Remote work probably makes social skills more important, because your coworkers lose the benefit of non-verbal cues. I work remotely and I try to convey a lot of personality and availability to stay integrated with the team.
Email especially. I work with 10 different countries, and programmers from England respond differently to my word choices than programmers from China, Japan, Holland, or India.
I find I have to be painfully concise and free from humor, idiom or analogy. It's tough!