LinkedIn released an update for their mobile apps today that is, in a word, gorgeous. The entire app has been rebuilt and revamped to the point that, I'm suprised we didn't have to delete the old app and download an entirely new one. According to the LinkedIn Blog, the update is designed to "make it easier for our members to quickly discover and engage with the rich professional insights being shared across LinkedIn to help them make smarter decisions from wherever they may be working. We’ve designed the new LinkedIn mobile phone app for every professional, with a richer and more engaging stream and more personalization features."

Twitter announced today that they have refreshed their app for Android, which gives a much more native Android look and feel. It features:

• "wider and taller timelines that fill the screen"
• flat navigation bar
• tap and hold for quick actions
• navigate between tabs by swiping across the screen
• auto-suggest usernames and hashtags in search

Additionally, iOS apps and the mobile web version have all been updated to display more content and information in expanded tweets, namely: photo galleries, apps and product listings.

Businesses that want to be successful with social media and blogging must be mindful of news topics and trends within their industry. Your social media activity should be packed, up to 80%, with content and information from other sources, reserving just 20% for talking about yourself. At the same time, breaking news and important industry stories are ripe for great blog posts (we call this newsjacking). In order to monitor potential sources of information for sharing or blogging, business owners need to invest some time into a few tools.

Twitter announced today a major improvement to their Search and Discovery features, and these improvements are immediately accessible through the mobile website as well as iOS and Android systems. According to the update, version 5.3 includes:

Instantly access great content with improvements to search and Discover.

For local small businesses, one of the keys to search engine marketing is making sure that if a customer is searching for your business, they can find it easily. This means making sure that your business has a regional listing in each of the major search engine's local directory, like Google+ Local or Bing Local. Customers are also using apps and social networks like Foursquare and Yelp to find, rate and review local businesses.

Google has released a flurry of updates for the Google+ Mobile App, just in time for the busy Holiday season. Merry Christmas to us! The udpate includes Google+ Community support, profile editing, a brand new stream design and more. There are updates for both Android and iOS users, and some of the features are a little different depending on the platform.

According to the app store, the update includes:

Tired of waiting for your Facebook news feeds to load? Wait no more! Facebook has released an update to both the iOS and Android Facebook Apps making it a much faster user experience, as well as adding an improvement to the photo upload feature.

According to the update, news feed loads more quickly, and a completely rebuilt timeline opens faster on your iPhone or Android device.

Additionally, now, when you're uploading a photo to Facebook from your mobile phone, you can choose a specific album in which to include the new photo, making it a lot easier to correctly upload and categorize your images.

There were lots of updates and new features released this week from the social network giant. Some of these updates have been a long time coming, and include Ranked Comments, Expanded Facebook Gifts, Social Jobs App and Mobile Sharing.

Ranked Comments

For businesses, Facebook is testing the concept of Ranked Comments. On a brand page, the idea is that the most engaging comments will rise to the top of the list. This is not referring to News Feed posts, only the comments on specific posts. So, for example, if you have a post that receives 5 comments, and the 4th comment gets a bunch of Likes, that comment may show up at the top of the list.

Google+ released version 3.2 of their mobile app today for both Android and iOS. The key feature of the new release is the integrated support for Google+ Business Pages. Business owners can now view and edit posts, comment and engage their audiences through their mobile devices.

Other improvements included support for iPhone 5 and iOS 6, as well as the ability to edit posts and the ability to search for people or posts on iPad and Android.