It wasn’t always the case when a company could execute a business plan that was solely revolved around another company’s platform. And then there was Facebook. With over 225 million members, and over 500,000 registered developers, the platform has become a sustainable ecosystem for garage start-ups with two people (such as Sticky Notes), or companies with over 100 employees (like Zynga). A recent post on VentureBeat showed that these developers could generate over $500M in revenues this year, which puts the platform on an even playing field, if not greater, than Facebook itself.

While this is something to behold, the more interesting story comes from the types of companies that are still in the developmental stages on Facebook’s platform. Outside of the cash cows of virtual currency, branded sponsorships and ad-network inventory, applications like Inigral’s Schools on Facebook™ are proving that developers have only scratched the surface in terms of the power of the platform.

Another unsung Facebook story (for both platform and non-platform), is the amount of brand and relationship building companies get to harness within the ecosystem. Not only through Facebook’s social ad endeavors, but also through the evolving use of groups and pages. At Inigral, we spend alot of time working with colleges and universities to customize applications that allow them to harness the power of Facebook’s robust feature set. And in less than a year of doing so, the value to both our company and to their institution is already immeasurable.

Since an entire industry is being created right before our eyes, this also means that there is a growing opportunity for individual consultants and firms to help educate various parties on how to make the most out of this platform. Within the higher education space alone, over a hundred firms are providing consulting to colleges and universities on how to increase yield and retention through the Facebook platform entire. Notables including Stamats, mStoner, and BlueFuego have been productive in helping college administrators to wrap their heads around Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of the social media entorauge.

But stay tuned. This is only the beginning.