I'm probably in the minority here, but that's because I focus on more social than SEO.  Digg is alive and well (not that I agree with many of their new changes).  There is definite value if you know what you're doing.  Digg by and large hates SEOs and believes that everyone uses it to game the system, so one must be mindful to work in support of the community.

Just (try) to pick certain times of day that you can afford to absorb information.  It's easy to get distracted but social media isn't the only distraction out there.  Self-control is your friend :)

I like what Todd's said here - "How do people use the influence they have is much more important than the number of followers.  Plus, how accessible is the person to your contact?"

Influence isn't everything.  In the world of social media, everyone has their own level of influence.  Take any 2 people you know: they have had different backgrounds, lived in different cities, went to different schools, hung out with different crowds, different jobs, etc.

Influence + availability + specific niche incluence is more powerful than a guy that has a million Twitter followers.

Also, Klout is a pretty good indicator of how someone is doing on Twitter, but what if they dare take a vacation from social media or have been busy and not been on Twitter much? If we're talking from a "how powerful is your blog" perspective, an indicator could be the amount of traffic and social actions a typical blog post brings, along with the average number of comments.  Postrank has some in-depth analytics on this subject.

@lancmayer - most are social media that do not share what?