Facebook Pages for Brands, now with potential usefulness and real awesomeness!

Edgard and I are happy kids today. We’ve been raving for month about the ruined potential of the Facebook Pages as a marketing tool, because of its rigid structure (hard to match a brand’s look and feel), lack of openness (all the elements had to be developed as Facebook apps) and interactivity (no user upload allowed), a paradox for a social platform!

Every time we came up with an idea that would be fun and useful for both the consumers and one of our client, it would either be impossible to develop because of the technical constraints, or way too expensive, since we would have to develop numerous Facebook applications for a single page. So we eventually gave up on the idea.

Until this morning, when I noticed an Update in my Facebook inbox:

Facebook Pages have some new features available for you:

1. User Photo Uploads
Now, your fans will be able to upload photos to your Facebook Page…if you let them. Go to your Facebook Page and Edit on the Photos box to turn on this feature. All New Pages will have this feature pre-enabled upon creation.

2. Dynamic Content in the Profile Box
You can now replace the main picture on your Facebook Page with dynamic content using either the Flash or FBML applications. Just install either of these applicaitons (find them at www.facebook.com/facebookpages and then select the flash/fbml option when you choose to edit your profile picture.) (…)

Wow. All of the issues we had encountered, solved after one message. Your fans can upload pictures on your page, imagine all the possibilities… And no more need to develop Facebook applications using their proprietary language that only few master. And you can have Flash content!!! Dear dear you-know-who-you-are client, Edgard and I are back in the Facebook game, watch your inbox…