Use Social Networking to Your Advantage
As a college student, Facebook is probably your #1 way of keeping in touch with your friends. By simply updating your status online, you can inform all of your friends on what your doing and what you've been up to. This can be very important for college students who are short on time and may feel that they are losing touch with some of their old friends who they haven't seen in awhile.

Social Networking is a great way for college students to maintain their connections as friends from all over the world can update them on what they're doing merely by writing on their wall. This sharing on Facebook has pretty much replaced email for students wishing to communicate with current and old friends online.

In addition to keeping up with friends, Facebook along with Twitter and LinkedIn (a social networking site for professionals) are also being used by colleges to communicate important information to students. These social networking sites provide a way to get information out, using the technology that students use, in order to alert them to events and programs they might not see posted on the college's website.

In addition, more and more employers are using social networking to post internships and jobs as well as in checking out potential candidates online. There are also many groups on these sites available for college students to join. Your college may have a group(s) that's focused on connecting alumni, faculty, parents, and students in order to share career information online.

By joining one or more of these groups you can considerably add to your number of "friends" or "connections".

For example, if you join LinkedIn, you can do an advanced search by putting in keywords and the name of your college to come up with a list of people who are currently working in your career field of interest and who may be helpful in learning more about a career or in actually finding an internship or a job. If you join a LinkedIn group you can include all of the members of your group as a part of your shared connections.

As well as all of the benefits that social networking offers college students online, there are some pitfalls to watch out for. Derogatory pictures are one thing that can definitely work against you. You may also decide that it's not a good idea to discuss that weekend party where you got wasted if you don't want all to see. Setting your privacy settings is a good idea also to limit who is able to see what you and your friends post online.

Although social networking has a lot of positive points, there are some things you should be aware of to get the most benefit (without the problems) of using these sites online. If you are active in social networking or considering joining a new group online, be sure to read about some of the pitfalls that can occur to avoid any negative consequences.