Even as the world waits for the mythical Facebook phone to surface, there's another social phone that has done pretty well: the iPhone 4S. It may not be exclusively social, but in many ways, the 4S embodies the theme of how mobile devices are inherently designed to connect people with each other.

As I do nearly every weekday, I spent about 45 minutes this morning trolling my favorite sites to get a bead on what's going on in both the big world, and the smaller social media one. As usual, the most useful site to help me determine what is really on the minds of the social media-erati was a Twitter byproduct called Tweeted Times. Today, the top news of the day was about Twitter's integration into Apple's now available iOS 5. Which is understandable, if social media is your business. But I also think it's an indication of our industry's tendency …

Facebook takes its leadership mantle seriously. Instead of merely coming out with a new iPad app, it changed in ways that will long cement its role as the most important suite of mobile sites and applications in the world. Lofty claims? Perhaps. But they're warranted.

Now that Steve Jobs has died, it's odd to think that last afternoon, before I heard the news, I was going to write about how, here in America, we are finally using Twitter and Facebook the way that other countries have: to organize protests. That's important, and has its place. But, still, I keep coming back to Steve Jobs, even though there's a central irony to a column called the Social Media Insider being about him. Apple has sold millions of communications devices, and, yet, it has never been an inherently social company.

When brands are invited to participate in Google+, it's going to get weird. Marketers will face challenges they've never had to deal with before in social media. Without knowing specific details of what Google+ brand pages will look like, enough of the variables are known so that you can create a formula that works for you. Here's a primer.

It is a sign of the times, I suppose, that within the first ten minutes after I came home last night from Mediapost's OMMA Global, the discussion between my 13-year-old son and I was the following: Should he click on the button served to him on Spotify that would have published every song he listened to on Facebook?

Facebook's f8 event last week will have lasting ramifications for the network's 800 million users. It will also have implications for brands, but the biggest takeaway should that if you're a marketer, Facebook was never about you, it's not about you, and it will never be about you. I'm sorry to the handful of laptops and iPhones that were just hurled across the room, but the truth hurts.

I've been watching the new Facebook stewing in the crockpot since yesterday morning, and have discovered the recipe for making it: To a base of existing Facebook friends and surfing habits, add three tablespoons of Google+ Circles along the left-hand margin, a pound of Flipboard to the News Feed, and a heavy dollop of Twitter along the right hand side. Then, add a raft of user complaints, simmer for a while, and behold: it's the hotly controversial new Facebook! What a stinky stew

I wouldn't have predicted that I'd be seeking a new entertainment recommendation service right at the time that I've been using Netflix the most. Sadly, with its forthcoming split into two companies, Netflix has lost any concept of what it is, and it has just opened a massive window for someone to trump it.

Well, that was simple enough. In launching improved, automated Lists of friends, Facebook has easily -- and almost without notice -- exploited Google+'s biggest advantage: that it makes grouping friends the default, and sharing with discreet groups of people clickably easy. (Oh, God, that sounds like part of a future tagline.)