I get bummed out when I find interesting people who simply don’t get Twitter. They sign up, follow a bunch of people, and then say, “It was just a bunch of people saying they like ice cream or going to work that day.”

Social media tools like Twitter are like cell phones. We don’t get cell phones and then plug in a bunch of numbers just to have them. We think of whom we would actually want to call on a regular basis, and then plug in their numbers. It’s the conversations that make the medium interesting.

Do you like certain blogs? Find out if the blog and the actually bloggers are on Twitter simply by Googling their name and “Twitter”. You can do the same for potential business partners, employees, celebrities, and anyone else. If they are boring, unfollow them or filter them out with tools like Seesmic or Tweetdeck.

Putting the people ahead of the medium ensures you are actually making the most of a very useful communication tool.