Looking for a more streamlined way to use your favorite social networks? Developer 64 Pixels offers a series of Chrome extensions which let you take three major social networks — Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — out of your smartphone and their native websites, and into a slick and easy-to-access window in your browser bar. The extensions give you access to the key features of each social network. You can keep up with what your friends are up to, interact with them the way that you would on the native website (commenting, liking, retweeting etc.), and all from the most convenient place possible: your Chrome toolbar.

Instagram for Chrome brings all the key features you need to keep up with your Instagram friends to your Chrome bookmarks bar. After installing the extension, you’ll find a little Instagram icon next to the address bar. Clicking on it, you’ll instantly see your Instagram feed. You can scroll through the latest photos posted by the people you follow, enlarge the photos, view the original Instagram link, and also like and comment on photos right there in your browser.

From the menu, you can view your own profile, popular photos and tags, and your likes, and also your notifications, although this requires granting the extension extra permissions in order to access that data. You can also search for tags and users.

While you can access your notifications from within the extension, it doesn’t actually notify you when you receive likes and comments, so if you want to stay up to date you’re going to have to check your notifications manually. You can’t post photos through the extension, but this, of course, is due to restrictions on the Instagram API.

Twitter for Chrome offers a slick way to keep up with your Twitter timeline, interact with other users, follow and unfollow users, and, of course, tweet.

Opening up the feed, you’ll see the latest tweets (including embedded rich media), and will be able to reply to, retweet, and favourite individual tweets, as well as click on a user’s profile to view all of their tweets. As new tweets appear in your timeline, a number will appear over the Twitter icon to let you know how many new tweets have appeared since you last checked.

From the menu, you can access your profile, mentions, view your tweets that have been retweeted and see how many retweets they’ve received.

While you can tweet from the app, there are some features that are lacking from the Twitter experience. There’s no way to shorten URLs, and you aren’t notified when you receive replies or DMs. If you’re looking for a better way to post tweets, check out Tweet this Page, or these 5 Chrome extensions to superpower Twitter.

Facebook for Chrome gives you a similar experience as the last two extensions. In fact, this extension is as solid as they come, and made it onto our Best Chrome Extensions list. Here, however, you have to grant access to quite a bit of private information. To use Facebook for Chrome, you are granting the extension access to your public profile, friend list, messages, news feed, status updates, groups, photos and your friends’ birthdays, status updates and photos.

The extension provides a slick and compact Facebook experience. You can view your friends’ updates in your news feed, view posts with photos only, view your notifications, view your inbox (a semi-functional version), your profile and also post updates. You can interact with your friends from the extension by commenting on and liking their posts.

Posting status updates from Facebook for Chrome is probably best limited to text updates, since it is unable to embed links. Any links you share will simply appear as a clickable link next to your text, and not in Facebook’s usual style. If you’re looking for a way to post Facebook updates, check out the Shareaholic extension, which is also available for Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera. To find out more about the Shareaholic Chrome extension, be sure to read our in-depth review.

Read a full review of Facebook for Chrome.

If you use all three social networks, we would highly recommend 64 Pixels’ extensions. Not only are these extensions slick, they’re consistent. The three extensions offer a similar experience across the board. Similarities aside, each extension brings in the key features needed to really get the most out of the social network, as far as that social network will actually allow. With Instagram, for example, it’s not possible to post pictures from any third party apps due to Instagram’s own restrictions on its API. With Twitter, it isn’t possible to view Instagram photos displayed within tweets, due to restrictions. Working within the limitations of each of the social networks, each of these extensions lets you do everything you would need to.

What do you think of 64 Pixels Chrome extensions? Do you have your own favorite social browser extension? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Stephen Shankland

LinkedIn has been the goto social network for finding a job as of late, and honestly, why shouldn’t it be? It has a great deal of wonderful resources and tools aimed at job-seekers and employers alike to help them both on their journeys, and is a great tool for job-finding, especially if you can make your profile irresistible. However, LinkedIn isn’t the only way you can find a job.

There are other social networks out there perfect for helping you finding the perfect job. Some of them are well-hidden, and some are the usual suspects. The point is that you don’t have to limit yourself, and yes, there are plenty of places out there willing to accept your resumé, especially if you style it right.

Below are five other social networks you can use that could very well help you land that dream job. Take a look at them, use them to the best of your ability, and bring home the bacon.

Pinterest

Pinterest isn’t just for posting pictures of disgustingly melted crayons and overly-expensive clothing. In fact, it’s a great way for some people to display their portfolio and expertise, too.

Personally, I’ve found that Pinterest ideally works for freelancers and prospective job-seekers who are in some sort of visual field. Most importantly, such users can pin their own work from their portfolio sites onto the boards, which in turn link back to said site. Photographs, images, art, videos — all of these can be properly pinned to introduce yourself in a friendly, social manner.

Don’t think you should limit your Pinterest usage to showing your own work, though. For instance, designers and stylists can easily develop various boards that show their taste by pinning images, clothing, and other things that they like. This can help potential clients and employers get a feel for the individual’s taste.

Facebook

We recently published an entire article on the benefits of using Facebook when it comes to finding a job. I will highlight the important parts from that article, but do check it out for more information on how you can use Facebook to find a job.

There are the obvious things: clean up your profile, post a status asking your friends about jobs, participate in discussions on workplace Facebook Pages; you know them, already. However, the two key Facebook features I would like to point out are the Facebook Marketplace and the Social Jobs Partnership app.

Powered by Oodle, the Marketplace functions a bit like any other classified ads site — there’s even a specialized jobs section. From my experience, I thought it was rather useful. For instance, you can search for positions within your area and up to however many miles you are willing to commute, and even better, you can see a limited portion of the job-poster’s Facebook profile or Page. This adds an extra level of accountability that other sites do not have.

As for the Social Jobs app, it does virtually the same thing as the jobs section of the marketplace, but it’s a bit more optimized for more intensive job-seeking. For instance, you can browse specific career categories and insert certain keywords which pull data from job resources such as Monster, Branchout, Jobvite, and more.

Plaxo

Plaxo solves the problem that most other social media sites haven’t been able to: people are always changing their contact info. You know how it is.

One day you think you have this awesome email address, and then the next, you realize that choosing xMYLITTLEPONY3000x as your username probably wasn’t the best decision you’ve ever made.

The site is a bit like a virtual Rolodex in that you can keep all of your contacts (if they choose to join the site) in one place. However, whenever they update their information, it gets updated on your contact list, too. This means you never have to deal with outdated email addresses, phone numbers, or websites, but it also means that you have to rely on people to update Plaxo.

How can this help you find a job? Well, it mainly has to do with networking, truth be told. By building up your network, you have the potential to connect with many people throughout the course of your career. Sure, you may have met John Doe at an event two years ago and received his business card, but is he working for the same company now? With Plaxo, his contact information can change as his life changes.

Furthermore, Plaxo integrates with SimplyHired, an already existing job board that provides access to hundreds of job openings.  By building your Plaxo profile, you simultaneously build your profile to use with SimplyHired — pretty nifty.

Twitter

Like Facebook, we’ve covered Twitter in detail when it comes to your job search. Not to be too repetitive, I thought it would be best to go over some of the high points.

Obviously, you should make sure that your Twitter account represents yourself in the most professional manner possible. Of course, this really only pertains to what exactly your profession is. Some fields are a bit more light-hearted than others while some are a little more tight-collared. Just be careful with what you Tweet.

In the above article, several Twitter accounts are listed which promote useful job openings. These are perfect to follow:

• @SparkHire
• @ResumeInterview
• @CareerHelper
• @linkedIn
• @Glassdoor

Furthermore, hashtags are important when it comes to preparing for your career. By keeping an eye on topics that pertain to your field, you can stay in the know when it comes to meeting employers. There’s also the chance of actually finding jobs through them. Here’s a list of hashtags worth keeping an eye on.

• #hiring
• #hfchat
• #HR
• #jobhuntchat
• #jobopening
• #jobposting
• #jobsearch
• #joblisting
• #tweetmyjobs
• #employment
• #recruiting

Jobster

Admittedly, Jobster seems to be relatively unheard of, but it packs a few serious tools that can help you rise above the competition. Right off the bat, you should understand that Jobster is indeed a social network, and you can actually import your data from LinkedIn to set up a profile.

Jobster offers a variety of different ways to showcase who you are to potential employers, but admittedly, as of late, LinkedIn seems to offer nearly the same set of resources as this site. Skill tagging, site links, and network building are all the basic elements of LinkedIn, and are all found here on Jobster.

However, Jobster offers a few interesting options LinkedIn doesn’t. For instance, you can actually upload a video resumé to the site itself, and there’s a rather clear-cut method for job searching and job posting. The site is very straight-forward — no hoops to jump through, really. Based on my experience, it felt a great deal like using LinkedIn, but at the same time, a little watered-down.

I still would recommend considering Jobster, but I wouldn’t call it a necessity. Regardless, it’s just another tool to put your name out there.

Conclusion

That’s about it for our social networks for finding jobs, dear readers. Hopefully, this article helped enhance your journey. Getting your name out there in any possible manner is always a good idea, but don’t leave LinkedIn just yet. In fact, you should use our free LinkedIn guide to make even better use of it.

Of course, we always love your feedback. Have you made use of these social networks when trying to find a job? What other social networks have you used? Would you not use these for any reason? Share your thoughts below!

Stop using your mouse like a sucker. Get more out of Facebook and Twitter by learning their keyboard shortcuts.

It’s something longtime computer users have known for years: keyboard shortcuts make everything faster. It’s true for text editing, it’s true for using accent marks and it’s true for Gmail users.

But it turns out these time-saving gestures can also help you with your time wasting, by turning you into the ultimate Facebook and Twitter ninja. Think about it: what if you could browse your Facebook news feed, like posts and leave comments all without touching your mouse? Or explore your Twitter timeline, mark favorites, leave replies and retweet posts the same way? Keep reading if you want to get the most out of Twitter and Facebook, because I’m going to explain the best keyboard shortcuts for both sites.

Before we get into any other keyboard shortcuts, we need to cover the absolute basics: browsing by individual posts. Facebook and Twitter share a keyboard shortcut for this which is favored by sites all over the web: “J” for down, “K” for up. That’s right, you can browse Facebook and Twitter one post at a time, all without moving your right hand from the home position.

Why not simply use the arrow keys? Because those just scroll up and down and don’t conventionality skip between posts. Anyway: open up either site, right now, and try it. When you do you’ll see a line to the left of the selected post on Facebook:

It’s subtle, but you’ll get used to looking for it.

The currently selected tweet is even more obvious on on Twitter, thanks to the blue highlight:

You can use these shortcuts on the home page of either service, but also while browsing the pages of individual users. It’s important to get used to using “J” and “K” to scroll if you want to take advantage of any keyboard shortcuts that pertain to the currently selected post/tweet.

Speaking of: let’s get to those.

You now know how to navigate Facebook or Twitter using only the “J” and “K” keys. Let’s get to actually interacting with the posts you’re scrolling to – but note these shortcuts will only work if you’re using J/K to flip between posts (this sites which post/tweet you intend to interact with).

The first thing to learn: replying. Whether you’re leaving a comment on Facebook or sending a response on Twitter, the keyboard shortcut for replying is a single button. Facebook users can press “C” to leave a comment.

Twitter users, meanwhile, need only press “R” to send a @reply to any tweet:

Not in the mood to actually, like, type a reply? Facebook users can simply press “L” to Like a selected post. Leaving a trail of raised thumbs has never been simpler: just J/K through your timeline and press “L” when you see something you like. You don’t even need to move your hand.

Twitter users have two choices: “F” to favorite a tweet and “T” to retweet. You’ll see this take affect instantly:

Already you can explore, reply to, and otherwise interact with posts faster than ever before. Start using Facebook and Twitter this way and you’ll wonder how you ever did otherwise.

The keyboard shortcut for posting on Twitter is simple: just press “N” and the post window will show up:

Facebook doesn’t have a dedicated shortcut for this, but if you use J/K to browse to the “Update Status” box you’ll see it’s selected:

Hit “Enter” and you’ll be in the post box, ready to submit your inane rants to the world. Use responsibly.

Here’s where things get weird for Facebook users. You can use two keys, combined with a number, to jump between different Facebook pages – like the Home screen, or your personal timeline. What are these keys? It depends on your operating system and browser. Here’s Facebook’s list:

Internet Explorer for PC: Alt + #, then EnterFirefox for PC: Shift + Alt + #Safari for Mac: Ctrl + Opt + #Firefox for Mac: Ctrl + Opt + #Chrome: Ctrl + Opt + #

So what are these numbers? You can read Facebook’s official list, if you want, but to me the most useful things to know are that “1? gets you to the Facebook home page, “2? gets you to your personal timeline and “4? gets you to incoming messages.

Twitter makes things a little easier, in that the keyboard shortcuts for jumping from page to page are the same in every browser. You need only press “G” (for “Go”), followed by a one-letter shortcut for where you want to go. “G” followed by “C”, for example, will take you to the “Connect” page.

“G” followed by “H” will take you back home; “G” followed by “D” will take you to the discover page. It’s pretty easy to understand, and kind of makes you wonder what Facebook is thinking with its number system. Knowing both of these, however, is useful for any social networking enthusiast – with them you can explore the sites quickly.

As I mentioned before, Facebook offers a complete list of Facebook keyboard shortcuts. Twitter makes things simpler – to see a full list of keyboard shortcuts you need only hit “?” while using the service:

Or, if you prefer, you can check out this social media shortcut inforgraphic. It outlines all the shortcuts above, along with some for Google Plus and YouTube. We’ve also got cheat sheets for Twitter or Facebook shortcuts, if you want to download a PDF outlining everything. Print them for a one-page summary.

I haven’t outlined all the keyboard shortcuts here – just the ones I think are most useful. Think I missed something? Please, leave your favorites in the comments below. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Image Credits: Notebook keyboard Via Shutterstock

Twitter has just improved the way we search on the microblog by giving us additional filters and what it calls “a social context”. The new search is a smart makeover, with suggested results revealing the relationship between the user and the other suggested accounts in the results. Twitter calls it “social context”. Photos and accounts have also been brought in as search filters in the other significant changes.  With the search improvements, users get to enjoy the same experience on their desktop and searching Twitter on mobiles.

Search is becoming more visual all around, and it is moving away from being text-only into the realms of social connectivity and multimedia. Twitter can’t be left too far behind in the game. First, when you type a query, Twitter will show you which of the other connections you follow, also follow the suggested accounts in the search result. Recent results and saved searches have been incorporated along with the social context which you can spy even as you type in your query. With a click you can see the top tweets, all tweets, and tweets from those you follow on the results page. It is a much cleaner way to dissect the tweets than before.

Photos have been given a tab all of their own. Think of it as a filter and it almost makes you think of Google Image Search. Clicking on People shows you the accounts behind the top tweets. You can choose to follow (or un-follow) users here. Twitter announced the changes with… a tweet.

Search update on http://t.co/eNvqKTup1d: See photos & accounts in results + recent searches & social context as you type your query.

— Twitter (@twitter) August 1, 2013

The announcement was surprisingly low-key because after last year’s overhaul of Twitter Search, this is another step in a richer direction.

Have you tried it out yet? Tell us how you find the update.

Source: Searchengineland.com

 

Your Twitter header image is an important part of your social media identity, but as always, it’s just one more thing to decide on. After all, your profile picture was hard enough, right? Fortunately for you, there are quite a few sites out there on the Internet available for you to find fantastic looking Twitter header images for your personal usage and for free.

Below are six of these wonderful sites, and each one of them brings something just a little special to the table. Try ‘em out, see which ones you like, and take one of their offerings for a spin. Furthermore, these sites are constantly updating with new images, and like-minded sites are popping up quite often as well. Let’s check them out!

TwitrCovers

TwitrCovers is one of many sites that allows you to download creative, high quality header images for free. What separates it from the rest is the ability to view your desired images as if they were on Twitter using its well-designed demo mode — pretty awesome. The website offers two methods for acquiring these headers. One, you could have the site install it for you via an app (which allows it access to your account), or two, you could manually download the image and upload it yourself.

Read a full review of TwitrCovers for more tips and information.

Social Media Image Maker

Social Media Image Maker, as its name implies, is a site for formatting images to be used on social media sites. Using a very thoroughly designed interface, you can create, crop, color grade, and upload images that are perfectly sized for Twitter. Images are downloadable in JPEG format and can be uploaded by the user. While the link above takes you directly to the Twitter section of the site, Social Media Image Maker provides resources for nearly every social media service available.

Customizing my image felt a bit like Instagram with its many filters and features like “blurring”, but because of this, it also felt slightly limited. Regardless, I appreciated the fact that I could manually download the image without letting the site access my account.

To find out more, read the full review of Social Media Image Maker.

TwitCover

Although it has nearly the same exact name as our first mention, TwitCover is yet another site that brings loads of free header images to the table. The site is stylized with a consistently updated blog format, but it also allows users to create their own header images using its in-browser app. Fancy, fancy, I say.

Unfortunately, here’s the catch: when authorizing TwitCovers to use your Twitter account, it posts a Tweet for you saying where you found your cool new header. Pretty janky… Instead, I recommend saving the image manually using right-click.

TwitterHeaders

TwitterHeaders is a site that reminds me just a bit too much of the old MySpace design websites, but that’s just my opinion, I suppose. Either way, it’s home to several interesting (and sometimes childish) Twitter Header designs. Just to be honest with you, I have a feeling that this site would be most visited by teens and preteens. You’ll find quite a few commercialized images incorporated into the headers here, and while I can’t vouch for their legality, I can say they aren’t too bad.

Customization is an option, but only text, clip art styled objects, and corny-looking backgrounds can be added. On the surface, the site also seemingly requires you to allow it access to your Twitter account, but a simple right-click lets you to save your desired image to your desktop. Else, TwitterHeaders will post a Tweet for you saying to visit the site.

TwitterHeader.org

TwitterHeader.org has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned TwitterHeaders, but its images may appeal to the about the same crowd. While not heavy on commercial images, TwitterHeader.org features several offerings that may appeal to those from the younger side of life.

Are there a few gems here and there that may work for you? Yes. However, you will have to do quite a bit digging compared to other sites listed here. Creating your own header and customization isn’t available, and the available images can be added to your Twitter account automatically, if you authorize the site to access it, or manually after downloading them. Another nuisance are the occasional watermarks that appear on the images.

(Note: At the time of this writing, it appears that the auto-upload feature is currently having some issues. The manual download should work fine.)

TwitHeaders

TwitHeaders has quite a few quality images that are extremely creative, mostly abstract, and definitely inspiring. In short, I think that anyone looking for a Twitter header image can find something here. Is the site perfect? Not exactly. First of all, it features things primarily in a blog format, and posting dates are not prominently shown. This means you can’t really tell just how recently the site has been updated. Aside from that, you can find a great deal of worthy content on TwitHeaders.

One annoying thing about the site I found was that it says you can “download” the images. Instead, when you click this, the site tries to access your Twitter account like the other sites mentioned. Technically, you could right-click and save the image, but as a user, I felt as though this was rather misleading.

A minor inconvenience is the site’s usage of water-marked images. Regardless of whether you auto-upload or take care of things manually, TwitHeaders’ watermark will remain on the images. Furthermore, allowing the site to access your Twitter account will let it post a “check out TwitHeaders” Tweet for you.

Conclusion

Twitter headers are a great way to express your identity on the web, and you should take advantage of this particular feature as well as you can. It’s more prominent than simple backgrounds, but at the same time, it’s much more subtle than just a profile picture. So which one should you choose? TwitrCovers and Social Media Image Maker should have you covered on all side, and are both good choices. If you don’t like the selection on TwitrCovers, give the rest of them a try, you’re sure to find something!

If you need more ideas on how to use your Twitter header image, check out these tips on how to make the most of your Twitter header image.

With that said, we’d love to know how you find your Twitter images. Do you take photos yourselves? Do you design them? What other websites do you use to download free ones? Have you ever paid for a cool stock image to use on Twitter? Let us know in the comments!