If you’re job hunting and have a social networking profile (or two, or six), be warned: 45% of hiring managers are looking for you online. Watch this video for tips on how to make sure you are portrayed in the best possible light across the Web.

Tell us: Have you ever had a hiring manager or boss ask you about something he or she found on your online profile? (No registration needed to comment below. )

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Today consisted of a lot of bewilderment on my part and resulted in plenty of — as they say in Internet world –facepalming.

On a daily basis I find myself frustrated with e-mail, either at my e-mail program or at the culture e-mail has created. Everyone’s bemoaned the state of affairs when people are more likely to e-mail than walk 10 feet to speak face to face. You’ve heard the rants about the Reply All Person who insists on copying the world anytime he or she sends a message. E-mails been a workplace mainstay for over a decade–we know all these things by now.

But with everyone (including us, here at The Work Buzz) prattling on about social media–Facebook this, Tweet that, Digg what? and on and on, I figured it’s time to remember why e-mail still has some pros to it after all these years. Anything to keep me from throwing my laptop against the wall. Silly? Perhaps.

1. I need more than 140 characters to say anything important. I try to be pithy, but work e-mails are not poetry. Sad but true. Give me a full e-mail to write what I want.

2. I like Facebook, but no serious work discussion is happening on there. You can network, but you’re probably not going to discuss important details on your Wall, are you?

3. E-mail might be abused, but more often than not, I’d rather see an e-mail notification pop up in the corner of my screen than hear a phone ringing or see a red light indicating a voicemail. If it will only take a few seconds, by all means, call…but when I need to do a little research to get your answer, an e-mail is probably best. At least I can delete a boring e-mail. I can’t hang up on a boring caller. (Or can I?)

4. I e-mail people in locations around the country (and globe), so it is easier to communicate via e-mail. Aligning my schedule with someone in Europe isn’t easy on our sleep habits.

5. Is there anything more glorious than a clean inbox? The existence of e-mail gives me the pleasure of cleaning out my inbox and seeing only a few (or no) e-mails there–which gives me a weird sense of accomplishment. Even if that’s the only thing I’ve done all day.

This post was also inspired by news that the UK is officially beginning to log all e-mail and online activity (or they’re requiring ISPs to do so, rather). A lot of US employers already do this with company e-mail and Internet activity, and it got me thinking that 20 years ago this wasn’t really an issue we were thinking about. Now e-mails and all its issues (privacy, annoyances, benefits)  are so commonplace at work, we don’t even think twice about them.

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What is WILB? Workplace Internet leisure browsing.

The new study conducted by the University of Melbourne, finds that a little Youtube and Facebook distraction can make you a m ore productive worker.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said “workplace Internet leisure browsing,” or WILB, helped to sharpened workers’ concentration.

“People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” Coker said on the university’s website (www.unimelb.edu.au/)

“Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity,” he said.

So David’s visit to the dentist? The evolution of dance? Finding out whom your ex is dating? Stalking your crush so you can find out his/her favorite band? All worthwhile distractions to help you refocus.

Of course, if you go overboard and spend more time clicking from video to video (and haven’t we all found ourselves caught in the web of recommended videos?) than doing your work, you’re not going to keep your job long.

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Of course, we want you to visit us every day. (You do that already, right?) But it’s a good idea to check out other blogs in your job search, as well.

One good link might be the Corporate page at Alltop. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Alltop, it’s a combination of magazine rack and RSS feed. It collects several different blog feeds under a specific topic (like careers, where this blog is featured) and lets the user persue different blog posts.

The Corporate blog page that I mentioned is where some of the biggest companies in the country post updates and news.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to watch the blog of any company you want to work for, so you get an idea of what’s happening at that specific company.

But keeping an eye on these big corporate blogs will specifically give you a sense of the marketplace as a whole. If there’s a trend happening at one of those companies, chances are that it will eventually impact you or your workplace.

BE A JOB SEARCH ROCK STAR!

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That report, and a survey conducted by Fiberlink Communications, also talks about telecommuting and mobile connectivity to the office or the workplace. The survey participants were asked about the platforms they used to connect with work, as well as the impact that an increasingly mobile workplace has on both their productivity and their personal lives.

In general, workers seemed to see the increased options for working from home or mobile connections to work as a positive. But in the Pew survey, 48% of workers indicated that their stress levels were elevated because they were ALWAYS connected to work.

The same scenario that offers the benefits and flexibility of working in your bathrobe at 9 am may also lead to you (in the same bathrobe?) on your laptop or Blackberry at 11 pm trying to resolve an issue.

This isn’t a surprising trend, and it’s part of a larger trend where workers are finding it harder and harder to define that line between work and home.

Back in May, we released a survey about vacations and the results were very similar.

• Many of the workers who were surveyed said that they were checking voicemails and emails while they were on vacation. 
• For some people, they checked in because they wanted to maintain or manage their workload.
• Others did it because they felt they were EXPECTED to do so.

I’m curious to hear what our readers think. Is mobile connectivity a double-edged sword? Has the ability to telecommute been beneficial for you, or are you overwhelmed by the feeling that work is never “over”?

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A few recent news items about using the Internet at work piqued my interest.

Surfing the Web at work

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released the results of a survey they conducted this spring about workers and Internet use, and they came up with some fascinating figures, including:

27% of workers say they are on the Internet constantly while they’re at work, while another 22 precent access the Web several times a day.  Government workers were most likely to spend time on the Internet (72 percent).

As you might expect, 54 percent of those surveyed say that they check their personal e-mail while at work, which likely has companies concerned about Internet access affecting productivity.

For many of those workers, however, the opposite was also true. 50 percent of workers indicated that they checked work-related e-mail from their home computer on weekends. 22 percent of e-mail users and 48% of Blackberry and PDA owners say that they are expected to answer e-mails and messages even when they are not “on the clock.”

These results (you can see the entire report here) indicate a serious blurring of the line between work and home.

Fantasy football season

It’s fall. Fall means football, and football leads to fantasy football. Like the March Madness Brackets, picking your fantasy football team has become a favorite pastime at workplaces everywhere.

Fans of fantasy football are likely to take a direct hit to productivity. They may be completing their player roster, consulting co-workers or friends on the phone or in person about what players to pick, and spending time online surfing some of the major websites that host fantasy football games.

A recent article discussed this phenomenon, with some perspectives on whether encouraging fantasy football is a plus or minus in the workplace. 

What’s your experience? Is Internet access at work a plus or a minus for you? Is there a clear boundary between work and home, or has technology blurred that line? And is fantasy football season impacting you or your office? Let us know!

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To create a group, log into your BrightFuse account. When you are logged in, go to “My Home” and click on the “Create your own group” link on the left. You can invite any BrightFuse member to join your group!

Not a BrightFuse member yet? Check it out. BrightFuse is a great companion site to CareerBuilder.com.

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There you are, surfing the Web, and you come across a Web site like MySpace. Or maybe a friend invites you to be a part of Facebook. You click that button, enter your e-mail address, and — presto  –  you are in the network!

But one is never enough. You get another e-mail from another friend. How can you say no to them? You click yes, sign up and then you start sliding down a slippery slope. You show all the danger signs of social networking overdose!

In the last five years, social networking sites have filled the Web. From the early days of very general sites like MySpace and Facebook, the concept of networking sites has evolved. Among the categories of networking sites that exist today:

• Professional networking sites. These sites, like LinkedIn or ZoomInfo, generally list information about your career or highlight your professional accomplishments. 
• Blogging sites that link you to a network of your friends. Some sites, like LiveJournal, are standard blogs with networking features. Other sites, like Plaxo and Twitter, focus on the networking elements and their unique features. (The “twist” of Twitter is its limit on blog entries of 140 words or less.) 
• Sites aimed at particular demographics. The networking site Vois has been described as “Facebook for an older crowd,” while ThomasNet is a site specifically aimed at engineers and BlackPlanet is a site aimed at African American users.

With such a flurry of activity and new sites popping up every day, what should you do? Clearly, you cannot subscribe to every social networking site on the Web. Even the most energetic, social person cannot spend every moment checking for new messages and new contacts. But how do you recover from your online OD?

Think about your goals. What experience do you want to take away from these sites? Is social networking primarily a social vehicle to keep in touch with friends? Are you focusing on expanding your list of professional contacts? Do you want to do both? Have an idea of what you want to gain from your interactions.

Evaluate. Take a look at the sites you are a member of. Pay close attention to the number of contacts or ”friends” you have on a site. Regardless of whether your focus is a social or professional one, it is important to make sure the time you spend there is effective. If you are a member of a site where you only have a friend or two, or have limited connections there, it may be time to consider eliminating your membership there.

Make it fun.  BrightFuse, a partner site to CareerBuilder.com, is a professional networking site that hosts your online profile.  While some of the professional networking sites can be very nondescript, BrightFuse incorporates some of the more fun, interactive elements of other sites and presents them in a fresh way.  It also has a platform for users to post projects they are working on, which encourages feedback and collaboration.

The cure for networking overdose is simple: Dial it down a notch (or two)!  Streamline the list of sites you visit.  Although sites like Facebook can be useful for professional networking, most users want to keep their personal and professional networking efforts separate. So choose one or two sites for personal contacts, and a couple of sites for professional networking.

And if you get an e-mail from a well meaning friend inviting you to a new site, take a look at the site first and see how useful its features are before leaping in head first. You may also want to check with that friend or contact and see if they might be a member of a site you already belong to.

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