Building a social network from scratch
 

SCENARIO: You've just moved to a new town to go to school/work, and you don't know ANYBODY there. You have no friends and no knowledge of the town.

What would you do to build up a social network and start meeting people? How do you turn the people you do meet into friends?

And, how would you find the classes, clubs, or other "tools" you need to help you get things going?

age and possibly location would be your best bet but DON'T make yourself sound like spam.

I've done that several times. With kids it's natural to meet other parents, although it sometimes takes time to get close to them (at least up here in cold Scandinavia). With "social network" I'm refering to people you trust to help you out if you need to? So, it takes some time before you start trusting people I guess.

Going to the gym, or taking an evening class might be other things to do. Joing the local church? Judo club?

Well, you've kind of answered your own question in just...introducing the scenario. You're moving there for school or work. So just start with the people immediately in your surroundings at that place. I guess for me, the important part of building a social network as it were isn't just getting into clubs or something, it's just putting yourself out there and introducing yourself to people. If you want to join a club because you're actually interested in it...then do it, might meet some cool people there, might not, worth a try either way.

Pubs! Getting a bit tipsy is a good confidence boost so you can approach people and there are interesting characters that hang about there. Good for a laugh if anything.

I've found that if you have interests you would pursue anyhow (outdoors, sports, arts, games, ect...), a site like Meetup or the like would work well to find other people who want to do the same thing. They're more likely to have similar interests, and there's less of a social barrier to meeting them, because the entire point of such groups is to meet other people.