With so many people jumping on the social-media bandwagon, employers increasingly are using such tools to weed out job applicants.

Many job hunters already are scrambling to clean up their online profiles (especially if they've used social media inappropriately), but it turns out the risks of social media usage extend far beyond just that racy photo of you.

In a recent post on Mashable.com, sales-and-marketing expert Tony Morrison says there are several ways social media can hurt a job search. Chief among them, he says, is they way in which users socialize with others online.

While potential employers likely won't judge you based on your connections, "having a wild child as an online friend posting inappropriate status and photos still can kill your chances of landing a plum job," writes Morrison, vice president for business development at Cachinko, a job-matching and career-networking application for Facebook.

That has raised the ire of many privacy advocates, but employers aren't likely to stop the online scrutinizing. Morrison warns job seekers not to rely too heavily on social media -- or the Web, in general -- for conducting employment searches. "[J]ob search should only be about 20 percent online, and social media is just one part of that," he says, noting that social media can be a huge and pointless "time-suck."

For more insight into how employers are using social media to screen job applicants, check out this infographic from Reppler, a social-media monitoring service that helps users manage their online profiles.