Clients and customers ask me all the time about the best ways to support long-distance team members, and my answer has definitely changed in recent years. That's because technology has evolved so much in such a short time and there are some amazing ways to train and support remote team members now. I wanted to write this quick post to share some that I've become aware of in the past several months. I'm sure there are lots more and I'd love to have you share whatever you're using below.

Oh, and the best part? Most of these are free!
 

Communication

A word about this list – make sure you've got some boundaries in place to keep them from sucking all of your time down a black hole. It's easy to spend literally hours and hours in this area and the return on investment for you is usually very minimal in terms of earnings.

• E-mail is the most obvious (and honestly is almost becoming less popular than some of the others on this list). Make sure you manage this and set up some boundaries about how and when you answer e-mail.
   
• Facebook Messages – This is almost replacing e-mail for many in my online community. Just make sure you have your settings set to alert you whenever you have a new message. You'll find your privacy settings under the "Accounts" tab in the upper right hand corner of the Facebook page.
   
• Facebook Private Groups – These are simple to set up and really a great way for you and your team mates to stay connected on a daily basis. You can set up the privacy settings so that you're alerted whenever someone posts or comments in the group. And since it's private (only members can access the content), a Facebook Group is a great place to quickly communicate with your whole team, no matter what their time zone or schedule. Again, set up your notification settings under "Edit Settings" at the top of the group page. Oh, and please don't add anyone to the group without asking them if they want to be a member first. I get added to groups without my permission probably every day and it annoys the heck out of me. I can't leave the group and have to take the time and hassle to change the settings so I never participate. This is just bad manners, so please ask permission or send an invitation before adding anyone.
   
• Texting – If you don't text now, get over yourself and learn how. That will literally take you about 10 minutes, so just do it. If you're working with anyone under about 40 (and lots of us over 40), they text and it's the best way to reach them most of the time. You can communicate quickly and in less time than a phone call with texts, and you can send out a group text to your whole team that will reach them much more quickly than an e-mail.
  

Training

This is the most exciting area, in my opinion. You can now communicate with someone in real time, face-to-face, for free, quite easily.

• Skype or ichat – If you have a computer with a built in camera (or purchase a camera you can mount for a nominal fee), you can literally "meet" with someone on your computer. Skype is free and an incredible tool. I use it to do meetings and keep in touch. You can also share your screen with others, so you can walk them through training on your computer. If you have a Mac (like I do) you can use ichat to do the same thing with other Mac users, but Skype is more universal and I tend to use that more often.
   
• Youtube – I love Youtube. It's free and you can even create your own channel so your team can find you easily. You can record your training videos with any camera and then easily upload them to Youtube. You can even make them private if you want to, so that only your team can access them. One word of advice here – let go of the need to look perfect. I started using video about a year and a half ago and it was difficult at first because I didn't really know what I was doing. I just did it anyhow and I put out whatever I could. It wasn't always pretty, but it was out there none the less. The more you do, the better you'll get.
   
• Ustream – Ustream is a great way to hold live virtual meetings for your team or even online parties. It's a free tool that let's you basically broadcast yourself live to anyone with access to a computer. They can interact with you and it's visual, which is great. I don't know a lot about Ustream, but the few times I've used it it's been really easy to set up and super user friendly.
   
• Freeconferencecall.com – I used this bridgeline service for years prior to stepping up to a paid service last year. It's reliable, completely free, and they give you one phone number you can use 24/7 so you don't have to set up individual events. You can also record your calls and offer them for replay if your team members can't attend live.
   
• Audio Acrobat – This was the very first online recording service I started using over 6 years ago and it's still my favorite. It's super affordable ($19.95 a month after the 30 day free trial) and you can record audio over the phone or with a computer microphone, you can upload existing audio file, and you can upload and record videos. What I love most about Audio Acrobat is that it houses all of your audio and video content and allows you to send a simple link via e-mail to someone so that they can either listen to or download your audio. That's not generally possible with simple audio or video files because they're too big. You can also post a player on a website to allow visitors to listen or watch from there.
   
• Instantteleseminar.com – This is a bit of an investment monthly but it's an incredible tool. It allows you to easily set up and host webinars that are easy to access from a telephone or a computer for your team. What I love most about this service is that it gives you one link for your event and that link stays the same for the pre-webinar page, during the webinar, and for the replay once you're done. You can upload a Powerpoint presentation to make the webinar visual, use music to make it sound great, easily record it, and see who's calling in or attending the webinar, all from one place. It's also very user friendly. I use this service for every webinar and teleseminar I do.

So, those are my best tools. Since I work remotely all the time, I can tell you it's totally possible and getting easier every day as technology improves and innovates. Record your trainings, record your parties, and start reaching more people with less hassle using these tools.

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Julie Anne Jones is direct sales corporate consultant, coach, and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. To learn more about Julie Anne and her products and services, and to read her weekly blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.