Job-seekers who are looking for ways to expand their career development opportunities may have already learnt about the power of the internet to get in touch with potential employers.

But according to Philip Calvert, professional social media speaker at IFALife.com, those in need of a new job have to be careful about what they share on the world wide web.

"First of all, pretty much everything that goes on to the internet these days is very, very visible," he pointed out. "Whilst many of us use it for a bit of fun - a nice quick and easy communication medium - all of us at some point might need to be thinking about how we are perceived by other people - particularly how we are perceived by potential employers or recruiters.

"So I think people, whenever they are using social media, should [bear in mind] who might see what we post online and how we conduct ourselves."

That means monitoring any pictures, posts or comments we may have published on our social networking sites to see if we are unintentionally painting ourselves in a bad light.

Mr Calvert suggested looking at our profiles through the eyes of a stranger to establish whether a prospective recruiter would like what they see, because having a glance through a Facebook page or Twitter account can in some ways be more revealing than a CV.

"Anybody who is looking for a role these days really needs to make sure that their social media profiles reflect them properly, particularly when they use LinkedIn. It is a no-brainer for anybody looking for a role, particularly in white-collar work, to have a quality LinkedIn profile," said the social media expert.

He added that employers may well check out future candidates for roles through Google and on Facebook, so either set your privacy settings high if you want to keep your account purely for friends' viewing, or set up a separate 'professional' page that you would not mind an employer looking at.