Social networking = Professional suicide?

Forget about whether or not to “friend” your boss — should you be on Facebook or other social networking sites at all?

Not if you want to keep your job, in many places.

Turns out, more than half of employers are now banning social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter altogether.

Check out what more than 1,400 CIOs recently told Robert Half Technology their current policy on social networking:

• Prohibited completely: 54%
• Permitted for business use only: 19%
• Permitted for limited personal use: 16%
• Permitted for any type of personal use: 10%
• Don’t know/no answer: 1%

And even at companies who give employees carte blanche to post away, you might want to adopt a “business only” policy … and keep the time you spend on them from 9 to 5 to a bare minimum.

Of course, sites like these can be valuable career tools — if they’re used in very specific ways:

1. Facebook for networking. There are groups for just about everything on Facebook. By joining them you can link up with other professionals in your industry and make key connections. (Predominantly professional sites like LinkedIn or industry specific sites fit the bill, too.)

2. Twitter and blogs to become an “expert.” Tweet or blog about professional issues and you may soon be viewed more widely as an authority in a given area.