Socializing  How to have long distance friendships?

How can a guy maintain a long-distance friendship in such a way, that once he returns to his friend (man or woman), he/she still greets him with the same warmth as once before?

Some methods i've tried:

• 1. Contacting them frequently (a few times a week) either brings your friendship closer, or breaks it apart (they begin to get fed up with you). It's 50/50 and you have no way of knowing until it's too late. This is especially true if you're always the one initiating interactions.
  
  2. Contacting them occasionally neither brings your friendship closer or breaks it apart, but sets the precedence of a shallow friendship, rather than a deep bond of true friendship.
  
  3. Never contacting them until they contact you. This seems good for those who actually contact you first (some people are just too shy to ever initiate the conversation), but this just burns the bridges of your more shy friends, and eventually your other friends fall into auto-rejection too.

The methods above will not work after 1 year (90% of the time),and never work if you show no intention of returning. Friendship will then fall into little less than acquaintance-ship - your importance in their lives is little more than 0. Any time you try to interact with them again, will be perceived as chasing and they may begin to dislike you.

Any other methods to use? So they can remain warm to you upon your return in..
1. The short-term (1 month - 1 year)?
2. The long term (1 year +)?

Discuss.

Humay,

Facebook is generally a god-send for this.

I know Chase doesn't recommend having a Facebook for seduction, but Facebook has many other uses, which is why I prefer to keep mine. And this is one of them.

If you have a Facebook (or another social network you can use to communicate with this person), you can do things like "Like" their statuses every once in awhile or comment on something, and it generally keeps you two "connected" in a way that is light and fun. You don't have to be regularly commenting or liking stuff like once a week (as patterns seem noticeable on Facebook), but if you happen to see a status by that person that you legitimately like or have something to say about, then you can do that.

Other than having a social network to communicate on, keeping in touch can be difficult. People can often get annoyed by "check-in" texts because people expect texts or phone calls these days to have a purpose other than saying "hi." But if you don't have a social network, then the occasional text (meaning separated by months) is probably your best bet to keep in touch, but there's no guarantees that a person will respond if they are busy or confused by your text (especially if it doesn't seem to have a purpose other than to just see how things are going).

- Franco

Humay,

Although I deleted my Facebook account, Franco does make a good point of it allowing you to stay connected. Especially if it's a long distance thing.

Another good way I've found works (especially if you don't have FB) is to send a quick text telling the person the two of you need to catch up and asking when a good time to call would be. This can be really helpful if there's a huge time zone difference or if the two of you are really busy. That way, if you have a few 20-30 min conversations every now and then, it still feels like you're very much in touch. And it's a lot more personal than sending the odd check-in text.

-Doc

I'm trying to relate this to FWB that are long distance. I think it's the same thing.
From experience, I don't think you need to keep any contact. Not until the days leading up before you plan on seeing them. Sending "how are you" texts feels weird. Probably because it usually is. When you meet up face to face, pick up right where you left off and catch up a little - you don't need any more than that!
If anyone feels differently, I'd like to discuss. I travel a lot, this is something I deal with and wonder about. I only use Snapchat for social media and I think that's a good one for keeping slightly in touch with friends, but that's it.

It's a complicated question because it's connected with a great amount of circumstances. The main from them is how interested are the both sides in this friendship. If the certain person is important for you, there can be always a lot of ways through the Internet to continue the communication. Socail networks, skype, twitter, instagramm... Very good if you have an opportunity to meet sometimes in the real life, such meetings change everything.
But if not... Well I don't know exactly. I suppose that in this case such frienship will continue as long as you have same hobbies etc. but when it change, it'll end. Besides no matter how you're important the friends/lovers from the real life always will be more important.

Facebook is generally a god-send for this.

I know Chase doesn't recommend having a Facebook for seduction, but Facebook has many other uses, which is why I prefer to keep mine. And this is one of them.

Click to expand...

In recent times, it is best to use facebook if you have a product you a marketing or a group you are leading. Call it the social network leadership hub. Without social media though, it's better you have the person's direct phone number.

I had a friend who i had to get out of town from for about three months. The period between that was kind of rough but he kept using his whatsapp to message me on a daily basis about something inspiring. These messages were less than 10-12 words long but it kept him in my mind even though we were apart. The experience stood out to me and when i got back in town, we hung out and went to pick up girls like we were with each other on a holiday - screwing up our work schedules at times.

I mention this because it's the first I ever had this sort happen. Most other folks just space out and you never hear from them again till the end of time. Others get political with you and when you get back in touch, it's disgusting that they are looking down on you for 'abandoning' and try to make you pay by making you come to them. Such groups don't have much to offer so I exit them.

Another way is to keep them involved with some decisions you are making in your new place. "I got to a shop and want to buy this crazy shoe, how do you think it looks"; "Here's a picture of a house that i plan to live in, would you be willing to visit me here?"; "I'll be back in the States next year but don't let anyone know yet - we have to get our flight tickets first in November." These could play out well and keep you both warm for when you do meet up in real life.