As a leader, you might be wondering how you can support your team members and build camaraderie when everyone isn't in the same place. Traditional team-building activities call for face-to-face interaction, which is currently ruled out. However, writer Sylvia Moses says that just because you're working remotely doesn't mean you can't connect with your team in meaningful ways.

If you want to spark some fun and bring a smile, try some virtual team-building activities. We share a few of Moses' ideas in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.

Create a weekly "live" virtual office. It's one thing jumping onto a conference call and another to bump into someone casually at the water fountain. Moses says this idea involves creating a live feed of the entire team that keeps running perpetually through the workday. You can use Google Hangouts or Zoom or create virtual "rooms" where people can jump in to see who is doing what.

Run a virtual campfire. While you can't duplicate the actual wilderness, you can recreate the stories and the s'mores. Moses suggests creating a virtual campfire outside office hours. Consider sending your team members a care package with s'mores and campfire-scented candles. You could ask musically talented team members to play music or share songs.

Host daily standups over coffee. To add some variety to the standard meeting, Moses recommends hosting your daily standups over everyone's morning cup of coffee or tea. It creates a shared ritual that everyone can participate in.

Host an interactive virtual hangout. What do you do in an online hangout? According to Moses, you can explore a variety of full-fledged interactive experiences, not just a bunch of video feeds. For example, Kosmi lets you create a virtual room where you can play poker and classic video games.

Host team member quizzes. The larger and more distributed the team is, the tougher it is to know the people you're working with daily. Moses says you can fix this by hosting "member quizzes." Pair two team members together and give them prompts that help them get to know each other better.

Conduct virtual office tours. Ask team members to host virtual tours of their offices, suggest Moses. Give them freedom to be as corny or funny as they want to be.

Play virtual Pictionary. Moses says adapting this classic game to a virtual medium requires a few tweaks. One person (usually the team lead) must play the dealer who selects cards and shows them to each team member on their turn. The team member can then dry the card either digitally or on a piece of paper/whiteboard with the camera pointed towards it.

Invite team members to name that song. For this team-building activity, Moses say the first step is to play the first few bars of an old song and then ask people to name the song. Track scores in a simple spreadsheet. The person who gets the most guesses right wins. Nostalgia is a powerful glue and can help people to relax around each other, notes Moses.

Even though your sales team may not share a physical office space anymore, you can still help them feel connected. Try the ideas above to forge friendships and build camaraderie.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers

Source: Sylvia Moses is a writer for Business 2 Community, a site that covers breaking news and top trends in digital marketing, social media, content marketing, social selling and social business.