Why This Matters
We often communicate with clients in a variety of mediums – from phone to text to email to social messaging. This is also true of remote working teams, vendors and suppliers. In this category, especially for small business, typically there isn’t one piece of software that will do everything – but it will be a variety of tools. For example, during the pandemic many businesses used Zoom for face-to-face meetings (and now it’s a daily occurrence for many), Slack for casual daily conversations about projects and email for more formal conversations. This tool set can be assembled for free with limitations. There are integrated enterprise level solutions that larger businesses may use.
Phone calls are still great for efficient ways to communicate more complex information. Remember, if the phone call changes the scope of a project or it affects anything already in writing – make sure to provide a brief summary of that phone call in email to make it official.
As more businesses are becoming digital, the work team is also becoming more remote and capable from a distance. Planning and communication are key to working with remote teams. This is an area you won’t want to dive into and try to work itself out – the team will need clear expectations and training on how to use remote team tools.
Resources
Online Collaboration
Best Online Collaboration Tools and Apps – Best online collaboration tools and apps
The 9 Best Online Collaboration Tools for Remote Workers – Some additional online collaboration tools to consider
Communications
Best Apps for Team Communications– Apps geared towards communications.
Best Messaging App for Windows – Best messaging apps for windows users.
Best Messaging Apps for Mac – Best messaging apps for Apple users
Recommendations
Communication Tools
Zoom.us -Zoom is a very robust online video conferencing and meeting service. It supports video conferencing, screen-sharing and screen-recording features. In our experience, it is one of the easiest tools for groups of people to work with. The free version is a great starting point – meetings are capped at 40 mins for more than two people, but you can just start another meeting.
Zoom Tutorials – Zoom has many tutorials and webinars to learn specifics about Zoom features.
Miro – An online collaborative white board that can be integrated with a number of other platforms.
Meta Messenger (formally known as Facebook Messenger) -Messenger is a free mobile messaging app that connects to your Meta profile and can be used with your phone contacts.
WhatsApp – appand desktop and there is also a Whatsapp option for businesses. It is owned by Meta (formally Facebook).
Signal – Share text, voice messages, photos, videos, GIFs and files for free.
Skype -Skype is Microsoft app that is free to use for the basic level. There is subscription and pay as you go tiers for more features.
Google Hangouts – Video conferencing and screen-sharing for delivering virtual presentations.
Instagram – did you know Instagram has a voice and video calling feature?
Slack -Slack is a mighty collaboration tool for small businesses, with millions of users around the globe. It’s an intuitive platform, and you can get it for both mobile and desktop devices. It allows for the sending of direct messages (DMs) and files to a single person or a group of employees, and there’s the ability to organize conversations into different channels (e.g. specific projects, technical support, general chat, etc.).
Mmhmm – Mmhmm makes video calls less boring by allowing you to add custom effects, backgrounds, and animations to your presentations.
Collaboration Tools
Google Workspace (formally G Suite) – Secure, real-time collaboration and productivity apps for businesses of all sizes. Includes Gmail, Sheets, Docs, Drive, Meet and more.
Slack – Slack is the collaboration hub that brings the right people, information, and tools together to get work done. From Fortune 100 companies to corner markets, millions of people around the world use Slack to connect their teams, unify their systems, and drive their business forward. There is a basic free version and then 3 paid tiers depending on the size of your business.
InVision – With intuitive tools for ideation, design, prototyping, and design management, the InVision platform gives you everything you need for digital product design, all in one place. There is a basic free version, then the Pro option for up to 15 users and then they offer their Enterprise version that you will need to contact them about.
Asana – From the small stuff to the big picture, Asana organizes work so teams are clear what to do, why it matters, and how to get it done. They have a basic free version and then 3 paid tiers depending on your business size.