Facebook has just announced two new programs that “underscore how vital the agency community is to what’s possible on Facebook.”

First up, Facebook unveiled the first-ever Facebook Creative Council, which is kicking off this week at the Cannes Lions advertising summit. Facebook says that the council will “serve as a sounding board” for dealing with “priorities for agency creatives.”

The council will include some big time ad execs, whose job is to advise and direct –

Jeff Benjamin (JWT), Colleen DeCourcy (Socialistic), David Droga (Droga5), Rob Feakins (Publicis), Toshiya Fukuda (777), James Hilton (AKQA), Linus Karlsson (McCann), Amir Kassaei (DDB), Nick Law (R/GA), Mike Lazerow (Buddy Media), Tor Myhren (Grey), Rob Reilly (CPB), Mark Tutssel (Leo Burnett) and Mark Waites (Mother)

The other big announcement coming out of Cannes Lions on Monday was the Facebook Studio Edge, an ad education program – or as Facebook calls it a “social learning and recognition program” that lets ad agencies in on the latest and greatest from the world of Facebook.

Facebook Studio Edge is modular, with 10-15 minute self-guided courses that are focused on a topic such as apps, Pages and ads. Each course is interactive and new courses are updated as needed, so that participants are always up to date on the latest in Facebook marketing best practices.

Plus, there are badges for completion of the modules. Facebook Studio Edge is only open on a very limited basis right now and will open up fully in the coming weeks, although Facebook was unspecific about the actual timeline.