Everywhere you go, smart-phone users are buried deeply in their smart phones, typing and swiping furiously – and there’s a good chance many of them are logged into Facebook. In a recent study, ComScore found 80.4% of smart phone owners have visited Facebook on their phones. That’s an unbelievable 78 million people reading status updates, sharing links and checking out pictures from their friends and businesses they love.

Facebook offers one of the most intuitive and robust mobile products of any social media platforms available. The Facebook mobile app trifecta is composed of the Facebook Mobile App, Facebook Pages App and Facebook Messenger. These three products turn your Facebook personal and business accounts from a fun way to connect to a powerful chat, messaging and marketing tool

With Facebook’s recent IPO securely in the rearview mirror, the company has been tweaking its mobile presence. Here’s a review of some of the best features of each app.

Facebook Mobile App

The Facebook Mobile app is the meat and potatoes of Facebook’s mobile management. In this app, users can read, comment and like items on their news feed, view their own and other users’ profiles, view lists and check out groups (all activities that parallel Facebook access on a browser.) The Facebook Mobile App also includes some great other features and updates:

Check-in feature that allows you to share your location with your Facebook friends and tag friends who are with you
Horizontal swipe for photo albums so you can quickly browse without leaving the profile
Full-size images (3 times larger than previously) and posts that automatically scale from edge-to-edge of your device
Drop-down menu that allows you to access notifications, messages and friend requests without leaving the page you’re on
The ability to change your profile and timeline photos instantly and easily

Facebook Page Manager App

The Facebook Page Manager rolled out in a soft launch in global markets, in mid-May and became available to the US Facebook audience beginning May 22, 2012. Although Facebook Page admins could edit their pages through their personal Facebook Mobile App, editing was cumbersome and glitchy. Some users reported their updates failed to post or posted under their personal profile instead of the business or organization Page name. For professional social media managers, this could be a crucial error.
Facebook took the guesswork out of page management with this new Facebook Management app with some great features not available on the Facebook Mobile App:

Access to Facebook insights data with one click
The ability to see how many people like and are “talking about” your page in real-time
Easy access to all the pages you administer
Push notifications specific to your Facebook pages
Ability to respond to your fans using your business or organization name
Insights into the reach of each post
Filters for posts and access to hidden posts

Facebook Messenger

The Facebook Messenger app was made for users who don’t know any email addresses because they always use Facebook as an email application! Facebook Messenger lets users write and respond Facebook messages to individuals and groups. The app features push notification for messages so users won’t have to keep multiple apps running to receive messages.

All three apps are available for free in the App Store and in the Android Marketplace.

==== About the Author ====
Steven Taylor covers internet bundle services for businesses through Time Warner Cable Business Offers throughout the day, and is immersed in the tech blogosphere by night covering a wider range of topics to keep his readers informed!