starting a new remote branch

(locally start the new branch)
git checkout -b new_feature_name

(push the new local branch to the shared repo)
git push origin new_feature_name

(other people pull changes)
git pull

(the new branch is now available, but not being tracked by any local branches)

(start tracking the remote branch with a new local branch)
git checkout --track -b new_branch origin/new_feature_name