its own channel, and only for an unanswered question or request about results, ads, social posts, the monthly plan, or what it did and why.

It stays out of everything else: people talking to each other, a question for a named teammate, a decision between people, small talk and jokes, personal matters, and anything outside marketing. When it isn't sure, it stays quiet.

• It waits first. Bidhelm waits about three minutes. If a teammate replies in the thread in that time, or the question is edited into something else, it doesn't answer.
• It answers in a thread. The answer goes in a thread under the question and may open with "Saw this, I can help:". Members and people who aren't members get the same rules as when they tag it.
• It holds back. At most three answers like this a day, at least 20 minutes apart, and never the same person twice in a row within an hour. Now and then it adds an emoji to good news instead, up to ten a day.
• It keeps nothing it passes on. A message Bidhelm decides isn't for it isn't stored.

It's on by default. To turn it off, open Settings › Connections, find Slack, and switch off Answer questions in the channel without being tagged. Owners and admins can change it. With it off, Bidhelm answers only when it's mentioned or messaged directly.

Disconnect Slack

Owners and admins can disconnect it. Open the row's menu, select Disconnect, then Disconnect Slack. The dialog says: "Bidhelm stops posting updates and answering questions in Orbit. You can connect it again any time."

Disconnecting doesn't change your ads or your History, and past daily chats stay in the dashboard.

Common questions