After telecommuting for a year and a half, you feel part of the remote work culture. You’ve tried all the remote work tools, learned to collaborate across time zones, mastered the art of the Zoom call, and understood remote work etiquette. With all the skills and knowledge you’ve gained in remote team communication, you might be wondering if there’s still something you haven’t learned or tried yet.
If you haven’t used Zoom’s polling feature or set up a Zapier automation, then there are still a few things for you to try. Take your communication to the next level with the advanced remote team communication tips we share below.
Tip 1: Use tech to communicate effortlessly
They say the secret to successful remote team communication is to overcommunicate, but it’s hard to do it all on your own. That’s where automation comes in: Zapier and TextExpander take the work out of communication, so you can keep everyone updated with less effort.
Automate basic communication using Zapier
Zapier is wonderful for automating updates, including reminders, notifications, and confirmations. Need to let the team know when something happens? Just connect the platform on which the event occurs to the platform where you want your team (or client or coworker) to receive the notification. For example, if you need to notify the team on Slack when a new blog post gets published on your WordPress website, just activate a Slack-WordPress integration on Zapier. Your team will get an automatic notification, freeing you up to focus on more important tasks.
Place information at your fingertips using TextExpander
With TextExpander, you can create shortcuts for frequently-typed information, such as your email address or your company’s About info. But you can also use it to facilitate communication with your remote team. Our Product Marketing Manager, Diana Prodan, compiled a great list of TextExpander shortcuts for that, including:
– In-and-out status updates, such as brb >> “be right back”, oftd >> “out for the day”, puk >> “picking up kids”, run >> “on a 30 min run”
– Project status updates, such as nrvw >> “In review with [fill-in name]”, hld >> “On hold until [fill-in date]”
TextExpander makes specific, hard-to-remember information instantly accessible, too. If you have a personal Zoom link, you can turn it into a snippet so you never have to scramble to find it again.
Finally, you can use TextExpander to ensure your communication is warm and courteous even when you’re pressed for time or not feeling your best. Save greetings, sign-offs, thank you’s, and motivational quotes as snippets and expand them with just a few keystrokes.
(For even more ideas on how to use TextExpander, check out our Public Groups and Snippets.)
Tip 2: Use more video
Writing reigns supreme in remote work, but video also has an important place. In fact, videos are the most popular form of online content, and for good reason: they are an easy, fast, and fun way to consume information. Here’s how you can leverage the power of video to improve your remote team communication. Think about trying out the best AI video generators; they can add a creative and efficient touch to your visual content, making communication even more enjoyable for your team.
Show with CloudApp and Loom
When teaching people how to do something, showing is usually better than telling. At TextExpander, we use CloudApp everyday to create and share quick recordings of our screens. For tutorials that are longer than a few minutes, we use Loom, which allows us to record our screen and webcam simultaneously. Presenting information in multiple ways gives our customers and team members a chance to consume the information in their preferred learning style.
Record updates and shoutouts, too
Videos aren’t just for demonstrating and teaching, by the way. Some leaders record weekly videos to update their team on current challenges and goals. Companies like HelpScout get super creative with their weekly videos, dressing up and using special effects to give shoutouts and announcements. Videos are a fun way to help teams feel more connected to leadership and the company as a whole.
Tip 3: Use all the Zoom features
Beyond voice and audio, Zoom has several cool features that can turn simple video calls into fun events. We list all of them in our guide to hosting better Zoom meetings, but here are three new tools to explore today:
– In-meeting chat
– Polling feature
– Annotation tools
All of these features help make your Zoom meetings more dynamic and inclusive.
Keep enhancing your communication
Good communication is crucial to remote work, so it makes sense that we should keep learning how to communicate better, especially as technology evolves. In this article, we shared three ways to take your remote team communication to the next level:
– Automate basic communication
– Make more use of video
– Discover all of Zoom’s features
What advanced remote team communication tips do you have to share? Let us know in the comments below!
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