- You quietly follow their blog and/or Twitter feed (also known as lurking).
- You comment on their blog or respond to their tweets.
- You exchange e-mail with them.
- You friend them on Facebook.
- You add them to your instant messaging buddy list.
Things were a little different back in 1990, when I was new to the net:
- You read their posts on USENET.
- You send them e-mail about their posts.
- You publicly respond to their posts.
- You chat with them using talk, BITnet Relay, or perhaps IRC.
- You talk with them on the phone or meet them in person.
Thank goodness today we have enough social networking technology to avoid that last step! Hooray for progress, eh?