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With the Internet and social sites like Facebook and MySpace come a minefield of potential embarrassments, awkward moments and dilemmas of etiquette.

While Facebook began as a place for college students to connect, gossip and share photos, it quickly became common in the workplace, with co-workers and professional contacts making connections.

So what happens when your boss wants to "friend" you on Facebook? Can't your profile's wild party pics, rowdy expressions of political views and incessant "poking" put your professional reputation in danger?

Today on "Today's THV This Morning," I sat down with Alyson Courtney to talk about Facebook etiquette and the workplace.

Click here to see the video.

One thing I forgot to mention: LinkedIn, the fast-growing professional networking site that is similar in some ways to Facebook but more suited to the workplace. On LinkedIn, you can make professional connections based on your resume and work history, join networks gear to particularly professions or organizations, and recommend colleagues for new career opportunities.

So if you're concerned about mixing professional and personal relationships on Facebook, LinkedIn might be a site to try. You might choose to "ignore" your boss on Facebook, then turn around and invite him or her to join you on the more professional, work-oriented LinkedIn -- and maybe score some brownie points in the process.

More

LinkedIn

Should Your Boss Be Your Facebook Friend?

Young Professionals, LinkedIn and the Social Web (Arkansas Business)

KTHV: Your Online Reputation (includes video)

The New York Times lines 'em out: 9 sites you IT pros have gotta know going into the new year. Two key sites: LinkedIn and Twitter. The former, the article says, is becoming essential in the business world. Forget Facebook:

In the last six months, LinkedIn has become the de rigueur Web 2.0 site for IT professionals. LinkedIn has 30 million members, almost double what it had a year ago. And it raised more than $75 million in venture capital during 2008, so it has staying power. It has a host of new features that make it the most productive networking site on the Web. Spend some time updating your LinkedIn profile and reaching out to current and former colleagues. You can show your boss that you’re well connected, and you’ll be ready in case you’re on the next layoff list. In 2008, LinkedIn made our list of the 20 most useful social networking sites on the Web.

Als, check out Yammer, which is Twitter for business. More here.

The New York Times' Shifting Careers blog points out how social networking sites -- LinkedIn, Facebook -- can be helpful when searching for a new job. And this economy, a lot of people might soon be doing just that.

Some advice to get you started:

LinkedIn has taken hold as the standard for most professionals, but also consider spending time on sites catering to your own industry or profession. Keep up with the trade press in your field to figure out where your peers are congregating online. Specialized communities exist for just about any industry or interest group — like NurseLinkup.com (for nursing professionals), Model Mayhem (for models and photographers), Mediabistro.com (for media professionals) or Lawyrs.net (for lawyers). Have a look at this excellent list of other niche social networking sites.

Though online social networking sites are newish, the same rules of old-fashioned in-person networking apply. Build your reputation as a giver, rather than as someone who is always asking for favors. If people in your network, for example, ask for help or introductions, check in periodically and respond when appropriate. If you’ve shown that you are a giver, people will rally to help you when you have a need to tap your network.

Many more tips for using social networking sites on the job hunt here.

Arkansas Business media writer Mark Hengel has a story in the print edition this week on LinkedIn, the networking Web site that's a little like Facebook for the business-minded.

On this site, Arkansas professionals of all ages -- not just the young ones -- are making online connections and leveraging them for real life results:

Once a month, Natalie Ghidotti must organize a meeting for the Arkansas chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

For May, the speaker was Will Robinson, whom Ghidotti found while reading a Washingtonian Magazine story in which Robinson, an expert in new media and its uses in political campaigns, was quoted.

"I just e-mailed him through LinkedIn," said Ghidotti, owner of Ghidotti Communications of Little Rock and president-elect of the PRSA chapter. "I wrote, 'I looked you up on LinkedIn because I read your quote in the Washingtonian Magazine; I'm not a stalker."

The initial contact took place around Christmas, Ghidotti said, and led to Robinson's presentation last month. Without LinkedIn, Robinson probably never would have spoken to the group, Ghidotti said.

You can read Mark's full story here. And our leadership columnist, I. Barry Goldberg, talks here about his experiences with LinkedIn. Goldberg has been on LinkedIn for 10 years (!), and talks about how to get the best out of the service.

You can see my LinkedIn profile here.

Are we suffering from Facebook fatigue?

The number of people who visit Facebook has been leveling off over the past few months in the U.S., and even dipped by about 800,000 individuals in January. According to the latest stats from comScore, Facebook attracted 33.9 million unique visitors in January, 2008, down 2 percent from 34.7 million in December, 2007. Maybe all that friend spam has something to do with the decline. Will the Facebook fatigue get worse, or is this just a temporary dip?

Worldwide, Facebook is still doing fine. It grew 3 percent in January over December, attracting 100.7 million unique visitors.

Can I get an "amen" on that friend spam? So glad they added that "ignore all" feature. (They're also trying other ways to minimize spam.)

MySpace, meanwhile, saw unique visitors down slightly from December to January to 68.6 million.

So where's the action right now among young professionals? Is Facebook still the way to go? Or does MySpace still command a lot of activity? And what about LinkedIn? Anybody using that?

Meanwhile, Blogger's Blog is thinking long-term, asking whether people will still care about Facebook in, say, 2013. 

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