Facebook and Apple are two of the most influential companies on the internet today, but they’ve never really worked well together. The fault falls mostly on Facebook. Their mobile application has been notoriously buggy and all the functionality it promised was never truly delivered. When Apple released iOS 5, everyone thought Facebook integration would be one of the main features, but it was conspicuously absent, to the dismay of many. With the newly released iOS 6 though, functionality for one of the world’s most popular social media sites is finally a priority.

Once you update to the new iOS, simply go to settings and you’ll find a header for Facebook. Open that up, and you’ll be guided through integrating Facebook into your phone. What does integration mean on iOS 6? Let us break down a few of the more interesting features.

The first thing you can do is the main thing most people do on Facebook, which is update your status. Once you enable the sharing widget, you will be able to update your status from any screen simply by pulling down the notification tray.

In fact, sharing things easily seems to be the driving force behind the Facebook integration. You’ll be able to easily share URLs from safari, photos from all your apps, and your locations from Maps. You’ll also be able to “Like” things apps from the app store. You’ll actually be able to “like” things across a bunch of apps, and that functionality will only increase as more and more developers come up with interesting ways to implement Facebook into their own apps.

As an additional organizational benefit, Facebook will sync all your contacts and calendars, enabling you to merge the data of your phone and Facebook. This can be a little intense as you likely have way more Facebook friends than contacts, but it has its uses. Just make sure you reexamine your privacy settings to ensure you aren’t sharing all your personal data with your entire extended network.

Finally, if you have Siri, you’ll be able to update your status simply by speaking to her.
These changes may not seem like much, but they’re a big step in increasing the ubiquity of Facebook. If your business doesn’t have a strong presence on the social network, now is the perfect time to jump on.