Most folks when asked about their social network footprint will point to Facebook and Twitter as their friends chit chatting… maybe for the latest news. Then they will say LinkedIn for their job status and online Business contacts. It is more around creating a multi dimensional resume.

When LinkedIn introduced their iPhone app some time back, it appeared that they were pushing more on keeping track of your work contacts than working on your resume. I noticed a jump in posts to LinkedIn’s ‘Status’ area. They are not light talk like on FB and Twitter, much more professional. Yet, still they have been increasing.

With the new version of LinkedIn for the iPhone, you can see that the Social Network wants more posts and your thoughts. They have made it easier to get to and wrapped more functions around that area.

When you first launch the LinkedIn app you have an overview of options.

This is the ‘previous’ version:

Now, the LinkedIn app opening page has fewer options as many have moved to being sub actions within the areas you reach through the start page:

Previously, you would go into ‘All Updates’ to see what was being posted. It was a simple view of posts from the folks you have ‘connected’ with:

Now, the area/icon button is labeled ‘Updates’ since when you go into that area many of the options from the start page have moved to this area. Encouraging users of LinkedIn to use this view more often rather than jumping out to the start page area and back in.

A new direction for the app is the addition of being able to watch Twitter through the iPhone app for mentions of your company and products. As well, passing your social LinkedIn posts out to Twitter.

On a personal note… the thing that drives me crazy is those 26 Invitations number hovering over that button on the Start Page. It actually is OK there, the issue is when you close the app it is over the app and then over the folder (my case, the ‘Social’ folder) on my iPhone launcher. There appears to be no way of getting rid of this number at the Launcher level without accepting or declining the connection requests.

LinkedIn says about this update:

New in Version 3.3

* New Updates experience with rich sharing, liking, and posting to Twitter
* New Buzz feature that lets you stay up-to-date on what people are saying about your company, school, or products on Twitter
* Simplified home screen and navigation
* Additional bug fixes and performance improvements