The only time I ever experienced this really working was in the early days of blogging - ca. 2002-2004 or thereabouts. You could engage with smart people you didn't know and have interesting conversations. I developed a number of long-term friendships during that period.
But centralized SM has never worked that way for me. Too many people preening, looking for their "audience" of "followers," some competing to be the snarkiest person in the room, some trying (always failing) to show they're the smartest person in the room - like a dystopian scifi novel.