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Online networking has grown up and got serious in the form of LinkedIn. Millions of business people are using the site to swap details and make connections online, expanding their career possibilities like never before.

IF the mere thought of working your way around a room with an expectant smile and a handful of business cards sends you running for the door, then you might want to consider online social networking.

For many, the phrase online social networking conjures up images of teenagers sending endless messages back and forth on Bebo and MySpace about their favourite band and posting pictures of their latest night out.

This is just one aspect because online networking has grown up and got serious, mostly in the form of LinkedIn, but also via Facebook. Millions of business people are using these sites to swap details and make connections online, expanding their career possibilities like never before.

The most difficult thing to do in a real-life networking situation is to walk right up to someone and introduce yourself and sell your skills without ever having met the person before.

These sites break down barriers: that initial hurdle of introducing yourself. It’s like some sort of virtual host saying: John, meet Mary and essentially easing them into conversation, says Damien Mulley, organiser of the Irish Blog Awards and social media and technology trend commentator.

LinkedIn was the first purely business networking service and it has 15 million registered users worldwide. It allows someone to link up with another professional or business connection by way of an introduction from existing contacts.

LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for getting business leads, receiving recommendations and finding out answers to questions, says Fergal OByrne, CEO of the Irish Internet Association.

It is so successful because it has its niche pared down to a T. You go onto LinkedIn to network for business, not to buy tickets for a Rolling Stones concert, he adds.

Unlike Facebook, it is not possible to immediately add a complete stranger to your friends list, giving it an air of validation. You must either already know the person you want to add or wait to be introduced by a mutual acquaintance.

For business networking purposes, this has both positive and negative sides to it, argues Mulley. Validation aside, Mulley feels that it is limited in its approach to linking.

Facebook, which originally started as a social networking site for US college students, allows you to search the site for names and keywords and add new friends at will. This site is extremely varied in its user base, attracting everyone from school goers to CEOs.

While Facebook fever is just beginning to spread in Ireland, American businesses have been using it for some time to their advantage.

The prevailing attitude of Irish business people at the moment is that online networking might not necessarily lead to useful business contacts. This is certainly not the case in the US: there are companies who have 45pc of their staff on Facebook.

The more a company is networked and the more people they network with, the better it is for both employees and the company itself. Some companies might be afraid their employees on Facebook will be poached when actually there is a better chance they will start networking with people in other companies and build informal networks with them, Mulley asserts.

He recalls a recent business opportunity he garnered when he posted an article about Facebook on the site, which was subsequently spotted by the organiser of a conference by the British Interactive Media Association. Many read the post due to the viral nature of Facebook and Mulley will soon be talking at a conference about the site as a direct result.

Facebook is about allowing people to be hyper-connected, explains Mulley, as your friends can see interactions you have with other acquaintances and use this as a way of tracking down someone in the same business area, while relying on the friend connection as a method of validation.

Adding virtual strangers to your friends list is just one mouse click away, so it pays to observe social etiquette in an online environment as fastidiously as you would had you met someone in person.

While etiquette varies from site to site, the general tone is informal. If you want to add someone for business purposes, however, says Mulley, and they don’t know you, it is only polite to state why you want to link to them and that you are interested in a business connection.

As the line between business and personal blurs more and more in the online space, it may seem tempting to put everything from your list of top 10 action movies to pictures of a mad night out your profile page. O’Byrne advises against this.

Treat these sites as an online CV. If you want to be serious about using these sites as a way of advancing your career, I would say not to put up stuff that is going to come back to haunt you, he warns.

As a rule of thumb, O’Byrne says it might be advisable to keep a site such as Bebo for your friends only while using another such as LinkedIn for business contacts.

Whatever networking tool you choose, it is essential to get connected now. Updating your profile regularly and browsing through groups of like-minded individuals can be more effective and less tiresome than emailing copies of your CV.

If you’re looking for business opportunities, you have to be online and there are so many routes to be contacted by now. It’s not just email anymore, says Mulley.

Interacting online while on the job

Spending time tweaking your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles certainly seems to be to your career advantage in the online world of anyone, anywhere and anytime networking, but is it dangerous or, more specifically, legally contentious to do this while you’re at work?

Is your boss within his or her rights to discipline or even dismiss an employee caught at the desk on these sites?

TJ McIntyre, barrister and lecturer in the School of Law, University College Dublin, and consultant with Merrion Legal Solicitors, discusses the dangers of forming online business contacts while on the job.

The first issue, says McIntyre, is that of ownership of any data produced within the course of your job and during work time. He gives the example of a salesman who generates a list of contacts within his job. It is most likely that the business could claim ownership of this contact list.

In much the same way, the contacts that an employee creates online while at work could be said to be the property of the company they are working for, irrespective of whether the contacts were made through their own private social networking account.

Business information is business information, regardless of the medium on which you store it. Information that is the property of your employer doesn’t stop being their property just because you’re storing it in your Facebook or your MySpace, he cautions.

Getting connected

Another aspect of networking online is the danger of being disciplined for doing this at work when you should be working.

Your employer is entitled to expect that you will spend your time in the office working. Legally, that can be dealt with in the same way as if you spent time at work reading a non-work-related site.

That’s a standard disciplinary issue if someone is not doing what they are being paid to do.

If you do it during lunch hour, it depends on what corporate policy is on allowing use of these sites. It wouldn’t be unknown for an employer to have a complete ban on these types of sites, says McIntyre.