The Best Social Media Apps

Facebook on Thursday announced that more than one billion people are now using the company’s services. With hundreds of millions using other services and more social networks popping up every single day it’s a smart idea to understand which apps are worth using for your mobile devices, tablets and even home computers. Thankfully some of the best social media apps are free, they are competent and most importantly they are engaging.

Best Mobile Social App –  Facebook for iOS

If you asked me 3 months ago if Facbook had a worthwhile iOS app I would have probably laughed outloud. However, Apple recently ditched the original HTML5 design for its iPhone/iPad apps and built its system around native iPhone programming code.

What is most impressive about the new version of Facebook’s app is the speed at which it can handle a myriad of tasks. Users can read and post to groups, find friends, leave video and photo posts on friends walls, create, edit and delete photo albums and much more.

Facebook may have changed the way the app runs, making it much faster, what it didn’t change was the simple modular design that makes navigation a breeze.

What might be most impressive is the apps new integration with the iO6 platform which now allows for direct Facebook photo uploads from a users photo album and the ability to use the iOS slide down option to post a quick Facebook message.

Love or hate Facebook the simple fact is they turned a loser into a winner.

Best Desktop Social App – TweetDeck

If TweetDeck didn’t exist when I woke up in the morning I would lock myself in a dark room and cry.

Much like the Facebook Mobile app the modular design for TweetDeck makes it extremely easy to navigate between options.

My favorite part of the program is the ability to quick drag and drop display options around my screen. As someone with nearly 20 social media accounts (just on Twitter alone), I often find myself needing to handle certain tasks such as monitoring accounts, responding to comments, etc.  I personally love the notification options that constantly keep me on my feet.

Throw in the ability to schedule tweets, the option to filter based on important parameters and the ability to respond to tweets right from within the app and its easy to see why this application is a winner.

Best Tablet Social App – Wikitude for Android and iOS Tablets

It’s not often I will rank an app this highly when it has a 2.5 out of 5 star rating in the Apple App Store. What I love about Wikitude is what it is turning into. Billed as an augmented reality application users can simply hold up their phones and find information about the world around them.

Check for tweets directly in your area, find reviews from popular social review services and even look for check-ins to find popular locations, with this app social meets augmented reality in a simple yet effective package.

With more than 100 million locations logged this app definitely packs plenty of information.

There are literally thousands of smartphone, tablet and desktop apps on the market, while these are my picks for the best social media apps I urge our readers to determine their own needs and then test multiple apps until they find the app that best fits their own requirements.

[Image via TechnoBuffalo, rvnewsnet & TweetDeck]