Pretty simple, just talk to people, even if you aren't planning on meeting up with them at a later time/date/place, it gives you conversational and social momentum for the rest of the day. I find that on days when I make small talk with one person early in the day it makes it much easier to approach others during the day and you get a little more confident the more you talk to people and that body language you give off when feeling that way makes you more approachable as well. Sorry this may look a little sloppy.

An example of the momentum you get, yesterday I ran into a professor I had last semester and chatted with her for no longer than a minute, then made a comment to a guy who almost walked into the girl's room and had a B.S. session with him, then made small talk with someone on the way to class, then became more involved in class discussion, then talked with a girl in my class afterwards (#), then opened a 2-set in the student union (#s), which led to me making another new friend, which led me into a long conversation with 4 of my friends, which led me into opening a mixed set and landing me some free stuff from them, which led me into chatting up a guy playing the accordian outdoors, which led me into being talkative before my next class and getting everyone laughing, then I talked to my professor after class, then while out and about, while I was done starting conversations that approachable body language that comes with confidence started working for me, a girl in line at Panda Express complimented me on how good I smelled and we chatted in line for a bit, which led to a conversation with the other people in line, then people who I don't remember meeting where saying "Hi (watermelonpickle)", which led to a few conversations and party invites, then in the evening at the campus cafeteria while making a waffle a girl just came up and started talking to me and sat by me to eat (#/partyinvite), then another girl who I think saw the whole thing approached me when I got up (#) and I overheard her talking with her friends about me about 15 mins later too, then it turns out one of the people I talked to early in the day and I had a mutual friend and she texted me tonight (date).

TL;DR: Small talk gives you crazy amounts of momentum socially, it got me 5 #s, a date and two party invites, and for the last part of the day I didn't have to approach anyone because that momentum made me approachable.

Moral of the story: Just talk to people, men, women, doesn't matter, just say something when you have something to say.