You have to go along to get along. Play hard, be active, contribute. People will notice, we're not an un-friendly lot here.
Find a faction
Best way to get in a good and respected faction is to hit level 10 by your 3rd day playing. Someone will notice. The best way to NOT get in a faction is to beg every faction leader telling them that 'you're are super loyale and will work very extremely hard to be in this faction.' This is especially ineffective when you are a 41 day old level 2 living in a dumpster.
Use the forums and IRC
Our forums are of course located at http://forums.cityofdecay.com
The IRC can be easily arrived at via the in browser java pop-up at http://cityofdecay.com/irc.php
or you can download mIRC or any other irc client and add the server and channel.