Tips for Telegram conference hygiene

Telegram is the de facto communication and networking tool for the crypto industry. More so than Twitter, and certainly more than LinkedIn, the chat app functions as an industry-wide Slack, where you can reach anyone working in crypto.

This comes with benefits, the most obvious being great connectivity across the industry. But there are also drawbacks like spam, phishing, and unwanted solicitations. The app also lacks features that would facilitate message management and can easily bloat to an unmanageable state.

“Let’s connect on Telegram,” and “Let’s take a picture” are undoubtedly the most common phrases at any crypto conference. After a week at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, 75 new conversations—new deal flow, investors, and, let’s face it, people I'll never contact—need sorting and processing.

With so many new threads, good Telegram management is crucial to staying organized and, frankly, staying sane. Here are a few tips from my workflow to help maintain Telegram hygiene:

• Get Telegram Premium & Business: For $5 a month, you get features like folders and increased storage, which are indispensable for power users. Telegram Business (currently free for Premium members) adds powerful management tools to streamline your workflow.
• Use Quick Replies: Type / in any message to access your personal list of saved replies. I use them to share Calendly links, access to our deck, and send an introductory message to every new contact, including basic info and links.
• Use Hashtags: This is one of the app’s most underrated features. Hashtags allow you to easily search conversations. When traveling to a conference, I add a hashtag to my /intro Quick Reply (e.g., #token2049). After sending, I edit the message to add other hashtags like #df, #vc, #dev. These help me quickly find related contacts.

• Add Notes: At the bottom of intro messages, I often add personal notes or to-dos, like “currently raising seed round” or “set up deal flow sharing call.” Keep in mind these notes are visible to the other person, but they help with remembering next steps.
• Follow Up After the Event: This is often overlooked. After the trip, go through your messages and take appropriate actions (e.g., add contacts to CRM). For contacts with no clear next steps, archive the conversation so it doesn’t clutter your main screen.
• Use Folders: I’m not the best at following this rule, but folders can help categorize conversations by context, allowing you to easily track important chats.
• Manage Notifications: Turn off notifications by default and enable them only for important chats. Notification fatigue and distractions are terrible for productivity.
• Check Telegram at Fixed Times: Responding to every message immediately is the fastest way to kill productivity. Close the app while doing deep work and check it two to three times a day. This applies to email and other messaging apps as well.
• Purge Regularly: Delete old messages regularly (e.g., quarterly). Maintaining clean conversations can help reduce the anxiety that comes with too many open threads.

Sticking to good Telegram hygiene is essential in crypto. While it’s a powerful tool that can enhance collaboration and communication, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of unread messages and irrelevant contacts.