With jobs, families, and even time zones standing between you, maintaining long-distance friendships is particularly challenging. A few simple stay-in-touch tactics can make a world of difference.

Share a Running Joke

Sometimes the best way to remain close with a group of friends is to share a laugh, as Stefanie Reinhorn of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and Lynn Hufnagel of Stratford, Canada, have discovered. Since the two were in college, Reinhorn and other friends have been “kidnapping” Hufnagel’s toy giraffe, Jerry, and photographing him all around the globe, from Venezuela to France, then returning him to her with photos of his exploits. As whimsical as they are, the pictures carry more meaning than ordinary vacation postcards and help keep this group of friends connected. Further proof of Jerry’s role in their relationship? “He most recently appeared at Lynn’s wedding — unbeknownst to Lynn,” says Reinhorn. “The day after the wedding, she received a photo album of shots of Jerry there — in a champagne glass, on the wedding cake, with guests. He disappeared again after the wedding, and Lynn has no idea where he is. But she is quite confident he’ll reappear sometime soon.”

Other Ideas

Start a long-distance book club with a friend. Mail each other books you’ve read, with your thoughts, insights, and analyses written in the margins or on Post-it notes.

When you send a letter or a card to a friend who’s notoriously bad at responding in kind, try including a blank, stamped postcard, addressed to you. Even the laziest writer will find it easy to scratch out a response and drop the postcard in the mail.

When all the critics assemble their year-end best-of lists, compile your own top-10 lineups of books to read, movies to see, and music to hear, then trade lists with a group of people whose taste you appreciate.

Share a lazy Sunday morning. Simulate the experience of hanging out at a café together: Brew a fresh pot of coffee, toast a bagel, and settle in for some good conversation — and caffeine — over the telephone.

Start a clothing swap with a same-size friend and mail wardrobe pieces that you know you’d both like back and forth.

Go to the movies “together.” Each person sees the same film in her respective town on the same evening. Chat about it on the telephone afterward.

Ritualize your visits with good friends so that scheduling problems and procrastination never cause you to miss a meeting. Choose one day a year and plan to get together on that day, every year, no matter where each of you is currently stationed.

When keeping in touch with a large group of friends, from summer-camp pals to sorority sisters, set up a rotating schedule: Assign each person a month of the year to write a single letter to the rest of the group, photocopy it, and mail it to everyone.