Still the same and I think it is much easier, build your network by making online friends there plus make sure you give good updates on your pages and it will easily gain PR.
Hi, Using facebook and/or twitter accounts will help in your website traffic. These two social networking sites are only another way of promoting your something about your site. But of course you have to create interesting content for your target market or visitors. And because this is a social networking sites, most of the users of these accounts are interested in something that they can get something interesting and informative, and things that need or even wanted (example: clothing, accessories, gadgets, games etc.).
You will get much more PR from a twitter fanpage as opposed to twitter. twitter has a very low CTR even with 50k-100k followers depending on who you are(ashton kutcher, lady gaga, justin beiber, seth mcfarlane). If you are a celebrity, people will click your links, but regular users usually have low CTR on their links.
Build your profile through interaction. I had a PR4 Twitter ranking with one of my accounts, then it slid due to who knows what. I am sure if I used it like I should, I could build that PR back up again.