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One of the biggest draws when it comes to social networking sites is the ability to give your profile that personal touch, whether it’s with a song, a particular design layout, or with videos that reflect your unique personality and style.

Facebook, however, has been somewhat behind the curve in the realm of user customization. The site doesn’t allow users to make any changes to the design of their particular page, nor does it permit to embed music or movies within profiles.

This is one of the main reasons that Facebook trails MySpace in virtually every statistical category that can be tracked.

Taking a step in the right direction, the #2 social networking site has just announced an agreement with Comcast to produce a television series entitled “Facebook Diaries” that will be entirely comprised of user-submitted content.

"We've been having some dialogue with Comcast for a couple of months just on and off, just as they were putting their video plans together," Owen Van Natta, chief operating officer of based Facebook, says in Business Week. "Then we engaged R.J. Cutler and we came up with this idea."

The shows will begin airing later this year and can be seen on both Facebook and Comcast's Ziddio.com, a user generated video-sharing site that was launched late last year. Facebook Diaries will also be available as part of Comcast's video on demand service.

I question, however, if this effort will be enough to elevate Facebook into closer contention with MySpace in the social networking market.

Sure, Facebook Diaries is designed with the intent of motivating users to become more interactive and develop their own video content for the series, but only a few lucky members will actually see their efforts come to fruition. What about the other entrants? What happens to their videos?

The company needs to take a hard look at the current “posting” model when it comes to adding custom content to profiles. It’s cumbersome, horribly placed on profiles, and ultimately forces users to leave the site entirely to view the content.

I’m rarely one to encourage out and out copying, but Facebook would do good to look at how MySpace lets users embed audio and video content within their profiles.

Nonetheless, Facebook Diaries is a good start. Perhaps it’s the gateway to a more customizable look for the site in months to come.

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