By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

Creating a successful social network is not what it used to be. There is so much competition out there, that creating an engaged community is just not enough anymore. There are many other factors involved, one of which is making yourself available to all users across all platforms.

If your social network is not available on the Web, as a native application on Windows and Mac (up for debate), as well as on mobile including iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, Ovi (yes, Ovi), and eveb BlackBerry, you are doing something wrong.

For this reason, every day that I don’t see a native Google+ app in the iPad App Store, it boggles my mind. The same was true for Linkedin, the leading professional social network, until just now. While Google+ has an excuse being the new kid on the block, Linkedin’s lack of an iPad app was inexcusable. I was quite vocal about that on Twitter.

This morning, as I was drinking my morning coffee reading my Flipboard on the iPad, Tweetbot (my Twitter app) notified me that I have the following direct message. For the record, getting this message from Linkedin itself made me smile, till I realized they were spamming Twitter by sending this very same message to hundreds of other people. But that is a topic for another time…

First of all, I love how Linkedin reached out to me on Twitter to let me know their iPad app is live and I love how I was on the iPad at the time.  Putting the irony aside, given the incredible work Linkedin did on their iPhone app, I had to see what they came up with for the iPad. I was not disappointed. You can read my review of Linkedin for iPhone here.

Linkedin’s head of mobile, Joff Redfern told TechCrunch that according to their stats, mobile users check Linkedin first thing in the morning and last thing at night. The iPad app was designed with that in mind. The new app is filled with all sorts of goodies and a stunning UI. Some of these new features include an Activity stream to stay updated on all your connections, and a very cool Calendar option.

With the Calendar feature, you can sync your device’s calendar with your Linkedin, which will add context to the meetings you have booked. According to Linkedin, most people check Linkedin before they have a meeting to see more about the person they are off to see. This new sync option will make that process more seamless.

There is much more to discover with the new Linkedin iPad app, but more important than the bells and whistles, I think the overall design, the large Retina-optimized icons, and the speed of the universal iOS app proves one thing.When it comes to mobile, Linkedin gets it. Facebook, on the other hand…

Anyway, now we wait for a Google+ app and for Facebook to make its iOS app actually usable, then the iPad might be one step closer to replacing my computer. Enjoy the Linkedin video of its original iOS and Android apps!