Facebook Page Update

I received a new update from Facebook this morning:

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/facebookp

ages and then select the flash/fbml option when you choose to edit your profile picture.)

3. Legal Drinking Age Settings
If you are a bar or alcohol company, you can adjust age settings to meet legal drinking age requirements by clicking edit on your Facebook page, and scrolling down to the settings box.

4. Mini-Feed
Mini-Feed is now movable on the Page. Just click on the word “Mini-feed” and drag it anywhere you please.

What does this mean?

I've written before on the differences between Facebook groups, pages and sponsored groups (and applications). One of the big differences between groups and pages is the ability to have user interaction (e.g. to allow users to upload photos), whilst pages had the advantage of being more customisable. These changes are a big boost for pages, increasing both user interaction and branding ability. Increasing the ability to use Flash & FBML in the main image adds a lot of functionality and interactivity, and the ability to move the mini-feed means that this can flow seamlessly into other bespoke applications for the page.

I see this as a move by Facebook to get more brands to use pages as opposed to application canvas pages as their primary focal point within Facebook. It will be interesting to see how this works out - if a brand wants to have a central branded fan page, and then a number of different 'campaign' applications at different times, then this would be a good choice. However, if a brand wants to create an interactive, engaging community with their own features and communications (which also allows them to be multi-platform, e.g. the Gaia Online applications, which are on Bebo and Facebook, and allow all users to interact in the same world), in many cases applications still provide the best way to do this, in a more cost-effective and efficient way than setting up a unique social network.