LinkedIn just got a lot more social, with a number of link-sharing updates that mimic Facebook’s news feed. When LinkedIn users share articles or websites with their peers, a small thumbnail image and excerpt will appear with it, like the Facebook Publisher service that powers Facebook users’ walls.

The LinkedIn sharing update also give users some privacy options to select which network or individual reads what, as well as the option to share directly through Twitter, using LinkedIn’s own URL shortener lnkd.in.

There are now options to edit posts and re-share, much like a retweet, which will give credit to the original source. This is much needed for LinkedIn, which has really needed to up its social game.

According to a report out today from StatCounter LinkIn is the 12th biggest site generating global web traffic. It generates just with 0.34%, but the reported also pointed out that while small the figure “does not reflect its importance as a business site as it is not directly comparable to the more consumer focused sites” like Facebook, which generates the bulk of traffic (48%)

The updates will allow LinkedIn to become more or less a hub for its users to share articles with their business contacts, in turn growing their professional networks, but obviously has a ways to go before usurping Facebook or Twitter as the average users’ social network of choice.