[ninjaa]

pack up some small anecdotes that are a lot of fun and that also expose your interests. Make sure they're not super-geeky - most laypeeps will enjoy a story from fmylife.com or rickrolls or /b/ gaming Time Magazine or whatever but not about star wars or iphone apps or functional programming, Sounds obvious but I personally definitely have to do a filter through my stories and file them in OK and not OK bins in my head. Showing off cool new iphone apps is ok too. It's okay to be geeky as long as you are interesting.

Switch between those and open-ended questions and you should be ok. About 1/3 ppl who I chat w like that chat back. 1/3 you could force it (and sometimes forcing it is worth it, since this is how you build up the game) and 1/3 are plain not down, but ignore those fools or switch to a more advanced game.