The Internet today means a million different things for millions of people.  For some it's a place to waste a few hours during work.  For others it's a valuable resource for information.  For many, it's made social networking possible in ways that may never have been possible before.

Sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace afford many people the opportunity to network socially and professionally with ease and relative safety.

As with all things, however, change is inevitable.  The professional world must evolve at the same rate as the people in it or it will fail.  For example, in the past it would have been expected that you mail in your resume to be considered for a job.  Once the candidates began gaining access to email, however, businesses had to catch up and now it's rare to receive a hard copy of a resume in the mail.

Likewise, social networking sites (with the exception of LinkedIn) were intended to be informal ways for people to connect using the Internet.  Businesses have caught on, however, and are using these sites to do research on prospective employees.

It's surprising how much information is stored by these networking sites and it's become a cause for concern for people who are now entering the workplace and want to leave school-time shenanigans behind.

Others are not as concerned.  The transparency of having information available to prospective employers can work to your advantage.  Most social networking sites have features available that give the user control over how much information is available to other users.

Here are some ideas to make this emerging hiring practice work for you:

• Use the networking features of these sites.  For instance, joining groups associated with the fields you are interested in will establish connections for you within that profession.
• Edit the content on your profile so that you are comfortable with what it might say to potential employers but don't remove everything that is unprofessional.  For example, don't remove your favorite band from your profile and replace it with whatever you think an employer might like.  Who knows, your future boss may love Metallica!
• Immediately remove content (pictures or words) that involve illegal activities.  I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain why.

Like any change, the increased visibility of social networking profiles can either benefit or harm you.  The best defense is often a good offense, however, so use this to your advantage.

How do you feel about employers using social networking sites when considering candidates?  Have you experienced this personally or had a friend who did?  Please share your experiences, good or bad.  I'm interested to know how this affects you!