Kristin Burnham

Whether you use Google’s Gmail service at work or for personal purposes, you probably have a good handle on the basics: organizing your contacts, sending emails, setting up folders and more.

Business analytics company SAS was at a crossroads common to many companies pondering a social business platform: Its intranet housed various repositories of information that were cumbersome to navigate. The business, too, understood that millennials were seeking more social business tools.

"We have 12,000 employees and the knowledge is so widespread," says Karen Lee, senior director of internal communications. Lee was the point-person for implementing a solution for SAS. "We needed something that brought communication channels together--one place that would reference a lot of our communications."

Facebook this week announced the launch of its new apps directory, called the App Center. The App Center, says Facebook's Aaron Brady, "gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of apps to be successful." Facebook says people will be able to access the App Center on the Web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps in the coming weeks.

Whether you use Google's Gmail service at work or for personal purposes, you probably have a good handle on the basics: organizing your contacts, sending emails, setting up folders and more.

But if you've mastered the basics and are looking to increase your Gmail prowess and productivity, here's a look at five tips and tricks that will take you to the next level.

If you're in the market for a new job, you've probably been spending more time on LinkedIn updating your profile and expanding your network. The professional social network, which now boasts more than 100 million users, has a number of free tools and features to kick start your job search. But could one of its paid options give you the edge you need to land the perfect job?

Lewis Howes, LinkedIn expert and author of LinkedWorking: Generating Success On The World's Largest Professional Networking Website, says that paid account or not, the goals of what you do on LinkedIn are the same. "It's important for job seekers to understand how to build quality relationships that add value to the decision makers at the companies they want to work for the most," he says.

Facebook's apps and games have been a sore spot for cautious consumers for quite sometime: Privacy breaches and rogue apps muddied the water early on, but even as Facebook upped privacy requirements and cracked down on noncompliant apps, some users are still hesitant to join in.

A new tool that launched this week aims to quell your Facebook app fears-or at least arm you with information-about which apps protect your privacy and which ones don't.

Eight months after killing its Deals feature, Facebook is launching a new service called Offers, which makes discounts and coupons available from businesses you have "Liked" on the social network.

Facebook first announced Offers in March at its first-ever marketing conference in New York. The feature--which some say is just another push to make ads look less conspicuous--will roll out gradually over the next few months.

Maybe it's the fear of rejection or the daunting prospect of a one-on-one with a boss, but one thing is clear: People don't like to negotiate.

A new study from LinkedIn finds that when it comes to negotiating in the workplace, 42 percent of U.S. professionals find it uncomfortable. One quarter, in fact, admit they have never negotiated in the workplace.

Facebook's new Timeline design, the most drastic makeover to profiles yet, introduced a number of new features, including the cover photo: a large picture at the top of your page designed to let you enhance and personalize your new space.

As more Facebook users continue to make the switch (or be switched) to Timeline, the market for unique cover photos and designs continues to grow.

LinkedIn this week updated a key feature that now produces personalized suggestions of people you might know and like to connect with.

The "People You May Know" tool, which had been located in the top-right of the screen when you log in, displays three potential contacts. In the next few weeks, however, LinkedIn will be rolling out a more comprehensive version that makes finding new connections a lot easier.

As Facebook switches another wave of resistant users over to Timeline, I've noticed a number of questions--and misguided assumptions--popping up in my News Feed. These posts range from, "Warning! Facebook is making everything public when you switch!" to "Why can everyone see what I'm reading on The Washington Post?"

For the average (and even the more seasoned) user, Facebook's privacy controls, new features and updates are a labyrinth. Throw in Facebook's most significant redesign, and it's no wonder users loathe its cycle of constant changes.