There really is no easy answer for this question.  And while there are many ways we could approach this issue, I would suggest that first of all, you ask yourself this question :  What kind of industry the domain of your job is ?  That is, what do you do for a living ?  Could you benefit in any ways by engaging in a, - or several, social networks ?

Now, I am going to assume that the readers of this blog are surely familiar with the concept of social networks.  At the risk of being redundant, let it be said once again that in short, social network is the place where you socialize online, - being a network where there are interactive communications, mostly almost instantly delivered, thanks to the increasingly popular AJAX-based sites.  The most famous of them include some well-known names like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

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Going back to our question, I believe that there are business fields where you don’t exactly need to do some serious social networking.  For example, a plumber will need to dedicate his free time more in increasing his knowledge of his trade, rather than replying to some conversation threads in Plurk.  Or a London taxi driver will risk tarnishing a well-known legend if he spends his time in front of the computer instead of studying the streets of London until he knows it like the back of this hand.  Still, I am also of the opinion that even these kind of professions may gain a useful thing or two if they can dedicate a little bit of their time to socialize online.  Who knows, maybe our taxi driver may got a much newer and complete version of London map from his online contact.  The key is, knowing how much time do you need to spend, and act accordingly…

On the other hand, there are some professionals who absolutely need to be a member of some ( if not most of the ) social networks.  An obvious example would be web developers, programmers and writers.  Being a writer, I could tell from first-hand experience that you are only as good as your published works are.  These days, the fastest and simplest way to build your credibility is by publishing your work online.  If you’re good at what you do, people will recognize your worth and start bringing some projects in.  In this context, social networking helps by bringing a badly-needed traffic to your blog, - which is the place where you mainly write.

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So I hope it’s obvious by now that the question of how much should you engage in social networking will depend on how much your job need it.  This is not to say that it’s the only thing you should consider, though.  Blogger Deb of freelancewritinggigs.com publish some excellent criteria on this issue, which you can read here.

All in all, I believe that this is the main reason of social networking exists :  to help people gain edge in what they do.  Do so if it’s part of your job, but do yourself a favor and avoid the trap of idleness which almost always happen when a person is addicted to social networking….