If you think gathering connections on LinkedIn is harmless, think again. Say you’re an executive whose connections consist mostly of clients. If a client or colleague recommends someone and you accept them into your network, you could unintentionally grant a competitor access to an unofficial client list, said Terry Gudaitis, vice president of cyber intelligence with the Arlington firm Cyveillance Inc.

When a Richmond convenience store clerk was shot six times during a robbery two weeks ago, city police converged on the scene to hunt for the gunman. Three days later, with suspects still not in custody, police posted two fuzzy surveillance photos on Twitter. “Got info?“ the caption read under color images of two potential suspects. “Call 514-TIPS.“

In an effort to better integrate social media into its work, CRT/tanaka has bought Livingston Communications, a Washington-based social media firm. This is the second time this year that the Richmond-based public relations and marketing firm has bought another agency. Mark Raper, CEO of CRT/tanaka, said adding Livingston will allow his firm to integrate social media into its core public relations and marketing disciplines. Social media include online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

CHICAGO Eily Toyama gave in after friends pestered her to join Facebook. But she used her cat’s name instead of her own so she could avoid networking requests from people she didn’t really want to connect to. And don’t even ask her about Twitter unless you want to get an eye roll.

Looking for new customers? They’re probably online flitting from one social networking site to another. Industry watchers say that 214 million Americans use the Internet and 87 percent visit some of the countless social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, SlideShare, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Twitter. Maybe it’s time that your company goes where the people are and convert some of them into customers.

Social networking sites, once the domain of teens and college students, are transforming the way entrepreneurs market their business. David Nour, managing partner of The Nour Group Inc. consulting firm in Atlanta, has researched more than 400 of these online communities and written books about the topic. He discussed using social networking as a business strategy recently in Richmond.

If the word Twitter makes you giggle, but you don’t know what it is, or if LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook and Jigsaw are making you lose control of your time, mark your calendar. On Friday at 8:45 a.m. at the Westwood Club in Richmond, Atlanta author David Nour will discuss how to use social networking to your business or professional advantage, yet manage it so it won’t rule your time.