Most of us realise that social media is more than just a portal for sharing Red Bull videos and pictures of our pets in awkward sleeping positions.

Harnessed correctly, social media can be an invaluable tool in advancing our careers by pinging us into the status updates and feeds of influential people we have never met.

And yet, according to the experts, so many of us are getting it wrong.

• Australia’s most tweeted moments of 2014
• Ruining your life/career at the Christmas party

You may not be posting offensive material or whingeing about your boss online, but that doesn’t mean your social media presence (or lack thereof) isn’t harming your career opportunities.

“About 80 per cent of employers will check a person’s social media trail before hiring so it is very important,” says founder of social media talent agency 3W, Bruce Mills.

“Social media is not something that is going to go away.”

Here are some of the social media habits you need to break in order to improve your career prospects.

One size fits all

According to CEO of charity Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia and social media whizz, Lucy Perry, many workers don’t tweak their social media updates to suit the various platforms.

Social media horses for courses.

“The platforms are very different and you need to tailor your message to suit where you are posting,” says Ms Perry.

“Instagram is a very young crowd, and very visual, but most people now use Insta as a starting point to post and then they share it across the other platforms.

Ms Perry says the trick to getting noticed in the maw of social media opinion, is to push well-written, snappy content that hooks the reader in the first few words.

“The best Twitter posts are a lot less than 140 characters, they are between 80 and 100 and they are like headlines in that they get the follower’s attention,” she says.

“Twitter is a great way to reach influential people.”

Not thinking like a boss

Most workers who throw a sickie are smart enough not to post a Facebook picture of themselves on the beach, right?

Well, you would be surprised.

“It does still happen, or what may also happen is that someone will tag them in a Facebook photo on the beach that will then appear in the newsfeeds of co-workers,” Mr Mills says.

“Now, your manager may not mention anything to you about this but the next time you have a sick day they may be very skeptical and a certain trust has been broken.”

Chucking a sickie? Not on Facebook

Furthermore, workers should avoid generic comments about their dull offices, their Monday morning blues or their middling co-workers.

“The older people on social media are more cognizant of the fact that you really shouldn’t be yourself on social media and say what you think,” says Mr Mills.

Ms Perry points out that most people “behave beautifully on LinkedIn” but see Instagram and Facebook as free-for-alls.

“There are a lot of working mums who put the kids to bed on a Friday night and then they down that glass of wine and hit the caps lock button,” she says.

Losing momentum

Then there are those workers who go to great lengths to set up their Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus accounts only to visit them once a year.

“Or often people will not keep their LinkedIn accounts up to date or they will hardly post anything about their position,” says Mr Mills.

“If I see a person in a job who isn’t posting much about their work then I am led to believe that they are not really engaged with it.

“Something as simple as keeping your email up to date on LinkedIn can make a big difference in terms of opportunities.”

Ms Perry also advises people against “lurking” on social media sites.

“You have to engage and contribute a bit more than a few ‘likes’ every now and again to have an impact,” she says.