My opinion of social media runs somewhat counter to the advice of several of the admin on this site. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can open up TONS of opportunities, mainly in business. Sometimes it can be helpful when picking up girls, particularly Instagram if you're a really hot guy (we've actually been using Instagram to promote one of our music artist based on his sex appeal to great effect), but you really have to have your fundamentals down pat. In that instance, you'd be using it similarly to how you would use Tinder. Get them offline as quickly as possible
The business opportunities in social media are almost endless. Recently, we landed interviews on national radio and television stations for one of our artists using his social media engagement numbers. I've landed photo gigs using both Facebook and Twitter, and my business partner got himself an internship with Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber's manager) based partly off his social media expertise. Even if you don't have a business, establishing a personal brand can mean the difference between being offered a job/gig, and being unseen. The trick is to become known as an authority in your network, which honestly isn't hard to do. I've only been active on Twitter for about a month, and I'm already at 1,800 followers, all interested in photography and filmmaking (and no, none of them are bought). With the levels of engagement I get on Twitter and Facebook, my sphere of influence is close to that of mid-to-high-level bloggers, despite the fact that my actual blog is brand new. The best part is that I don't even put that much time into it. I spend about 30-45 min/day between network building stuff, finding good content to share, and responding to commenters. That's spread out through the day too, so it's not like I'm taking a big chunk of time out of my day to do this. I'm literally taking five minutes every morning to queue up some posts, then responding to commenters throughout the day much like I'd respond to text messages.
Obviously, avoid being sucked in completely. Don't let it get in the way of your day to day activities, but keep in mind that by ignoring social media completely, you're shutting yourself off to some amazing opportunities, no matter what your field. I would suggest maintaining an active presence, on social media, but make sure that you are being purposeful about it.
