Well, the scope of social conflict is pretty much what you want it to be, or rather what your group agrees upon. You could kill someone by talking him into suicide, for example. Or make them waste time when they are standing on the railway tracks until the train comes.
Outside the typical civilized discussion type of social conflicts, I like to use them in physical situations, where the physical part is for some reason not suitable. I have 2 of those scenes right now.
The first is a scene between two opponents in different weight classes. Like whale vs. flee different. A physical conflict just wouldn't make sense here, so we agreed on how the character would get away, and we only played for some information.
The second is a situation with a hostage in the room. The character in question is also handcuffed (or at least he's supposed to, he glamored his way out of that one), so he wouldn't be able to do anything. And the other guy has a gun, which the character has not. The social conflict in this case is a way to catch the opponent off guard, to make him feel safe and then strike when he is not looking.
Another way I used a social conflict was when the players were talking someone out of blowing up a church. Hitting each other simply wasn't an option, the NPC was on the trigger. The only way to go was to talk, and it worked rather nicely.
Yet another way, I think social conflicts can be used rather nicely, is in a sort of pre-battle snark-off. The opponents smack-talk each other, and the winner of this social conflict goes into battle with a slight advantage. He's calm and prepared, while the loser is enraged and handles thoughtless.