Personally I try to chat before meetings. Say hi to people I know or have worked with in the past. Recent management told us to not do this during our standup and I expressed that was a bad idea. Got shot down though, so I make sure to go to the office despite it being three hours away at least once a quarter so people recognize my face, like the captain of some far off lord that has sworn fealty to the King making sure to show up and pay tribute every once in awhile.

One thing I’ve noticed is some people are very chatty over text and some people really aren’t. So I make good friends with people who like to make a little small talk on text, tell me about their weekend.