When social networking sends the wrong signals

Last time, I shared some thoughts about social networks and social networking sites. Let me connect it to your CV. Or rather, what happens when you try to use that resume you have been constructing.
If you ignore your LinkedIn presence until after you are actually fired, it smacks of desperation when you all of a sudden start contacting people who have not heard from you in years. Far better to try to set off a few hours - probably two are enough - during the week, maintaining your network and contributing to the community, for instance in a discussion group. Then, the jump will not seem as sudden when you increase the level of activity, and you will be near the top of the minds of people you contact, if they are in those groups of course.
Being in someones mind is important when you stsrt looking for a job. If you are good enough, you may even get spontaneous offers. But only if they think they know you well enough to react.
For those under 30, this seems natural. It's not how you do it, it's how you live. For us dinosaurs, who remember an age when email was a novelty and you got the latest news in faxed newsletters, it still is about as miracoluos as telepathy. If you are young, understanding that will help land you a job. Because unless you are interviewing at a startup, it is very unlikely that the hiring manager is under 30. Being able to understand that your parents generation regards all these things as unusual, even though nothing could be more natural, helps communicating in their language.
Realizing that social networking services is the natural way to communicate and keep it up no matter what is something of a revelation. It changes the way you think about your social network. From being something like an address book which you only had contacts with when you needed, and the usual maintenance around Christmas and birthdays, social networks have become something where you are always present - or you do not exist. To be invisible to your social network means invisible to everyone.
The Invisible Man, in H.G. Wells original novel, could move around among people without being seen. But others could bump into him. On the Internet, there is nothing to bump into.
In the movies, the invisible man suddenly becomes visible in the middle of the crowd, to the embarrasment of everyone involved - because like the emperor in H. C. Andersens fairytale, he is not wearing any clothes. If you do the same, your social network will most likely mix up cause and effect, and believe you appeared naked because you do not have anything to wear, rather than having been imvisible. Avoid embarrasing them and help them build mental clothes for you by keeping them active.