Thanks, Rick!
Joyce

1. Skype. Use skype constantly; it essential to our remote team. First, get everybody in your company to put Skype in their startup list. Then, create a group chat with everybody in it (call it something like your company name) and leave it open ALL THE TIME. This way, you have an ongoing dialog of group conversations. We have each person set a custom notification for the text string 0name (zero followed by their name) so if you want somebody’s attention in the group chat, just say 0matt or 0john and it rings a bell on their desktop. The skype screenshare and file transfer is great, too, for quick and dirty conversations.

2. PBworks. I cannot say enough about this awesome collaboration tool. Yes, it costs about $500 a year for a useful package, but my team lives inside it. It is hands down the best collaboration tool I have ever used. And I have used most of them. (Groove was pretty cool while it lasted…)

3. Gmail. Just do it. The interface is nerdy, but once you become a pro at labels and filters you will never go back. Just be sure to turn off Buzz; it’s a total time-waster. I have perfected my gmail experience with some of the gmail labs settings plus this nifty standalone utility called Affixa ($3.50/yr US)

4. Xmarks. If you use a laptop and a desktop, you really need to use this to synchronize your bookmarks.

Matt Trifiro
CEO, 1000 Markets

Have you heard of Mikogo? It’s a free desktop sharing app that allows you to share your screen live over the Web with 10 others. It has many features, such as switch presenter, whiteboard, remote keyboard/mouse control, scheduler, file transfer and more. Please drop by http://www.mikogo.com for more info or feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks!

Hsiang-Yi Cheng
The Mikogo Team
Twitter: @Mikogo

I used to like GetSatisfaction but then I realized their strategy is to own your customer service without your consent, and charge you for something that you didn’t intend to use. I suggest you check out Tender instead.

I would also suggest that your readers check out User Voice to manage customer expectations, feature requests, and customer communication.

For your readers who develop software, I would suggest that you look into Pivotal Tracker for bug tracking, feature development, QA – it’s great project management tool that implements agile software development practices.

Otherwise, thanks for the post.

Thanks for the comment! Yes, we tried to suggest tools that are little-known but are so useful for entrepreneurs.

Good suggestion about Dropbox – I don’t have that issue but others may.

And thanks for the link – wasn’t really aware of Google Trends, so I learned something!

Cheers,
Erin

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions. To tell you the truth when I first read the title, I was a bit skeptical – “Another twitter article…”

But it was exactly the opposite. New and fresh tools that many of us may have overlooked.

I gave Dropbox a try but it was a huge resource hog and it is definitely something that they should improve.

Are there any other tools I can recommend? Twitter .. duh? Joking

Shameless plug but here are unorthodox tools I use to keep me updated with current trends, really helpful for my business- http://alex.ikonn.ca/education/how-to-stay-up-to-date-with-pop-culture/

Keep writing good posts!

Alex