photo credit: Shanghai Sky

AS anyone who has ever received a virtual Jagerbomb or fought off intergalactic cyber chickens knows, social-networking sites are designed to be entertaining. If there wasn’t so much fun to be had, there wouldn’t be so many articles warning that what you post on your profile — i.e., photos of you in a beer helmet and a tequila bandolier — could one day cost you a job.

Yet sites like Facebook, Friendster and MySpace are evolving beyond their reputations as procrastinators’ Xanadus.

With American consumer confidence at a 26-year low and one in seven workers telling the Pew Research Center that they fear they will be laid off, social-networking sites are becoming, for some users, platforms from which to network for job leads, to forge professional contacts or even to announce to friends that you are out of work.

Landing a job through a social network not designed for that purpose appears to be a rarity. But savvy users say the sites can be effective tools for promoting one’s job skills and all-around business networking. Even human resource professionals are encouraging people to log on.

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