Since almost everyone mentioned some form of listening, I will add this: dare to laugh. A lot. It's so relaxing and nice to spend time with people that realize that when you're socializing it's one of the rare and almost sacred times when we can just goof around and have fun. Having a laugh ready to fire off will spread like wildfire in a circle of people you're interacting with. You might feel that it's contrived at first, but then after 30 minutes you'll laugh genuinely along with everyone else and people in that circle will loosen up immensely. I don't know why we're so conditioned to have small talk at hand whenever, but a laugh at hand at whenever is almost unheard of. I dunno, I might live in a boring country.