I've moved 8 times in the last 5 years — here's 4 proven ways to make friends in a new city

From the time you start elementary school until the time you graduate college, your social group is built in.

Many people graduate from college having never made a single friend outside of school.

It's surprising how debilitating this is. Lots of people are afraid to move anywhere they don't already have a group of friends living.

I've moved eight times in the last five years, four of those times to cities where I didn't know anyone.

By the time I'd been in the new city for three months, I usually had an invitation to do something every night of the week.

Here are four strategies I've developed to make friends in a brand new place.

SEE ALSO: 7 bad speaking habits that turn people off immediately

1. Update your location on Facebook.

Connection strategist Marian Zizzo gave me this tip and it's the easiest, best-return-on-investment one I can offer. When you update your city on Facebook, Facebook's algorithm considers that a major event, meaning it shows up in almost all of your friends' feeds.

That makes it an awesome opportunity to let people know why you're moving and what you're looking to do in the new city. Tell people what your hobbies and interests are: "If you know anyone in Denver that likes to hike or boulder, tag them in this update."

Even if you don't know many people that live there, you almost certainly have a few friends of friends that you can get introduced to.

When I moved to New York, I had 30 people comment on my status suggesting people in town that I might be like to meet up with.

2. Host events.

The other thing to do in the status update is to announce an event you're going to hold. Instead of trying to coordinate one-on-one with everyone tagged in your status, schedule a group event for your first or second week in the city to invite everyone to.

Once people have physically seen you in the new city, they will be more likely to remember you live there now and invite you to events they are going to in the future. Inviting people to events also takes advantage of reciprocity.

Part of the innate wiring of humans is that we want to return a favor. If you invite someone to dinner, they will want to invite you to something the future to even the ledger.

The two best times to host an event are Thursday night dinner and Sunday brunch. Competing with people's plans on Friday and Saturday night is too hard, and most people don't like to go out Monday through Wednesday. Thursday and Sunday are when most people would still like to do something casual and fun but don't already have plans.

I hosted a brunch every other Sunday for the first four months I was in New York, and probably met 20 or 30 friends of friends' connections through it.

Many of them have since been kind enough to invite me to events they are hosting or attending.

3. Say yes to everything for the first three months.

Did you get invited to tango dancing by a friend of a friend that doesn't know you're the least coordinated human on Earth? It's happened to me, twice. Doesn't matter, just go. The first few months you are in a new city, you want to go to everything.

It only takes a few good friends in a place to make a city feel like home, but you usually have to meet dozens if not hundreds of people to figure out who your tribe is. Don't get discouraged if you go to a party and don't really like anyone there. Say yes to the next one from someone else.

I went to tour a coworking space a month ago. I don't work out of coworking spaces, so there was no reason to go other than to meet people. We went to a bar afterwards, and I met five or six really cool people I'd like to hang out with again.