I'm an odd sample of "a social person" because I think about it programmatically and in a slightly machiavellian manner. But yes. It becomes quite simple with practice
I'm also young enough to get away with cheekiness and that will become a detrimental part of my personality in the near future so we'll see how that goes
You drive the conversation if you want something from them. But they are the ones talking about themselves (yay validation for them, someone cares)
For even more likability and being pleasurable to talk to, smile, compliment them, and use their name (credit to How to Win Friends and Influence People)
@belkarx I can sometimes pull that off, but not for very long. 15-20 mins max. Maybe its just that my interests are few and rarely align with those of the people around me.
I remember back in college when you had aim, icq, msn, y! and had 4 clients... then trillian came around integrating all of them in one. later came miranda im, and I loved it. it was full of integrations and plugins and was small and modularized