With all of the ways to connect with peers and others these days in the online world, many people have begun to wonder what’s OK — and what’s not OK — to say and do in these relationships.

There’s MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, just to name three of the most popular professional and social networking problems.

Problem: Two thirds of online networkers were confused or even frustrated about the etiquette that’s expected when interacting with others in the online world.

For example, how do you react when someone you don’t really know asks you to be his or her friend? Sure, saying “yes” seems innocent enough. But it’s still odd because you really don’t know very much about the person.

Better: Stick with the philosophy that these social networking sites are a good way of recognizing and hanging on to old friends, and avoid making unwanted new friends.

You’ve probably picked up on the various competitions to list as many so-called friends as possible on someone’s site. Online social networking is not a contest.

Four ways to keep you balance, and avoid falling on your Face(book):

• Think it over for a day. Whether it’s striking someone from your collection of friends or agreeing to become someone else’s friends, give yourself 24 hours to contemplate it.
• You’re not replacing Hallmark. Dropping one of your online friends a note about a birthday, anniversary, graduation does NOT excuse you from calling or sending a greeting card.
• Mug shot or glamor pic? Thinking about posting some photos of your friends on your social networking page? Think about how you’d feel if you were pictured in the same position — and the photo was available on the Internet.
• How do I look? Usually, you’re urged to post your own photo as part of your profile on the social networking site. Incredibly enough, there have been instances of people posting very embarrassing or compromising photos — of themselves. For guidance: Don’t post a picture you wouldn’t want your parents to see.

Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, online