Save individual element in PSD as an image?

Question

I am developing a site and got given the design as a PSD, my question is, can I select an individual element, say the social media icons, and save them as an image?What I have been doing so far is hiding all the layers except the one that contains my element, then resizing the canvas to fit around that element and saving as an image, while that is required for items where several layers are used to obtain a specific effect it seems kinda longwinded for elements which are in essence just images (the other method is to export needed layers to a new photoshop file etc, but is also kinda longwinded).I did try to search for an answer but couldn't find one, so I apologise if this has already been asked. If it makes any difference I'm using (or trying to use :D ) Photoshop CS6 **Edit: On Windows 7**

Answer 1

Why not use an old fashion image map.