Top 10 Social Networking Tips

Networking is one of the most important components of job searching. Use these top social and professional networking sites to enhance your career and boost your job search, and learn how to use social networking sites to job search.

When you're looking for a job or positioning yourself for career growth, it's important to have an online presence where you can showcase your skills and experience. Your online profiles will also help you connect with contacts who can expedite your job search and assist you with moving up the career ladder.

• How to Create a Personal Brand
• Tips for Building a Professional Brand

How to use the full power of LinkedIn to job search, including effectively using your connections and utilizing all the information available on LinkedIn when you're applying for jobs.

• How to Complete Your LinkedIn Profile

What's more important than what you do on Facebook when you're job searching is what you don't do. If you're not careful, everything you post on Facebook can be seen by your current employer or a prospective employer. Inopportune comments and/or inappropriate photos have cost job seekers offers and have caused employees to be fired.

• Facebook Apps for Job Searching

When you're seeking employment, Twitter can be an effective part of your job search strategy. Used in conjunction with LinkedIn, job search engines, and other job sites, Twitter can help you make connections, find job listings, and build a personal brand that will help boost your career and expedite your job search.

• Tweet Your Way to a New Job

Who you know can make all the difference in the world when you're job searching. A connection at a company can help you secure an interview, can help you get a foot in the door with the hiring manager, and can provide you with a reference. Here's how to find contacts who can help with your job search at companies.

• View Your LinkedIn Connections on SimplyHired
• View Your Facebook Friends on SimplyHired

When you're conducting a job search, you need to make it easy for employers to find you online. Employers, who can be inundated with resumes when they post jobs, often seek passive candidates (qualified candidates who aren't necessarily looking for work, but who may be interested if the right job comes along). Anyone who doesn't want to pass up what could be an excellent opportunity should make their professional credentials readily accessible online.

Job search privacy is an important issue for anyone who uses the Internet to job search, and that's most people. In fact, it's almost impossible to job search without going online.  Here's how to protect your privacy when job searching.

Here's how to use social networking to boost your career from About.com's Career Channel Guides. You'll also find tips on what you shouldn't do when it comes to social media and your career - and that's just as important as what you should do.

Social media when used the wrong way can backfire and jeopardize a job offer or even your current job. It’s important to be careful and consider what you shouldn’t do, as well as what you should do, when using social media to job search.