The “It” here being social networking, aka the Social Web. I often talk to clients who tell me, “People say I have to get on Facebook and Twitter,” or whatever happens to be the social media du jour.

They’ve been put under the impression that these strange tools are the key to online success with their business, but they’re still scratching their heads wondering why anyone interested in their business cares about what they ate for breakfast that morning. Nevertheless, there’s an impulse to rush out and sign up to everything they can. But something’s askew.

None of these tools are a silver bullet any more than a hammer is the key to building a house. They’re just tools. Go ahead and experiment with them and learn how to use them effectively… and if you can’t, then drop them. Don’t waste your time, and don’t dilute your time between so many of these tools that you don’t use any of them well. Get them to use them, not just to have them. If you don’t use them, you just look to those that do like a poser who just doesn’t “get it.” And that’s worse than not doing it at all.

And for the record — no, they probably don’t care what you ate for breakfast. But you can achieve a better signal:noise ratio than that.

• Which Social Media Site: Twitter or Facebook?