Now social networking is a powerful tool to use when looking for that dream job, but there are many ways where it can be abused; you just need to know how to make it work for you. The big mistake comes when you have spent years on the likes of Facebook and Twitter socially and learn that what you have been saying on them could come back to haunt you.

Remember what you say on these services can be seen, so you have to be ready to back your comment up or even pay for them. For years users have their pages set to public, now that you want to use it for job searching then you need to change this to private. This will stop future employers being able to view what you have been saying on there. If you have been known to bad mouth people or even have one or two questionable photos, you really do not want them out in the public.

If you do wish to keep your profile open to public then you need to watch what you do and say – cannot remember how many times we have to remind friends about this. We have to go back to something above, as we have just remembered it; try not to have questionable images on your profile, as future employers can see these, even if you have set your profile to private.

We have seen time and again such images of profound comments have had terrible consequences for those involved. Some people have even been fired from their jobs because of such actions, even my nephew – but you have to be aware of this before you go putting bad things on social media sites.

Again, how many of you allow your friends to post comments on your profile that looks unprofessional? We know of a few people who have allowed this to happen, and we had to remind them that they have a business and that they need to try and keep things more professional.

The biggest mistake that we have seen is how current employees badmouth their boss or things about that business. This has lead to people losing their jobs, which was the reason for my nephew’s sacking that we mentioned above.

We do not like going too much into personal life when we write articles, but we all know how the two always cross paths in social networking. If you use it right this can become a powerful ally when looking for work but if you abuse it you will be bitten, which is what happened in these 13 cases.

Having said that, it is not a done deal yet, but Reuters has been speaking to Sheryl Sandberg, the Facebook COO and it seems that although they do not want to pin down a date, it will happen. This subject has come up again, as the recent LinkedIn IPO has so far been a success. We already knew that share prices were inflated just before they floated on the stock exchange, and it seems that investors are not afraid to put their money into social media.

There have been suggestions that Facebook’s IPO will around April 2012, and is thought to already be talking with bankers. This date is not set in stone, but rushing things could be a mistake. We cannot see the value of Facebook going down anytime soon, as the future looks very good for The Social Network.

Often with companies going to IPO there is always a fear that things could not go they way that they had hoped, but never has a company like Facebook been so intertwined with our personal and business lives. How do you think a Facebook IPO will turn out?

WSJ say that this is one of the most anticipated initial public offerings in years, but they cannot help but think how much interest would be generated if Facebook had already had their IPO? LinkedIn only had a revenue of $243 million in 2010, but only managed to make a profit of $15.4 million.

The worrying thing that investors will have to take into consideration is the fact that LinkedIn is not expected to make much of a profit this year, as they have already made plans to invest heavily into the technology to help its growth. We can be certain that the likes of Facebook and Groupon will be watching tomorrows IPO very carefully, just to see if investors are prepared to buy into such a business.

What makes LinkedIn different to other social networking services is the fact that most of their subscribers are somewhat wealthy, as they are mostly business types. This means that they will be more beneficial to the advertisers – something that investors will consider.

Do you think that LinkedIn is worth $4 billion? Will the IPO prove popular?

From what we can see LinkedIn was blocked because a user setup a forum thread which spoke about the idea of a “Jasmine Revolution” in China, the Jasmine Revolution relates to the revolts currently occurring in the Middle East, this obviously didn’t go down too well with the Chinese government.

If you have been reading our articles over the past year or so you will probably be aware that the Chinese government like to control what its citezens can view online, previously we saw how Google pulled the plug on China following concerns about China’s human rights policies, therefore it is unsurprising to hear that Jasmine Revolution talk got LinkedIn blocked.

One spokesman representing LinkedIn recently suggested that the business-oriented social networking website was monitoring the situation, therefore don’t be too surprised if this isn’t the last we hear about the situation.

You can find out fully detailed information about LinkedIn being blocked by China on BBC News.

Do you think China are correct to restrict what their citizens see online?