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CIO - When you belong to several social networking sites-Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter-(and don't we all?), keeping up with them can seem overwhelming. Tweet this. Update that status. Share a link here.If you've resolved to get more organized this year, consider these seven tools that save time and streamline your social networking interactions. My picks: For easy content sharing across platforms, be sure to check out is the browser plugin Shareaholic. And for simple synching and updating of multiple accounts, Atomkeep seems to be the most efficient.

Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing-accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites-there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook?

Twitter may have cost former Congressman Anthony Weiner his career, but when used properly, social media and other Web tools can actually help you get a job. FINS spoke with Coleen Byrne, a former sales director at Yahoo, about the perils of not being on LinkedIn, reaching out to old friends and colleagues, and using the Web to network offline. Byrne is the co-author of The Web 2.0 Job Finder.

ALAN KENNEDY, 54, had never used social networking sites until he was laid off from his job as an engineer last November. Then he did what many job seekers are now advised to do: he set up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you have avoided social-networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook with the excuse that they are the domain of desperate job hunters or attention-seeking teenagers, it's time to reconsider.

While understanding the Internet's role in the job search and career development has always been important for professionals, the emergence of new Web technologies, such as social media, blogging and social networking have permanently changed the playing field.

ALAN KENNEDY, 54, had never used social networking sites until he was laid off from his job as an engineer last November. Then he did what many job seekers are now advised to do: he set up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.

"When I do a seminar for prospective career changers, I always ask the audience how many people are using LinkedIn to communicate directly with contacts in their new industries. Typically, only a handful of people raise their hands. But given the fact that tapping the social-media groundswell is one of the best ways to launch a new career, active participation in sites like LinkedIn should be 100%."

"Workers fired or disciplined for bad-mouthing employers on social-networking sites are fighting back using a decades-old labor law-a new front in the murky battle over what workers can do and say online."

If LinkedIn Corp. wants to avoid being swamped by social-networking giant Facebook Inc., it will have to convince users like Jackie Nejaime to log in more often they do now.

Just before the current recession set in, 35-year-old Just before the current recession set in, 35-year-old Samuel Peery quit a stable job as a vice president of marketing to start his own social-networking company. Unable to secure funding for his start-up, Mr. Peery, of Lehi, Utah, was left unemployed, with an unrealized dream.

There are many platforms out there that may help your personal brand - for instance, Twitter to promote your work or Facebook to interact with customers. Though those social networks can absolutely help your image and brand, they serve their users for multiple purposes.

With unemployment at a 23-year high, job seekers need to expand the ways in which they search, say career and workplace experts. These days setting up and maintaining an online presence is often critical to finding work. But for an accomplished professional, it might seem daunting to build up a social-networking presence from scratch. Here's how to do it:

Q. A growing number of colleagues have requested to connect with you on social networking Web sites. You have mixed feelings about giving these professional contacts a window into your personal life. What should you do?

OPRAH WINFREY granted pop superstardom in April not to another fraudulent memoirist, but to Twitter, the online social network that has lured both Hollywood celebrities and basement amateurs away from their blogs.

Twitter may have cost former Congressman Anthony Weiner his career, but when used properly, social media and other Web tools can actually help you get a job. FINS spoke with Coleen Byrne, a former sales director at Yahoo, about the perils of not being on LinkedIn, reaching out to old friends and colleagues, and using the Web to network offline. Byrne is the co-author of The Web 2.0 Job Finder.